RWT Lesson
Fishing for Readers: Identifying and Writing Effective Opening "Hooks"
The lesson that I chose from RWT is a lesson on grabbers. I chose this lesson because generally my first graders begin all of their stories the same. They either begin by starting with "I" or "One time I." I want them to learn that as readers we get hooked into stories based on the way the author writes and as writers we need to hook our readers. This lesson on grabbers is for grades 3-5, but I chose it because I like the way they use books to show students real hooks in real stories. I have modified this lesson a bit for my first graders, but the general structure of the lesson is the same.
Before talking about a reading "hook," I would ask the students if they knew what a real fishing hook was and what it was used for. I would show them a fishing hook and we would make a web map of what a fishing hook was used for and how it "hooks" fish. I would then expand this to reading and writing and have the students explain why we may call the beginning of stories hooks.
Since many of these students can't read some of the books that are suggested in this lesson, I would read the beginning of some of these books to them. After reading the hooks, I will take a poll to see which students would like to continue reading this book and why about this book makes them want to continue reading. Some of the books that I would choose would be The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Where the Wild Things Are, If You Give a Pig a Pancake and A Bad Case of Stripes. We then make generalizations as to why these hooks make us want to continue reading.
For session number two, we will review hooks and what they are and why they are important for writers to use hooks. We will then review what some of the hooks we found were. I will then break them up into groups to decide what the hooks have in common and why they made them want to continue reading. We will then discuss how you could use some of these hooks in your writing.
For session three we will talk about how you can start your stories with hooks for your reader. We will brainstorm what hook would go well with a story we have written. We will then discuss this hook with our friend to see if there could be any changes made to it. The students will then add their hooks into their existing stories. They will proofread and then have their friend proof read to see if they need to add anything and if it makes their friend want to continue reading.
I like how RWT connected writing with reading and showed the students that you are readers, but as you read you should be thinking, "how can I use that in my writing." I like how it breaks it up into three sessions and moves slowly through the process so they understand that we can use things that we read in our own writing. It is helpful for them to come to their own conclusions about the hooks and how this affects them as readers and how they can use it as writers. Although I would not teach fairy tales in this lesson, I also like how this lesson brings in fairy tales and how many of them are different versions, but still have the same story structure. There could be so many extensions added onto this lesson, but overall it is a great beginning point for a grabbers lesson.
Heather Fisher