Part 1: Written Reflection
Prompt: Write another chapter in the book, either from your own perspective or from the perspective of a made-up character. Make sure that within your story, you include what your character contributes to the garden, and how the garden affects your character.
Goal: This project will help students practice their creative writing skills by creating a narrative from a specific perspective and incorporating important features of this genre of writing.
Goal: This project will help students practice their creative writing skills by creating a narrative from a specific perspective and incorporating important features of this genre of writing.
Sample:
Liz
I was new in town. I had just moved here from Wisconsin. The weather is similar, but other than that it couldn’t be any more different. There are buildings here in Cleveland bigger than any I’ve ever seen, and there isn’t any grass, anywhere. Back where I’m from I lived in a little white house with an acre-sized yard. We had chickens, and a dog who liked to chase them. Our yard was right next to a cornfield, and I loved sitting on my patio and watching the sun set over it. I went on many adventures outdoors, running through fields, climbing trees, splashing through the creek, and picking berries.
We had a big garden in our yard that my dad took care of for the most part. We grew kale, squash, pumpkins, peas, green beans, and whatever else my dad felt like planting that year. But the part that I liked the most was the strawberry patch. Oh how I miss being able to walk out my back door in the mornings, barefoot through the grass, and collect strawberries in the scoop of my shirt to eat with breakfast. Here in Cleveland, I can’t find a single patch of grass to sit on that isn’t covered in garbage. I miss my home. I miss my strawberries.
Then one day I saw a girl about my age walk past my house alone. I ran outside and introduced myself to her, and asked if she wanted to hang out. I was trying to make friends, but it was hard because people weren’t exactly warm and welcoming in my new neighborhood. She told me she couldn’t because she had something to do, but she offered to let me come along. I immediately thought it was going to be something dangerous or criminal, like going to smoke or drink or, I’m not even sure what. But I didn’t want to be labeled as lame right away, and I didn’t want to befriend the first person my age that I met, so I reluctantly agreed to follow.
But to my surprise, it wasn’t anything bad at all. She led me to a small garden a few blocks away that I had never noticed before. She showed me her plot, which was much bigger than the rest and filled with baby lettuce. She told me about how it almost died, but she thinks her locket was part of the reason they stayed alive. I don’t know if I believe her, but I wasn’t going to argue with the first friend I made.
Looking at her plot though, and the whole garden, filled with all sorts of plants, gave me a feeling of home that I hadn’t felt since I left. Finally, there was somewhere that I felt I could relate to in this city, where I felt comfortable. I thanked Virgil for showing me her lettuce, then ran back home to get my father.
Upon hearing the news, my father went into his room, pulled out a box, and began shuffling through it. When he took his hand back out, he was holding a plastic baggie with seeds in it.
“What kind of seeds are those?” I asked him.
“Strawberry seeds” he answered, looking right into my eyes. “I knew how much you missed our strawberry patch, so I brought some with us, hoping that we would find a place to plant them”.
We immediately walked over to the garden and started tilling the soil. I enjoyed my father’s company as we rebuilt a part of our old life in that garden. We would have a strawberry patch that I could soon walk to in the morning, pick a shirtful of berries, and bring home to eat with breakfast. Just like it used to be.
We had a big garden in our yard that my dad took care of for the most part. We grew kale, squash, pumpkins, peas, green beans, and whatever else my dad felt like planting that year. But the part that I liked the most was the strawberry patch. Oh how I miss being able to walk out my back door in the mornings, barefoot through the grass, and collect strawberries in the scoop of my shirt to eat with breakfast. Here in Cleveland, I can’t find a single patch of grass to sit on that isn’t covered in garbage. I miss my home. I miss my strawberries.
Then one day I saw a girl about my age walk past my house alone. I ran outside and introduced myself to her, and asked if she wanted to hang out. I was trying to make friends, but it was hard because people weren’t exactly warm and welcoming in my new neighborhood. She told me she couldn’t because she had something to do, but she offered to let me come along. I immediately thought it was going to be something dangerous or criminal, like going to smoke or drink or, I’m not even sure what. But I didn’t want to be labeled as lame right away, and I didn’t want to befriend the first person my age that I met, so I reluctantly agreed to follow.
But to my surprise, it wasn’t anything bad at all. She led me to a small garden a few blocks away that I had never noticed before. She showed me her plot, which was much bigger than the rest and filled with baby lettuce. She told me about how it almost died, but she thinks her locket was part of the reason they stayed alive. I don’t know if I believe her, but I wasn’t going to argue with the first friend I made.
Looking at her plot though, and the whole garden, filled with all sorts of plants, gave me a feeling of home that I hadn’t felt since I left. Finally, there was somewhere that I felt I could relate to in this city, where I felt comfortable. I thanked Virgil for showing me her lettuce, then ran back home to get my father.
Upon hearing the news, my father went into his room, pulled out a box, and began shuffling through it. When he took his hand back out, he was holding a plastic baggie with seeds in it.
“What kind of seeds are those?” I asked him.
“Strawberry seeds” he answered, looking right into my eyes. “I knew how much you missed our strawberry patch, so I brought some with us, hoping that we would find a place to plant them”.
We immediately walked over to the garden and started tilling the soil. I enjoyed my father’s company as we rebuilt a part of our old life in that garden. We would have a strawberry patch that I could soon walk to in the morning, pick a shirtful of berries, and bring home to eat with breakfast. Just like it used to be.
Part 2: Podcast
Prompt: Using Garageband, you will be creating a podcast book talk that gives your own critical view of Seedfolks. It will include an engaging introduction, a brief summary of the book, at least one excerpt read from the book, an evaluation, and finally a recommendation. You will first write a script, get it approved by me, and then turn it into your podcast.
Goal: This project will teach students how to create an effective, persuasive, and critical book talk. It will work on their writing and speaking skills, while simultaneously giving them exposure to technology and multimedia work.
Goal: This project will teach students how to create an effective, persuasive, and critical book talk. It will work on their writing and speaking skills, while simultaneously giving them exposure to technology and multimedia work.
seedfolks_podcast.m4a |
Part 3: Digital StorytellingPrompt: Using WeVideo, turn your written story from part one into a digital story! Make the story engaging by adding music, pictures, transitions, sound effects, voiceover, or anything else you think would contribute to the telling of your story.
Goal: Students will learn about the art of digital storytelling and how it is different from traditional writing. By taking something they already wrote and converting it to this new mode, they can see what is possible in this new mode that was not in traditional writing. Go to the link below to watch! https://www.wevideo.com/view/281344829
|
part 4: InfographicPrompt: Each student will be creating an infographic for a different character from the story. Be sure to include all important information about your character, such as what they contributed to the garden, what they planted, and what other characters they know. When everyone's infographic is completed, we will put them together to make one large infographic including all of the different characters!
Goal: This will teach students how to represent information visually, understand the characters in the story in more depth, and will build a sense of community by having all students contributing to one larger project. |