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| Overview |
 After exploring the organizing structure and writer’s craft of picture
books, students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures
to their own stories. “Reading like writers,” students will explore
the ways that stories are structured; then, “writing like writers,” students
explore organizational structures in their own writing. Using circle plot diagrams
as their tools, students will write their own circular plot
stories, share their work with peers, revise their work using a checklist for
self-evaluation, and compare their self-evaluation to teacher assessment. The lesson includes a booklist and features Cynthia Rylant’s Long Night Moon.
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| From Theory to Practice |
“Writers notice, listen, observe, and think like writers all the time,” and
this kind of writerly practice is what we need to have our students do according
to Lisa Cleaveland and Katie Wood Ray, in About the Authors: Writing Workshop
with Our Youngest Writers (159).
In their model of writing workshop, Cleaveland and Ray ask students, “Did
you stand on an author’s shoulders to write this? If so, whose?” (173).
As they answer, students recognize the crafting techniques of the writers who
inspire and influence their own work. In this lesson, students explore the craft
of authors who have written books that use the circle-plot technique, and then
use these books as framing texts that allow them to “apprentice themselves
to writers whose work they admire” (172).
This connection between reading works of others and writing their own texts
is important for all writers. As Katie Wood Ray reminds us in
her Wondrous
Words, “None
of the other steps [in workshop writing] are worth the effort if they don’t
end with writers being able to take the crafting techniques back to their own
writing when they need them” (126). Every
mini-lesson should end with students envisioning a new possibility for their
work, by “stand[ing] on an author’s shoulders.”
Further Reading
Cleaveland, Lisa and Ray, Katie Wood. About
the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004.
Ray, Katie Wood. Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1999.
Egawa, Kathy. “Writing
in the Early Grades, K-2." Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2003.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- identify the characteristics of circular plot structures.
- use graphic organizers of the circle plot diagram to preplan a story.
- draw or write and illustrate an original circular story.
- work together with peers during the writing workshop.
- participate in a self-evaluation of their own writing.
- share the story with an audience.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
Instruction and Activities
Session One: Introduction to Circle Stories
- Using a wall calendar as a visual, ask students to describe the calendar.
- Flip through the months and allow students to recite the names of the months
aloud.
- Ask students what happens when the calendar is used up. Most students will
know there will be a new calendar for the next year.
- Next, ask students to describe
the new calendar, and whether the characteristics will be the same.
- Prompt
the students to describe how a year makes a circle.
- Share with the students the phrase full circle. Explain that when
something begins again, it has come full circle.
- Invite the students to name the attributes of circular shapes.
- Lead a brainstorming session on things with a circular pattern, directing
their suggestions away from things that are actually circular in shape. They
may suggest seasons
of the year after the calendar demonstration, for instance. Relate the circular
idea to stories the class may have already read or know about.
- Show the cover of Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant. Allow time for students to comment on or discuss the illustration. Invite the students to describe the shape of the moon.
- Flip through the pages of the book, showing students how the book has a
moon on each two-page spread.
- Showing Long Night Moon again, ask the students to predict how the
book might be a circular story. It is a story with all twelve months of the
year, the story begins in January and students should know it will end in December.
- Read the story to the children, stopping for comments and questions along the way.
Session Two: More Practice with Circular Plots
- Before beginning this session, choose a book from the circle
plot booklist to
share with the students.
- When the session begins, explain that you will again be reading a circle
story.
- Invite students to share what they remember about the plots of a circle
story: a story that ends almost the same way as it begins.
- Read the first page of the picture book that you’ve chosen for this
session.
- Ask, “What happens first in this story?”Have students predict
where the story will end.
- Continue reading the story, pausing to ask students to predict what might
be on the next page. For example, using questions such as “What will
happen next?” and “ How do they know?”
- Ask students to explain why this story is called a circular story.
- Make connections between the story from this session and the story from
the first session.
Session Three: Circle Plot Graphic Organizer
- Using texts selected from the booklist, invite the students to explore
and read several more examples individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
- As the students are reading, circulate around the room, asking them to
predict what is going to happen in the story. Invite students to share the
reasons that they think these books have been categorized as having circular
plots.
- Choose an additional book for a whole-class read aloud from the booklist. Begin with predictions, and ask prompting questions along the way.
- Working together as a class, diagram the plot of the selected book. You
may either use the online Circle
Plot Diagram or a print version that
graphic organizer.
- Model the process of using the Circle
Plot Diagram, using think-aloud protocols to explain what you are doing
as you add your title, and so forth. This step prepares students to use the
tool themselves in the next session.
- As you add items to the plot, invite students to comment on what you are
doing and perhaps why. Younger students can draw instead of write in the
spaces
if
the print chart is used.
- If the students are ready, ask them to tell you what should be placed in the Circle Plot Diagram.
- When completed, either print out the Circle Plot Diagram or post the print version.
- Ask the students to compare their graphic organizer with the text they
were using. Encourage students to focus on whether the diagram matches the
text in the book.
Session Four: Circle Plot Assignment
- Begin this session by discussing the circular-plot books that have been
read and shared by the class.
- Discuss what makes a good circle plot story, asking students to identify
any characteristics that are the common throughout.
- Explain that during the next sessions, students will write
their own circle-plot stories, using
what they have learned from
the
the books read in previous sessions.
- Share both the self-assessment checklist and the teacher assessment form
with students so they know the targets that they are aiming towards.
- Using the Circle
Plot Diagram,
have students plot out their own circle stories. If computer access is
limited, students can use the printed version of the graphic organizer.
Kindergarten students could draw inside boxes around a circle to show their
story organization,
or draw their stories, and number circles in order.
- Ask students to write their story titles in the title space, and
their names in the name space.
- Remind students that a demo pops up after the title and name is entered.
Have the students watch the demo and then close it by clicking on the
X in the top right corner.
- Next, students write events in their stories in the rectangles on the
right side of the screen. Remind students to keep the event label
short when using the online Circle Plot Diagram so that they can see
the entire label on their printouts.
- Below the event or “what is happening” box, a larger box
appears where students write additional details about the event. The
information entered in the larger box will be on the printout below the
circle plot
diagram.
- After each event is entered, drag the rectangles
to the circle on the left side of the screen. Explain that other
information entered will appear on the print out.
- Focus students’ attention on story events, rather than the number
of items. Some may have three story events; others may have
twelve if using
something
like
twelve
months.
- Remind students to check the first event and last
event to make sure that they are similar or match, as this is a key characteristic
of a circle story.
- Ask students to print out their diagrams once all the events have been
added.
Session Five: Writing Circle Stories
- Using the printout from the Circle
Plot Diagram or the printed
version of the graphic organizer, students write their circle
stories, using a word processor, the Drawing Story Frame, or the Drawing
and Writing Story Frame for
their drafts and final stories.
- Circulate among students, conducting writing conferences as students work.
- Remind students of the criteria on the self-evaluation checklist so
they remember what the targets are.
- If possible, have peers work together to help each other think of ways to add details to their stories and organizers.
- When students believe that their stories are finished, ask them to compare
their stories to their graphic organizers to make sure that there are no
items or events missing.
- Provide time for editing and revision, if needed.
- Allow time for the students
to share their stories, extending the lesson for an additional session
if needed.
Extensions
Web Resources
- Circle Plot Diagram
http://readwritethink.org/materials/circle-plot/
- Online student interactive, a student resource on ReadWriteThink.org for circle plot diagrams.
- Circle of Stories
http://www.pbs.org/circleofstories/voices/voices_gallery.html
- This PBS site explains that “Everything
the Indian does is a circle.” Connect this ideas to your reading of Long
Night Moon. Just
read a little of the information on the screen for the class to learn why
Cynthia Rylant may have thought of the idea for a circle book with moons
named by Native Americans. This activity is not for each student to try to
locate and read. It might not be appropriate if the class has not studied
Native Americans.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
For informal feedback, use these options:
- Use anecdotal notetaking or kidwatching to track students’ cognitive skills as they explain their thinking in creating their circle plot diagram.
- Encourage students to explain their work using think-aloud techniques.
Be sure that students make their thinking visible through rough-draft
talk as they explore the connections between the graphic organizer and their
writing.
- Make copies of the completed diagrams for students to share with their families or post in the classroom for informal feedback.
For more structured feedback, use these options:
- In teacher or peer writing conferences, ask students to evaluate their
finished stories using the checklist.
- Using the teacher assessment sheet, assess students’ stories yourself,
sharing the feedback with students and families.
- Encourage students to compare the teacher feedback to their own self-assessment
in individual conferences and discuss any discrepancies.
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1 - Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2 - Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
8 - Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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