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Text Structures From Fairy Tales
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Text Structures From Fairy Tales
Truisms That Help Students Write About Abstract Concepts . . . and Live Happily Ever After, Grades 4-12

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Courses:
Literacy

January 2019 | 248 pages | Corwin

Standardized tests and college essay prompts demand that students produce quality analytical writing about abstract concepts. But how do you actually teach this kind of writing? Award-winning authors Gretchen Bernabei and Judi Reimer make it easy and fun. This book includes 35 engaging lessons that give students just the focused practice they need to craft effective, analytical writing for any situation. 

Centered on classic fairy tales and designed for students of all ages, each lesson includes a writing prompt accompanied by a planning framework. Students write a truism, select or create a text structure, and write a kernel essay that serves as scaffolding for a detailed rhetorical piece. With practice, students move from depending on teacher guidance to becoming autonomous analytical writers. The teacher-friendly layout and built-in flexibility of the book empower you to 

  • Use each fairy tale lesson for reading, for writing, or for both 
  • Cluster lessons around a particular literacy concept or use each as a standalone lesson 
  • Pair fairy tales thematically with other readings 
  • Customize the text structure options to meet the needs of your individual students 
  • Encourage students to create their own text structures 
  • Teach students simple ways to expand their ideas into detailed, rich essays 
  • Additional ideas for how to use the lessons, a complete collection of text structures, craft lessons on revision, and a list of conversation strategies are also included.

Put Text Structures From Fairy Tales to work in your classroom and soon your students will be writing happily ever after. 

 

 
Dedication
 
Introduction
 
Lessons: Student Planning Pages with Fairy Tale Texts
 
Structure for Writing About Life Themes
1. Beauty and the Beast

 
2. The Bremen Town Musicians

 
3. Cinderella

 
4. Diamonds and Toads

 
5. The Elves and the Shoemaker

 
 
Structures for Explaining a Concept
6. The Emperor's New Clothes

 
7. The Fisherman and His Wife

 
8. The Frog Prince

 
9. The Gingerbread Boy

 
10. The Golden Goose

 
 
Structures for Character Analysis
11. Hansel and Gretel

 
12. Henny Penny

 
13. Jack and the Beanstalk

 
14. The Little Red Hen

 
15. Little Red Riding Hood

 
 
Structures for Analyzing a Theme in Literature
16. The Nightingale

 
17. One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes

 
18. The Princess and the pea

 
19. Puss in Boots

 
20. Rapunzel

 
 
Structures for Commentary About Plot
21. Rumpelstiltskin

 
22. The Sleeping Beauty

 
23. Snow White

 
24. Snow White and Rose Red

 
25. The Three Bears

 
 
Structures for Making an Argument
26. The Three Billy Goats Gruff

 
27. The Three Little Pigs

 
28. The Three Sillies

 
29. Thumbelina

 
30. The Tinderbox

 
 
Structures for Content-Area Writing
31. Tom Thumb

 
32. The Twelve Dancing Princesses

 
33. The Ugly Duckling

 
34. The Wild Swans

 
35. The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids

 
 
Appendix
i. Complete Text Structures Collections

 
ii. 25 More Things to do With These Lessons

 
iii. Blank Student Planning Page for Black Line Master

 
iv. Text Chunkyard

 
v. Get Student Writers Talking: Conversation Strategies

 
vi. Steps for the Truism Braid Essay

 
vii. Reader Rubric with Words and Faces

 
viii. Intensity Scale

 
ix. What's Better... This? Or That?

 
x. Ms. Kern's Final Exam Project and Timetable

 
xi. Craft Lessons for Revision

 
a. Truisms

 
b. Adding Details

 
c. Sparkling Sentences

 
d. 11-Minute Essays

 
e. Ba-da-bing!

 
f. Writer's Toolbox with Dead Giveaways

 
g. Writing Book Reports

 

Supplements

Sample Materials & Chapters

Table of Contents

Introduction

Lesson 1


For instructors

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ISBN: 9781544371900

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ISBN: 9781544361154
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