In this collaborative venture, each student sketches and colors a picture of a monster. Then, students write descriptive narratives about the creatures and exchange them with their partners. Partners read the monster writings, without seeing the monster pictures, carefully picturing the descriptive words and phrases in their minds. After reading the stories, they attempt to recreate the monsters based on the description they received. Students view the original pictures made available on the Project Workspace to see how closely their drawings match the original. Winners are selected and their drawings are displayed.

 

Project inspired by:

 

Elizabeth Simmons, Sharon Elementary School, Georgia, USA

 

 

Hear Elizabeth talk about this project >

 

 

 

See her award-winning project >>  This project was presented at the Global Education Conference 2010 as part of the presentation Technology Infused Creative Writing Program: Six NETS-S Standards within Six Classroom Projects.

The student will produce a narrative that:
1. Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a point of view, and otherwise developing reader interest.
2. Establishes a plot, setting, and conflict, and/or the significance of events.
3. Creates an organizing structure.
4. Includes sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character.
5. Excludes extraneous details and inconsistencies.
6. Develops complex characters through actions describing the motivation of characters and character conversation.
7. Uses a range of appropriate narrative strategies such as dialogue, tension, or suspense.
8. Provides a sense of closure to the writing.

 

W3, W5, W6, W10, SL1

 

Culminating Task:

Monster Drawings are posted to the shared Project Workspace. Stories are exchanged with ePals.   After carefully reading the descriptive words and phrases, and picturing the monster in their minds, students draw the monster that their ePals have described. Students visit the Project Workspace to compare their pictures with the original monster drawing to see how closely the drawings match. See an example of student work here >>

The Drawing:

Students design, draw and color an original monster that will play a key role in their Monster Writing story.

 

The Writing:

1. As a printout or by using an interactive white board, provide the students with some story starters and the graphic organizer.

2. Present a teacher demo to get students writing.

3. Once ideas are written down, children can begin to fill in the outline on their own graphic organizers with the information they want to use in their stories.

4. One critical guideline is that students must start sentences with adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, or participles. This creates an engaging style that readers will relish.

 

The Exchange:

1. Monster Drawings are posted to the shared Project Workspace.

2. Stories are exchanged with ePals.

3. After carefully reading the descriptive words and phrases, and picturing the monster in their minds, students draw the monster that their ePals have described.

4. Students visit the Project Workspace to compare their pictures with the original Monster Drawing to see how closely the drawings match.

 

 Resources and Preparation:

1.    Story Starters and Graphic Organizer for Monster Writing pdf

2.    Teacher Demo for Monster Writing pdf

 

The timeline for the Monster Writing project is four class sessions or can be negotiated between collaborating teachers.

Project Leader:

Country:
Subjects: Reading, Writing

# of Students: 21-30
Age Range: 8-10
Collaboration: Email Exchange, Skype / Video Chat
Languages: English

About my classroom: BF Yancey is a small, rural elementary school of approximately 150 students in grades pre-Kindergarten through Fifth, located in central Virginia, USA. We are interested in communicating with other students from as many countries as possible regarding your school lunch experience. Do students eat in a cafeteria or common space? What foods are eaten for lunch at school where you live? Is the lunchtime meal prepared by the school or do students bring their own food from home? Are the meals sourced from local farmers and providers? What are the components of your favorite school lunch? We are especially interested in collecting photos of school lunches from around the world! Currently, we prefer to correspond by email and Skype, and to write at least 2x per month. We look forward to meeting you and learning about the food culture of your area.