Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-it® Note-sized templates, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5." We're currently looking for student samples for all developmentally appropriate grade levels for this lesson! Dancing in the Wings Paperback – Picture Book, December 1, 2003 by Debbie Allen (Author), Kadir Nelson (Illustrator) 4.8 out of 5 stars 875 ratings Visit this lesson's student samples page for details. The writing started with this lesson might become even more polished for final placement in the portfolio, or the big ideas being written about here might transform into a completely different piece of writing. Walk through the class, and help students make good choices about their participial phrases. Students should try to spread them throughout the paragraph. Use the overhead below to have students start thinking about participial phrases and their punctuation requirements. I truly believe having this page in their notebooks helps my students remember to use more sophisticated types of sentences.". Step six (publishing for the portfolio):  The goal of most lessons posted at WritingFix is that students end up with a piece of writing they like, and that their writing was taken through all steps of the writing process. Lesson & 6-Trait Overview   Student Instructions var d=new Date(); 1. Although, I use Dancing in the Wings, students can use already assigned texts or you can choose to use a text that appeals to your group of students. Stick as our 'margin mascot,' which means he is the visual that can appear on their notebook pages.

Ask and answer questions about Dancing in the Wingsby Debbie Allen 2. Lesson Plan from WritingFix. One of those combinations might just inspire a bigger paragraph. Ask them to add them in the margin or in the space beneath their original sentences. You might earn a free classroom resource from the NNWP! Students should try to have all three types of participles (beginning, middle and end) represented in their paragraphs. To submit student samples for this page's lesson, click here. Not all sentences should have participial phrases. A writer's notebook challenge for this lesson: From Corbett Harrison, WritingFix's Webmaster: "This writer's notebook lesson is intended to be used after a lesson on sentence combining using participial phrases. yr=d.getFullYear(); Images courtesy of publishers, organizations, and sometimes their Twitter handles. "For this lesson/notebook page, 'Professor Stick' was required to 1) explain what a participle is (in each student's own words) and 2) demonstrate making a participle in three steps. Here is the teacher model I made of this notebook page, which I show them briefly after they've learned the concept. Focus Trait: SENTENCE FLUENCY Support Trait: CONVENTIONS, Publish your students at our Ning!
To our loyal WritingFix users: Please use this link if purchasing Dancing in the Wings from Amazon.com, and you will help us keep WritingFix free and on-line. If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers. Step one (sharing the mentor text):  Teachers should stress, as they read the cited picture book aloud, what the author has done particularly well in writing this story: in this case, author Debbie Allen has incorporated participial phrases as part of her sentence structure variety. Step two (introducing models of writing):    Before they write their own, In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. Stick.'

In 2008, we first began accepting students samples from teachers anywhere who use this lesson. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it. My purpose in including my own notebook page here as a model is to inspire you to create your own to show your students, but I will understand if you want to use mine as yours. Also includes two customizable spaces to respond to questions, reflections, or learning targets. Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen and Kadir Nelson. Great motivation can be spread among your students when you set-up a "top three contest" among your students, especially with the potential promise that those students' work might get moved to our official student samples page for this lesson, where thousands of teachers and students visit annually! ), Original graphic organizers for specific lessons, like this one, can be submitted as an attachment at, Learn more about author Debbie Allen Share Original Revision Techniques or All rights reserved.

Show them the examples on the overhead again, if necessary. © Or an exciting moment on the playground. Encourage students to draw at least three arrows between sets of sentences that could be happening at the same time, and encourage them to quickly add a new sentence to their lists if they don't have a sentence that meets that criteria yet, but they can think of one. Create Lesson Share.
Or a fifty yard dash. Step five (editing for conventions):  After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. by clicking, Overhead resource for teaching participial phrases, Three fourth graders--Waheeb, Hanna, and Hibah--share their participial phrase-inspired stories, Two ninth graders--Mara and Alex--share their participial phrase-inspired stories, Sheet of 6 Sentence Fluency Post-it® Note-sized templates, Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers. When I catch students forgetting to punctuate or even use participles, I ask them to flip through their notebooks until they find that page, then revisit what they've written. After revising, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. by clicking here! Inspired by Barry Lane's Reviser's Toolbox, the WritingFix website encourages its teacher users to adapt our lessons, especially the tools of revision we have posted here. She uses them to add spice to the descriptions of characters; instead of merely using adjectives, Debbie Allen takes active verbs and turns them into participial phrases in order to help the reader visualize the trials and tribulations of her main character. You won't be able to post unless you are a verified member of this site's Writing Lesson of the Month ning. Finally, tell students they need to write a descriptive paragraph of five to seven sentences that show the character doing the action the writer has planned. If students can't think of an idea for a story, they can press the buttons on the Student Instructions Page, which will give them a participle and a character idea. WritingFix. Dancing in the Wings is loosely based on actress/choreographer Debbie Allen’s own experiences as a young dancer. from Your Teaching Toolbox. document.write(" "+yr); The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers. "My purpose in assigning this type of page for their notebooks is I want my students to have a creative-looking reference page for participles for future reference during writer's workshop. Dancing in the Wings This is a story study for Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen. Or a dance. Encourage students to think of interesting adjectives or prepositional phrases they might add to their short sentences that have arrows between them. 11 pages of student work, plus an answer key! The writer's notebook lesson in the yellow box is an optional step for this lesson, and it also would work well as a learning log lesson, or as a group poster-making assignment. Often this simple-to-draw character 'lives' in the margins, pointing out things on the page with his dialogue bubbles. Adaptations from Your Toolbox. Tell them that using participial phrases can be a great way to vary sentences for rhythm and flow, and it can also be a great way to combine two short sentences when revising. Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources  Student Writing Samples This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Rebekah Foster at an SBC-sponsored inservice class. Write a narrative on how students can make their mark Or even some sort of story about an escape. Encourage students to use a different action verb in each short sentence. To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-it® Note-sized templates to your students' drafts. Sassy worries that her too-large feet, too-long legs, and even her big mouth will keep her from her dream of becoming a star ballerina.

We thank you in advance for this type of support. Step four (revising with specific trait language):  One tool for revision is provided below. WritingFix Homepage Start by having students write a list of short sentences about a character in one of these action-packed sequences; have them do this on a piece of paper and ask them to skip lines between sentences. (You must be a member of our "Writing Lesson of the Month" ning to post.). Original revision ideas from teacher users of WritingFix can be submitted through copy/paste or as an attachment at, A Picture Book Writing Lesson from WritingFix, (You must be a member of our "Writing Lesson of the Month" ning to post. Most likely, your students will enjoy creating an illustration for this writing as they ready to place final drafts in their portfolios. "First, I showed students my completed notebook page, explaining the two requirements above, then I had students create a draft on a piece of scratch paper.