Monster writing

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Monster writing
By Dawn

We have a very creative language teacher who also happens to generously share her plans with us un-creative types. Here are her ideas--hopefully you can glean something to use.

Students create their own monster. They
have to write an informational article, such as an encyclopedia article, about their monster. When I teach this, I xerox an encyclopedia article about tigers. We study what the article covers about tigers--their appearance, their eating habits, their habitat, their family life, their lifespan, and other facts. The students then generate what their article needs to convey about the monster

they make up. I assign each student randomly a letter of the alphabet, which they have to start their monster's name with. They also have to illustrate their article with a picture of their monster.

I've gotten great results with this. It allows kids to be creative but also teaches a form of expository writing. Some kids have skateboarding monsters, hamburger-gulping monsters, etc. Really cute.

It helps if you design your own monster--picture and article--to guide them.

If you want to, you can extend this into a folder about the monster. We also have students create the monster's favorite food, and write a how-to for how to prepare it. They also can write a persuasive speech convincing people to adopt their monster as a pet. The possibilities go on and on.

I'll be starting this unit next week and following it through the week before Halloween. Hope this helps!