Gary+Beckwith

**//WRITE TREK//** **//To boldly go where good writers have gone before// ** An adventure in writing science fiction – transporting students to new worlds of technique, methods, creativity, and self-empowerment. Gary Beckwith, Western Michigan University Three weeks. However, this unit’s primary mission is to explore strange new worlds of writing science fiction creatively as one crew. There might be good reason for you, as captain, to briefly veer off course – allowing your authornauts to explore something alien to their current way of thinking and writing. What this unit explores while on its voyage is as important as ultimately reaching its destination and final goal. This will be a journey in which your students will become vitally connected to each other – teaching one another, peer editing, critiquing, journaling, and writing continuously. For centuries, voyages of exploration have primarily focused on learning and discovering. So this class will launch into a universe teaming with infinite and creative ideas about how to write a great science fiction story. What it means to depend upon each other as one crew – helping each explorer to perfect his story through innovative techniques, methods, and good grammar. What will make this unit so exciting is that you will literally turn your classroom into the bridge of a star ship. The students will give their vessel (classroom) a clever name – uniquely describing them and their ultimate goals. Students will be required to keep daily journal entries (no more than half a page) explaining one particular technique, method, grammar skill, etc. that they found especially helpful. As the teacher (captain) of this crew, you will be guiding them through the various places and adventures of which they write. Students will take turns commanding the ship by teaching minilessons to their crewmates. One such grammar lesson, called “FOUR CORNERS” [|grammar mini-lessondoc.doc], will work wonderfully by allowing them to take full advantage of the size of the room as a starship. Since no group can be completely wrong in this lesson, the ship will never be endangered of being lost; however, it can go off course. It will stay on course when daily journal entries and mini-lessons remain a consistent part of this unit’s ultimate goal. One more important method will help too, peer editing in small and continuously changing groups. Through peer editing, students will help teach each other valuable grammar skills in their own language. Individuals always learn faster when they teach. Finally, each student will turn in a perfected, short, science fiction story. The final two days of this unit will be spent with each student reading his or her story aloud. By giving student the autonomy they need and inwardly crave, you will find that students will learn faster and more efficiently. [] Through daily journal entries, especially the concept of writing only ONE thing that has affected them or interested them, students will in a deeper way that which interests them most. Changing the classroom environment into a star ship will allow their imagination to become engaged, giving them a further sense of autonomy and ownership, which will aid in exciting their interest to participate. As teacher’s, we know that preparing lessons help us to deeply understand the material in a way that students probably never will. Therefore, it only makes sense to allow our students the same great opportunity of learning in a more deep and profound way by giving them the challenge of teaching the crew a mini-lesson. There are many great mini-lessons from which to choose: Peer editing [|McClure Peer Review Sheet.doc] is another way in which students not only learn by critiquing as a teacher would; but learn from their peers the way teens learn from each other. Sometimes it means more to receive a revealing critical review from a peer than from a teacher.
 * Unit Created By: **
 * Grade levels: ** 10 – 12
 * Estimated timeline for teaching this Unit: **
 * Unit Overview: **
 * Theory: **

Finally, the theory behind using an imaginary classroom-starship is to give students the creative environment they need to write science fiction. Landscape Artist go to the beach, fields, wood, and mountains to paint landscapes; pilots take to the skies to fly; Directors of movies film in distant locations to make great films; why can’t writers of science fiction board an imaginary starship to help stimulate their minds – taking them places they may never go to sitting in their living room and watch television. The classroom is the starship, the black board is the window by which they see (understand) new things that their teacher (captain) is showing them; their desks, the teacher’s desk, their pen and pencils, their journals, their text books, are all tools they need to become exploring authornauts.
 * Student Objectives: **
 * 1) To become more creative, more free with their minds than ever before.
 * 2) To overcome the embarrassment & hesitancy of reading their own work aloud.
 * 3) To learn at least one subject matter profoundly through the use of a mini-lesson.
 * 4) To learn to love writing and keeping a journal.
 * 5) To learn to peer edit and critique fairly, accurately, professionally, effectively.
 * 6) To gain a sense of empowerment through choice and autonomy.
 * 7) To create a science fiction work that is perfected and ready for publishing.
 * State of Michigan Content Expectation: **
 * **CE 1.1.2** Know and use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate, focus, and organize ideas(e.g., free writing, clustering/mapping, talking with others, brainstorming, outlining, developing graphic organizers, taking notes, summarizing, paraphrasing).
 * **CE 1.1.5** Revise drafts to more fully and/or precisely convey meaning—drawing on response from thers, self-reflection, and reading one’s own work with the eye of a reader; then refine the text— deleting and/or reorganizing ideas, and addressing potential readers’ questions.
 * **CE 1.2.3** Write, speak, and create artistic representations to express personal experience and perspective (e.g., personal narrative, poetry, imaginative writing, slam poetry, blogs, webpages).
 * **CE 1.3.7** Participate collaboratively and productively in groups (e.g., response groups, work teams, discussion groups, and committees)—fulfilling roles and responsibilities, posing relevant questions, giving and following instructions, acknowledging and building on ideas and contributions of others to answer questions or to solve problems, and offering dissent courteously.
 * **CE 1.5.5** Respond to and use feedback to strengthen written and multimedia presentations (e.g., clarify and defend ideas, expand on a topic, use logical arguments, modify organization, evaluate effectiveness of images, set goals for future presentations).
 * **CE 1.1.1**  Demonstrate ﬂexibility in using independent and collaborative strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing complex texts. 
 * **CE 1.1.4**  Compose drafts that convey an impression, express an opinion, raise a question, argue a position, explore a topic, tell a story, or serve another purpose, while simultaneously considering the constraints and possibilities (e.g., structure, language, use of conventions of grammar, usage, and mechanics) of the selected form or genre.
 * **CE 1.1.6**  Reorganize sentence elements as needed and choose grammatical and stylistic options that provide sentence variety, ﬂuency, and ﬂow.
 * **CE 1.1.7**  Edit for style, tone, and word choice (speciﬁcity, variety, accuracy, appropriateness, conciseness) and for conventions of grammar, usage and mechanics that are appropriate for audience. 
 * **CE 1.1.8** <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Proofread to check spelling, layout, and font; and prepare selected pieces for a public <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">audience. <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
 * Getting Started & Resources: **
 * 1) Students will need journal notebooks – pens and pencils.
 * 2) One video (movie or television show) to help students see and understand what constitutes a great science fiction story.
 * 3) Grammar Text Book.
 * 4) Walkie Talkie sets for various groups to communicate with teacher (captain).
 * 5) Computers and other sources/references readily available – computers need word processing capabilities.

As the teacher – but more importantly, the Captain – you should be quite familiar with the genre of science fiction. Make sure you choose a great science fiction movie (preferably one that was taken from the novel to the screen) to show at the beginning of the unit that will really grab their interest. Whatever movie you choose, you should know it thoroughly; being able to point out critical moments and techniques. You will need to prepare yourself to stimulate creative conversation within your classroom. You should be up to date on the latest methods of effectively promoting discussion, brainstorming, jump reading, pointing, and creating high levels of energy and participation. It is unbelievably important to assess your class before you begin. What kind of students do you have? Are they quiet and shy? Are they extroverts and willing participants? Do they possess good grammar skills as a whole, or are they weak in grammar skills? Do they tend to be avid readers? Do they enjoy writing? There are many questions you need to ask before beginning. If you want this journey to be a successful one, assess the strengths and weaknesses of your class and teach accordingly. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-size: 35px;">**//WEEK ONE: LAUNCHING AWAY...//**
 * Teacher Preparation: **
 * Assessing your class: **
 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 1: Watching a Great Science Fiction Film **
 * <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Begin this class as a surprise. Make sure each student has pen and paper to take notes.
 * <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Stress the importance of taking notes on moments, concepts, techniques, dialogue, scenes, etc. that interested or affect them in some way.
 * <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Popcorn – serve popcorn and pop during the movie – let them know from the very beginning that writing isn’t necessarily what they think it is.
 * <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Journal entry.
 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 2: Setting Up Your Starship **<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
 * Begin the day by passing out journals and a syllabus.
 * Take a few minutes to explain to the class what it is they will be doing, that they will be writing a short science fiction story.
 * Have them rearrange the room to simulate the bridge of a starship, and then attach names to the various pieces and sections. In other words, the teacher’s desk might be labeled “Captains Chair” – the chalkboard might be labeled “View Screen” – one corner of the room might be labeled “Engineering” – while another section might be “The Brig” etc.
 * Have the student do some fast brainstorming.
 * To wrap the class up for the day, have students sign up to teach a mini-lesson from a list that you provide according to your earlier assessment of the classes strengths and weaknesses.
 * Journal entry.


 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 3 – 5: Begin First, Second, and Third Drafts **
 * During these three days students will brainstorm several more times. They will also do a slow reflective list compilation of themes, characters, plot, point of view, setting, dialogue, etc.
 * Wrap up class by handing out and explain expectations for assignment [|Writing Assignment.docx] with relationship to the final draft.
 * On day five they should have finished several brainstorming papers (messy is better – should be lots of writing, crossing out, interpolations, etc).
 * Journal entry.

<span style="font-size: 18pt; color: rgb(0, 128, 0);"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 128, 0); font-size: 35px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">**//WEEK TWO: DESTINATION IN VIEW!//**
 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 6: First Draft Due **
 * Class breaks into small groups of 3 for peer editing.
 * At least half of the class time will be used for peer editing. Use [|McClure Peer Review Sheet.doc] – after each group has peer edited each person within their group, bring the class back together.
 * Use this time to talk about common grammatical mistakes. Have students read aloud those mistakes they noticed kept appearing. Write them on the board and spend the remaining time helping the class to understand any common grammatical mistakes.
 * Journal entry


 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 7 – 8 : Mini-lessons & Second Draft **
 * Spend most of day having students present their five-minute mini-lessons. You should divide the class in two so that half can go each day.
 * Spend the remaining class period having students peer edit their second draft. Hand out Walkie Talkies to each group so that students can call out grammatical mistakes for the teacher to write on the board.
 * Journal entry


 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 9: Third Draft Due **
 * Break the class into small groups of three for a final peer edit.
 * Use this time to meet with each student individually, helping him or her to perfect the final draft.
 * Hand out [|Writing Rubric.docx] and explain expectations for assessment.
 * Wrap up class by once again spending a few minutes covering common grammatical mistakes noticed in peer editing groups.
 * Journal entry.

**//<span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 0);">WEEK THREE: HOMEWARD BOUND. //** <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 60%;">
 * <span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lesson 10: Final Draft Due **
 * Use this class to reflect and share with each other about your writing, editing, and teaching experiences.
 * Hand out [|Self Reflection.docx] – asking student to give honest, reflective, and descriptive answers.
 * Wrap up class with refreshments.
 * Final journal entry.

** Lesson 11: Journal Due – Begin Reading Stories **
 * Begin this class by having students turn in their Journals.
 * Hand Back Final Drafts – graded.
 * Begin Reading Stories.
 * Have class critique only with praise.
 * Teacher critiques with praise and one or two correcting critiques.


 * Lesson 12 – 15: Reading Stories **
 * Class is furnished each day with light refreshments.
 * Spend the rest of these lessons having each student read aloud his or her science fiction story. Collect any forms handed out.
 * Class critiques with praise – teacher corrects any mistakes noticed.