Lesson 6
Karen Gutierrez
5/14/00
5th Grade
Who Are You?
Objectives
Academic: Standard 2 Language Arts; Using the internet as a source of inspiration, students write a creative story from a different person's point of view.
Technological: Standard 2; To discover a way to use the internet to search for new ideas and sources of inspiration.
Pre-Requisite Technological Skills
Students should be familiar with the hardware of a computer and be able to navigate through an internet site. Students should be able to use the keyboard efficiently. Students should be able to use either MS Word or Student Writing Center.
Materials
Computer
URL http://www.MoMA.org
printer
MS Word or Student Writing Center
Identity papers
Accommodations for Special Needs
Some students may need help navigating MoMA's site. Let them search on one day and then write on another if necessary.
Procedures
1. This lesson is a creative writing assignment that is designed to help students take risks. The emphasis here is one vision and imagination.
2. Have students type in above URL. The students should then go to one of the gallery sites listed. They should find a work of art they like. This make take some time. It is important that somehow the student feels connected to the piece they chose.
3. Then, the teacher will hand out a worksheet with an identity on it. The student should not tell anyone what their identity is. The student should then take one last look at their work of art and then go to the Student Writing Center or MS Word.
4. At Student Writing Center they should pick report.
5. Now looking at their new identity, the student should try to describe the work of art as if they were the person on their identity paper. Make sure students know that this is an assignment about creativity and taking risks. Let their imaginations run wild! Their are no wrong answers here.
6. Let them edit and revise their descriptions, making sure they are establishing their new identity and point of view.
7. After assignments are finished, students can read the descriptions out loud to the class. See if the class can guess their new identity. How well did they assume this identity and put it across in their writing?
Assessment
This assignment should be judged on creativity and the ability to express a point of view outside of your own. If the student was able to think like someone else, they probably completed this assignment well.
Identity Papers
Directions: You are to write a description about your object from the point of view of the description below. Use details to describe your object. Write about it by taking on your new identity. How would that person write? Formally, informally? What things would they think were important about the object? DON'T TELL US WHO YOU ARE, BUT TRY TO CONVEY YOUR IDENTITY IN YOUR DESCRIPTION. KEEP YOUR IDENTITY A SECRET. YOUR CLASSMATES WILL TRY TO GUESS WHO YOU AARE FROM YOUR WRITING!!!
1. You are a very intelligent creature from the planet Pluto. You have just arrived on Earth and the first thing you see is this object. You have no idea what it is. Describe it to the people of your planet.
2. You are a prehistoric person who lived in the year 2 million BC. This object falls from the sky one day while you are out hunting alone. How do you describe it to the people of your clan when you return to your cave?
3. You are a 5 year old child who sees this object in your parents living room. It is new and this is the first time you have seen it. How do you tell your friend who comes over to play, what it is?
4. You are a fish who lives in the Atlantic Ocean. One day this object is tossed overboard from a boat. What do you tell you school about it?