A Day as an Author

Introduction

This lesson is for second graders, and follows the ELA.2.C.1.2 standard, write personal or fictional narratives using a logical sequence of events, transitions, and an ending. Alongside the standard this lesson highlights the create level on Bloom's taxonomy. 

Task

Students will be given 45 minutes at the beginning of their day to create a short story, fiction or nonfiction, with a beginning, middle, and ending. After those 45 minutes are finished, students will then one by one read their short stories to replicate a Meet and Greet with an author and allow questions from the reporters, their peers. After the "Meet and Greet" the author presenting will then let the reports provide feedback through a short written paragraph.

Process

Students will enter the classroom, drop their belongings off in the designated place and then proceed to their assigned seating. The 45 minute timer will start as students create their own narrative or personal short story using Microsoft Word. Students can input pictures within their stories and email the document to the teacher to be presented on the smartboard. When the timer is complete one by one each author will present their story in the front of the room to the class and allow time for questions, clarifications and opinions from the reporters, their peers, after the "Meet and Greet". Continuing, the reporters will then be given a choice to give written feedback to the author and the author can use as constructive criticism or advice.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated by a short rubric to give room for creativity to flow. If the story written is fiction or nonfictional it needs:

  1. A beginning, middle, and end with a title
  2. A  conflict and resolution
  3. A minimum of 3 characters
  4. Time and setting to be stated and must be chronological events
  5. No spelling or grammatical errors

For their presentations students must

  1. Maintain a decent amount of eye contact with the reporters.
  2. Answer every question or comment .
  3. Properly introduce themselves and their book. 
  4. Share their document with the teacher with no errors
Conclusion

As a conclusion students will be given a choice to print out their digital stories and share with other peers or to keep it in the classroom library as an additional book. For enrichment students can imitate a publisher's role and check for any grammatical, spelling or timeline errors within their peer's stories.