Module 4 Lesson Plan and Rubric

Lesson Plan and evaluation

In many school districts, freshman students are required to complete a unit on personal / journal writing. In order to meet the objectives of this unit, the students and I first read entries from Ann Frank and Zlata’s Diary.

MATERIALS
Personal spiral notebook
Pens or pencils (pens are preferred to encourage fluency and discourage erasing)
Computer with Word
Website: http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2 – if you choose Anne Frank
Printouts of the journals for the Teacher Exchange students and/or copies of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and/or Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic
PROCEDURES
Tell the class they are going to be listening to or reading excerpts from one or more diaries. Each diary is the real-life record of a young girl's or boy's thoughts, feelings, and experiences over a particular time period.
Anne Frank's diary is the record of the German-Jewish teenager's experiences in the Netherlands from 1942 to 1944 during World War II.
Zlata Filipovic's diary is the 11-year-old's record of her changing life in her native country of Sarajevo during a much later war.
As you read to your students, or as they read to themselves, have them note the personal details that the writer includes in the diary.
Next, tell students they will be writing their own journals as a week-long (or year-long) project. (You might provide class time for journal writing or assign it as homework.) Ask students to think of these journals as a way to freely explore their thoughts and feelings while also creating a source of ideas for their writing. Also, remind them that their journals should contain the details that may seem unimportant at first, but which add to the reader's appreciation and understanding of the writer. They should also date each journal entry.
ASSESSMENT
After students have written at least five journal entries, allow them to pick their best entry, revise it, word process it and submit it for peer editing and grading. Allow for further revisions after grading and post the work either on a class website or bulletin board.
In addition, ask students to devise a class journal-writing rubric – that is, establish the criteria for good journal writing. They can use this rubric to assess one another's work or their own.
Ask for volunteers to read aloud from their journals and have students give feedback on the writer's use of such devices as sensory details and imagery.
FURTHER ACTIVITIES
Assign students to research different kinds of autobiographical writing and to share good examples of published diaries, journals, letters, travel logs, oral histories, interviews, and autobiographies.
Have students work in pairs or small groups to write dialogue journals in which they carry on written conversations about a common interest or a mutual problem they're trying to solve.
Suggest that students keep a specialized journal that focuses on a particular activity, such as participating in basketball, or a learning log, which is a personal learning tool that focuses on their coursework and their thoughts and feelings about what they are learning.
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RUBRIC: The below rubric was developed through the use of the RubiStar website found in the Module 4 extracurricular links.

Writing a Diary

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Organization	The diary is very well organized. Each entry includes a date. One entry follows another in a logical sequence.	The diary is pretty well organized. Some entries include dates. One entry may seem out of place.	The diary is a little hard to follow. A few of the entries include dates.	Entries seem to be randomly arranged. None of the entries include dates.
Use of technology	All entries are word processed and accompanied by graphics.	Almost all entries are word processed and accompanied by graphics.	Most entries are word processed and accompanied by graphics (at least 70%).	Few entries are word processed and accompanied by graphics.
Focus on Assigned Topic	The entire diary is related to the assigned topic and allows the reader to understand much more about the topic.	Most of the diary is related to the assigned topic. The diary wanders off at one point, but the reader can still learn something about the topic.	Some of the diary is related to the assigned topic, but a reader does not learn much about the topic.	No attempt has been made to relate the diaryto the assigned topic.
Writing Process	Student devotes a lot of time and effort to the writing process (prewrit,drafting, reviewing, and editing). Works hard to make the diary wonderful.	Student devotes sufficient time and effort to the writing process (prewriting, drafting, reviewing, and editing). Works and gets the job done.	Student devotes some time and effort to the writing process but was not very thorough. Does enough to get by.	Student devotes little time and effort to the writing process. Doesn't seem to care.
Creativity	The diary contains many creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has really used his/her imagination.	The diary contains a few creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has used his/her imagination.	The diary contains a few creative details and/or descriptions, but they distract from the story. The author has tried to use his/her imagination.	There is little evidence of creativity in the story. The author does not seem to have used much imagination.
Requirements	The diary includes 10 entries. Each entry is 2-3 paragraphs long.	Almost all (about 90%) the written requirements were met.	Most (about 75%) of the written requirements were met, but several were not.	Many requirements were not met.