Write a Book to Change the World
Learning Sequence 5
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Introduction
In this week’s lesson, the children will embark on a journey to discover the power of storytelling. They will learn to express their thoughts and experiences through written words, starting to understand the path their stories will take. We’ll guide them in adding special grammatical features to their text, making it more descriptive and painting vivid pictures for their readers.
The process will not stop at writing; we’ll dive into editing and work together to refine their stories. Emphasizing the importance of reflection, we’ll show them how self-assessment can be a positive tool for improving their writing skills.
By the end of the week, each child is encouraged to have their manuscript written and edited, highlighting the significance of perseverance and thoughtful reflection in the creative process.
By now you’ve started to understand the path that your story will take. You’ve hopefully started to understand more about the journey of your story and it is finally time to start writing the words on each of the pages.
Today we will show you exactly how to do that and help you to add some special grammatical features to your text to make it more descriptive and paint a clear picture in the minds of your reader.
Once finished we will edit your text and work together to perfect your writing. A huge part of the writing process is editing and reflection.
By the end of this week, you will need to have your manuscript written and edited.
Weekly Keywords
Introduce the spelling word list and choose from this list of tasks that can be repeated and expanded upon if necessary.
Copy the words into a spelling list/Vocabulary book for later reference.
Put each of the new words into a sentence and underline the new vocabulary in red pencil
Place the words in alphabetical order in a list.
Use a dictionary to define each of the words and place them into a vocabulary book.
Try to represent each of the words using a picture or a symbol and play the guessing game. (which image is matched to which word)
Write a paragraph containing all of the new vocabulary.
Make a vocabulary wall containing all of the new words.
Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for the words and create a synonym list.
These words will help you during this week’s lesson. You may already know some of these words however practice makes perfect!
First, read the words and then try to define them as simply as possible.
An example has been completed for you. You can write these into your books, and draw a picture to match or simply complete the task card.
Read and Discuss - ' Weekly Warm-Up Activity '
This activity aims to deepen students’ comprehension by discussing last week’s book events and reading pages 18-21 together. Encourage recapping the entire book for broader understanding.
This week focuses on answering literal, inferential, and applied questions about the text, emphasizing the importance of supporting answers with evidence.
Today, we’re going to dive deeper into our book by chatting about the exciting things that happened last week. We’ll also read pages 18 to 21 together.
Let’s start by remembering the whole story we’ve read so far. This helps us understand everything better! This week, we’re going to answer some questions about the book. Some questions will ask about things that happened directly in the story, some will make us think a bit more about why things happened, and some will ask us to use what we’ve learned in different ways.
It’s really important to explain why we think our answers are right, using parts of the book to show that we’re on the right track. Ready to get started? Let’s go!
Weekly Comprehension (Discussion)
By now, the children have begun to fully grasp the three different types of comprehension and understanding. Ask the children to work in pairs to discuss and answer the questions on the task card provided.
These answers can then be shared with the class to stimulate an engaging discussion and assessment, where the children can be asked to identify which questions were inferential, literal, and applied. This exercise will aid them in writing their manuscript.
Take a look at the task card and choose the correct words to complete the following sentences. Try to think about which questions are literal, inferential or applied.
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What were the penguins collecting?
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Why had all the shiny stones gone?
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What kind of stone did Sergio find?
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How did Sergio feel when he found the coal?
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What happened when the girls arrived?
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Why was the sky dark and purple?
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Why were the penguins so close together?
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What do you think Sergio will do with the coal?
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How are penguins similar to humans?
Editing Activity - Words Matter!
This task card will allow you to introduce how: good adjectives, similes, metaphors, and personifications can be used to improve the descriptive qualities of sentences.
These can then be used as the children start to write and edit their manuscript
Before we start writing our manuscript, it’s time to think about the special features that will bring your story to life.
Complete the following task card and fill in the blanks with the missing words. This exercise will help you understand how these simple features can improve your work before you begin illustrating.
These features include:
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Similes
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Good adjectives and adverbs
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Metaphors
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Personifications
Once you have completed the task card, let’s see how these features can improve your text.
How to Use the Book Writing Template
During this explainer, I will show the children how to use the Write a Book Template to achieve the best results from their narrative manuscript.
Please ensure that you watch the video carefully and discuss all aspects of the template before allowing the children to start editing the template below.
In the video opposite, I will show you how to use the book writing template to carefully create your manuscript.
Watch the video carefully and follow the instructions closely to make sure that you understand how to use the template before beginning.
Let’s Start Writing - Your Book Template
The template above allows your children to use a pre-designed guide to assist in scaffolding the perfect story. The scaffold includes guidelines on design, story structure and other vital components of the perfect narrative. Children may need guidance accessing this template at first.
The template guarantees that your students will meet all the credentials when attempting to publish their book to the upschool library.
Click the template opposite and follow the instructions to help you plan and write the perfect story. Remember, we are not illustrating the book this week, just writing the words.
Remember to keep your writing inside the safe zone and read the instructions to help you write the perfect picture book!
You have the next 7 days to complete your manuscript and complete your story!!
Closing Video With Gavin
Because you have a big task this week, it would be a very good idea to try to find some extra time over the next few days to try to get your manuscript fully written. You may even wish to collaborate with your teachers, your parents, or a friend to help you complete this task.
Next week we will be starting to illustrate our book by. designing and creating the front cover.
Ongoing Follow-Up Activities
Weekly Comprehension
(Discussion)
Let’s start our journey into the world of picture books together. Each week we will be reading a few pages of this book, ‘Are These Your Glasses?’ to see how picture books are written and what we can learn from books like this.
Let’s Start by reading pages (2-5) together and then we will discuss what we have see inside the pages of this book.
After we explore pages 2 to 5, I have some questions for you to think about and answer:
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What material was used to build Sergio’s house?
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Can you tell me the color of Sergio’s trousers?
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Why do you think there was smoke coming out of the chimney?
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Was Sergio excited to see his father? How can you tell?
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Imagine being by yourself every lunchtime. How would that make you feel, and why?
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If you noticed someone else sitting alone, what would you do? Why is that your choice?
As we discuss these questions, we’re not just talking about the story. We’re also learning how to understand different kinds of comprehension questions and figuring out strategies to find the answers.
Extension Activity - Buddy Program Week 5
Buddies may need some extra time this week as this will be the week where the children will be required to have their manuscript completely typed up.
Buddies may wish to help the younger children type their story up as the younger student tells the story.
Once complete, the students will need to help their buddy edit the text and include some of the figurative languages they have learned during this lesson.
Confucius once said, “To teach is to learn twice over.”
This week will involve you spending quite a lot of time with your buddy to make sure that their manuscript is complete.
This may mean that you need to help them type as they speak, but allow them to try if they wish?
Once typed up, please edit the story with them to make it as descriptive as possible. Add things such as adjectives, similes and even personifications. Make sure that you don’t do the work for them, but you teach them how to use the skills you have just learned.
This week really needs you to become a true teacher. You will need patience, a clear voice and be able to spend lots of time with your buddy to help them complete their manuscript.
Extension Activity #2 - Creating Your Own Character
Your students may wish to draw themselves as the main character in the book they are writing and this simple video shows them a very simple way to create a caricature that can be included in their book if they wish?
Next week we will be designing the front cover of our book. You may wish to choose a design from the Canva platform, but you can also design your own character by drawing it, colouring it in and then importing it.
We will show you exactly how to do this next week, but this week let’s practice drawing characters and develop the expertise to draw anything we wish.
Watch the following video and let’s start by drawing a caricature. We may want to include ourselves in the story as an extra character later.