In this module, students read and respond to The Life of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (abridged), and identify and use story features, including narrative structure, pacing and description. They also read and evaluate each other’s stories from the position of both writers (deciding whether and how to revise their own pieces) and readers (reviewing others’ pieces).

Main CCSS Focus:

W.6.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events, using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

This update:

• Engages students in the topic through sharing their knowledge of adventure stories
• Develops their confidence to post to the Scholar learning community, interact with others, and express their thoughts in full sentences in blog-like interactions.
• Establishes Community updates as a way of sharing their knowledge and interacting with others.

While students work collaboratively and independently on completing the Community Updates, the teacher can support students who require help. Posting comments is a form of accountability, promotes reflection, and develops students’ writing skills.

CCSS Focus:

SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

W.6.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to interact and collaborate with others.

This survey will provide the teacher with baseline information about students’ comprehension of The Life of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (abridged). The text also introduces an adventure story to stimulate students’ thinking and discussion in the activity that follows. As this text is 15 pages, allocate some dedicated time for the students to read and respond to the text before taking the survey. Students read the text individually and at predetermined stopping points, they discuss what they have read with a partner. Other activities at stopping points might include:

• Predict what will happen next.
• Summarize what has happened so far.
• Make inferences about the characters.
• Sketch a key idea or theme.
• Discuss interesting or challenging vocabulary.

They could post some of the key ideas from their 'stopping point' discussions in Comments in Community.

To provide extra support to students, post the following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer’s Toolkit: Reading Strategies for Writing in the New Media to Community if they need to focus on this aspect of writing at this time. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

• Reading and Inferring
• Vocabulary and Spelling

CCSS Focus:

RL.6.1: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

RL.6.3: Describe how a particular story’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

RL.6.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choice on meaning and tone.

This activity aims to promote wide-ranging discussion, face-to-face, and online, so that students collaboratively build knowledge about what constitutes an adventure story, drawing on their reading of The Life of Robinson Crusoe and other websites. It also aims to stimulate students’ to plan their own adventure stories, theorizing about possible plot sequences, themes, settings and characters.

The online plot generators:

1 & 2: Provide suggestions for a character and plot for an adventure story.

3: Uses numbers to create plot, setting, characters and a problem.

4: Suggests characters, scenario, title, first lines and twists.

5 & 6: Use visual prompts for character, setting and plot.

Dictionary.com defines ‘adventure’ as an exciting or very unusual experience; participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises; a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

Based on the survey results and to complement the above activities,post the following Overt Instruction Updates from the Writer’s Toolkit to Community if students need to focus on this aspect of writing at this time. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

• Structure of Narratives
• Point of View

Also students may revise narrative structure by taking a survey based on Aesop’s fable, The Lion and the Mouse. This update is included in the Writer's Toolkit.

CCSS Focus:

W.6.3a: Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one ... ) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

L.6.1a: Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, possessive).

Assigning the project to the students at this stage is important to set clear expectations, and also so students understand how the activities that follow will support them.

As students begin to draft their work, encourage them to use the Structure tool to organize some of the key ideas they have brainstormed and developed through the Community Updates. The Structure Tool supports students to develop an initial structure for their text, refine the elements of their text, and draft new versions, transforming their ideas into well written text. Students should also refer to the Rubric as a guide as they write in Creator. If necessary, look through the rubric with students.

For first time users of Scholar, the following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to add to Community:

• How to Write in Scholar
• Using the Rubric and Checker

Project Rubric

CCSS Focus

W.6.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well structured event sequences.

W.6.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

W.6.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

Brainstorming is a technique for creative thinking developed by New York advertising executive, Alex Osborn, and described in his book, ‘Creative Imagination’, first published in 1953.

In this update students use brainstorming techniques as they begin to think of ideas that they might include in their written texts. Brainstorming can be individual and/or in groups. The dynamics of individual and group brainstorming are different.

We also suggest using two different locations in Scholar.

• Individual brainstorming in Creator
• Group brainstorming in Comments in Community

In the group brainstorming, so that students are not influenced by other ideas at first, be sure that everyone in the group waits to submit their comments at the same time.

CCSS Focus:

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one ... ) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

This survey, based on The Life of Robinson Crusoe, collects information about descriptive writing and pacing in narratives. Students answer questions about the whole text and analyze a short excerpt. Key concepts include:

Using factual details to introduce an adventure story by covering a lot of detail and helping the plot to unfold quickly and engage the reader

• Using action verbs to create a fast-moving plot with excitement, danger and problems for the main characters to solve.
• Using rising action and mini climaxes to create tensions and excitement.

Based on the survey results and to provide extra support to students, post the following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer’s Toolkit: Strategies for Writing Narratives in the New Media to Community if students need to focus on this aspect of writing at this time. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

• Pacing in Narratives

Survey Results: Go to the Survey Tool in Publisher. Then go to Find a Survey => Already Distributed Surveys => Results.

CCSS Focus:

W.6.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

W.6.3b: Use narrative techniques, such as pacing and description, to develop experience, events, and/or characters.

W.6.3d: Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.

In this activity students understand the impact of vocabulary choices. Vocabulary is important to make writing interesting and engaging for a reader but it can also position an audience to react positively or negatively to a character or theme. In the case of The Life of Robinson Crusoe, Defoe uses some language such as ‘savages’ or ‘’natives’ which create racist stereotypes of the people who live on a neighboring island. In the activity, contextualize for students that referring to Friday as a ‘savage’ would have been common for many people during the 17^th Century.

This activity also builds on some of the concepts that were introduced in the survey on narrative techniques. The focus is on developing students’ understanding that the pacing of an adventure story moves quickly to create tension and excitement. Description is included through action verbs from which the reader can infer character traits of the main character.

CCSS Focus:

W.6.3b: Use narrative techniques, such as pacing and description, to develop experience, events, and/or characters.

W.6.3d: Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.

This update covers two stages of the writing process in Scholar: Review and Revision.

The following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to add to Community.They may be used with first time users or it may be appropriate to introduce them in a second writing project so students learn about the features of Scholar over time.

• Constructive Feedback: Annotations - this guides students in how to provide specific feedback through Annotations.
• Constructive Feedback: Reviews - this describes types of feedback such as critical, cheerleader and constructive feedback.
• Revision Phase - this focuses on how to use the feedback students receive to improve their writing, and includes writing a self review.

Before the students submit their final work, run the Analytics. Check the percentage of text revised between one draft and the next, the number of words currently written and the grade level of the writing. You may wish to ask some students to do more work before they submit.

CCSS Focus

W. 6.5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

W.6.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

L.6.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing.

L.6.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.

Notifications of publication are provided to the creator and all reviewers.

This reflection activity promotes student metacognition about what makes quality writing by reading and reflecting on other students’ writing. Ask students to look over other people’s published works - have them read at least two or three works. Ask them to comment on something interesting they learned from reading other students’ work.

Refer to Analytics to see how students have performed.

CCSS Focus

W.6.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.