The Final Copy

Author: Catharine Niuzzo Honaman

Time: / 5 days
Preparation Time: / 15 minutes to read the lesson
Materials: / computer lab if available

Abstract

Students will incorporate the corrections that the peer editors suggested in the explain lesson, evaluating the appropriateness of each. Having read other students’ work they may also wish to self-edit their story in ways that had not occurred to them before. While they write the final version of their stories they need to keep in mind using proper grammar, correct spelling, and punctuation as well as maintaining a coherent structure for the story which addresses the clean energy, environmental health, and government policy issues explained in the engage lesson.

As this lesson has been allotted five days of class time, three or four may be used for the writing of the final copy and then one or two days may be spent having the students read their finished versions to their classmates or exchanging their stories to be quietly read and discussed.

Purpose – Students will write the final copy of their short story, incorporating the peer editors’ corrections.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Write a short story in which:

1.  Events are presented in a logical order

2.  The point of view is clear

3.  The theme is developed

4.  Sensory language, concrete language and/or dialogue are used appropriately

5.  There are major and minor characters

6.  The setting is some time in the future

7.  Capitalization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been used correctly

Students will use some of the following to enhance the quality of their prose:

1.  Transitions

2.  Varied sentence structure

3.  Parallel sentence structure

4.  Active voice

English Education Standard:

WRITING

W-P6. Write a story that develops complex characters, plot structure, point of view and setting; organizes ideas in meaningful sequence; and includes sensory details and concrete language to advance the story line.

PO 1. Write a first- or third-person story

-  develop a point of view

-  present events in a logical order

-  develop events that convey a unifying theme or tone

-  include sensory details, concrete language and/or dialogue

-  use literary elements (e.g., plot, setting, character, theme

W-P1. Use transitional devices; varied sentence structures; the active voice; parallel structures; supporting details, phrases and clauses; and correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and usage to sharpen the focus and clarify the meaning of their writing

PO 1. Use transitions (e.g., conjunctive adverbs, coordinating conjunctions, subordinating

Conjunctions) where appropriate

PO 2. Vary sentence structure (e.g., compound, complex, compound-complex)

PO 3. Use active voice as appropriate to purpose (e.g., creative writing)

PO 4. Use parallel structure appropriately

PO 5. Sharpen the focus and clarify the meaning of their writing through the appropriate

use of:

-  capitalization

-  standard grammar and usage (e.g., subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement and consistency of verb tense)

-  spelling, with the use of a dictionary/thesaurus (as needed)

- punctuation (e.g., comma, ellipsis, apostrophe, semicolon, colon)

Teacher Background

An appreciation of science fiction and a delight in the writing process

Related and Resource Websites

List URL and title of page

Activity

Students will now take the peer editing sheets and comments from the last three days and incorporate the corrections that the peer editors suggested in the explain lesson, evaluating the appropriateness of each. Having read other students’ work they may also wish to self-edit their story in ways that had not occurred to them before. While they write the final version of their stories they need to keep in mind using proper grammar, correct spelling, and punctuation as well as maintaining a coherent structure for the story which addresses the clean energy, environmental health, and government policy issues explained in the engage lesson. During the final writing process students may also consult you for further clarification of problems or stylistic suggestions.

Closure

Depending on how much of the five days your students need to rewrite their stories incorporating the corrections and suggestions from the peer editors you may have one or two days left at the end which could be spent on the students celebrating the completion of their magnum opuses by having either volunteers read their work aloud to the class or everyone exchange their stories with numerous classmates for the pure joy of reading others’ work. Another possibility would be to have a whole class discussion in which each student could describe what his or her story was about so that each student would be able to share his or her work and no one would be put in the spotlight for very long.

Embedded Assessment

At the close of this lesson each student will hand in his or her science fiction short story. These should be evaluated on the following done correctly or appropriately for the story:

·  Events are presented in a logical order

·  The point of view is clear

·  The theme is developed

·  Sensory language, concrete language and/or dialogue are used appropriately

·  There are major and minor characters

·  The setting is some time in the future

·  Capitalization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been used correctly

·  A clean form of energy production

·  An explanation of government policy which encourages the clean form of energy production

Students will use some of the following to enhance the quality of their prose:

·  Transitions

·  Varied sentence structure

·  Parallel sentence structure

·  Active voice

Other practical aspects of the assignment that should also figure into the evaluation are:

·  Work handed in on time

·  Neatness

·  Following format specified in terms of font size, style, etc.

·  How seriously the assignment was taken

·  Originality

·  Imaginativeness