Creative Writing Lesson – In Your Lunch – Part 2
by Elaine Ernst Schneider
Objective(s): By the end of this lesson the student will be able to: demonstrate correct spelling, strong sentence structure, and standard punctuation when writing paragraphs.
Pre-Class Assignment: Completion of In your Lunch – Part 1
Resources/Equipment/Time Required:
Outline:
Last lesson, you wrote a paragraph. Ask your teacher to correct it for spelling and punctuation. Now, read your paragraph out loud. Is it your story? The answer is probably “yes.” But what if someone else had the experience? What if the night watchman at the jewelry store found something mysterious in HIS lunch? Wouldn’t it change the story?
You may have written your paragraph in “first person.” That means you said “I found Snoopy in my lunch box” or “I found a mysterious package where my sandwich used to be.” When you use “I,” you are writing in first person.
But what if you are telling someone else’s story? There are two ways to do that. If the story uses “you,” then it is “second person.” For instance, paragraphs that give instructions are often in second person. A sentence might say, “You should first turn on the CD player” or “Watch for the red light to know that the power is on.”
And then when the story is written to talk ABOUT the characters, that is “third” person. Examples of those kinds of sentences would be “Sam saw the old lady trying to cross the street” or “The dog raced to help his master.”
SO … let’s make things interesting. Take your same paragraph and write it third person about someone else. The first three sentences are done for you to get you started.
Elementary: The new kid from Mexico, Miguel, just opened his lunch box and Snoopy popped out! He had never seen Snoopy and is frightened. But a girl named Sally convinces him to follow Snoopy to his airplane. Where do they go? What do they see?
First three sentences:
Miguel sat down to lunch. He had just moved from Mexico and he missed his friends. Then Sally sat down beside Miguel.
Junior High and High School: Sandy and Rick are on a hiking trip. They have worked up quite an appetite by lunchtime. They sit down on a rock to eat. Famished, they open the backpack that has their lunch. There is no sandwich, no chips, no cookies. A mystery package has replaced all of that! Slowly and incredulously, they take the package from the backpack. Not only did it appear in their lunch, but it has their names on it! What is inside? How did it get into their backpack? Who sent it and why? And what are Sandy and Rick going to do for food up on a lonely mountain so far away from town?
First three sentences:
Sandy and Rick spent the morning climbing the face of the mountain rock by rock. It had been a long and arduous journey and they were famished. At last, Rick called a halt.
Assignment(s) including Answer key:
Pre-Requisite To:
Example Exam Questions:
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