Making patterns make sense

Students will analyze organizational patterns in analytical writing by reading, Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss. Students will then apply these patterns to their own writing by creating children's books about success.

A lesson plan for grades 9–10 English Language Arts

By Heather Bower

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Related topics

• Learn more about Dr. Seuss, cooperative learning, language arts, organization, patterns, and writing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• recognize organizational patterns.
• analyze the effectiveness of these patterns.
• implement these patterns in original children’s books.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 Hours

Materials/resources

• Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
• White paper
• Markers, crayons, and/or colored pencils

Activities

Modeling/Mini-lesson

1. Read Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss aloud to the class.
2. Lead a discussion to help students discover the organizational pattern of the text. You may use the following questions:
   • “What is this story about?” (life, challenges, success)
   • “How do we know?” (examples, the final statement)
   • “Does the organization of the book help us to know this? Why?” (yes, because of the repetition and order of events)
3. Introduce typical organization patterns by drawing the diagrams on the board.
   • Circle (Statement -> example -> details -> statement)
   • Funnel (Major idea -> minor ideas -> small details)
   • Linear (Chronological order)
   • Cause/effect

Guided Practice

4. Divide the class into four groups.
5. Ask each group to diagram the plot of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! based on each of the four organizational patterns.
6. After approximately ten minutes, ask each group to put their 4 diagrams on the board.
7. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each organizational pattern. You may ask some of the following questions:
   
   • “What parts of the book are left out in each of the patterns?”
   • “What are the strengths of each pattern?”
   • “What are the weaknesses?”
   • “Which pattern best applies to this text?”
8. Emphasize that one pattern does not work for all texts.

Independent Practice

9. In small groups, have students use one of the 4 organizational patterns above to create their own children’s books about success.
10. Assign each group to use a different organizational pattern for their book. Some questions to prompt their thinking include:
    • “What is success?”
    • “What is the most difficult part about succeeding?”
    • “What is difficult for a child to understand about success? How could you simplify that?”
    • Students should use the white paper to create not only a story but also illustrations.

Closure

11. Ask students to share their children’s books.
12. Have students compare the advantages and disadvantages of each of the four patterns for their success books.
13. Compile their books into a classroom library that can be read before class begins or during “spare” time. Or have students share their books with a kindergarten or first grade class or student.

Assessment

• Have students assess each other’s children’s books for an organizational pattern and its effectiveness.
• Observe class participation, monitoring for comprehension and engagement.
• Students could also vote for most effective, most engaging, and other “awards” for the books.

Supplemental information

This lesson could easily be adapted or used as is at various grade levels.

Comments

This lesson was created as part of the NCDPI Writing Lessons for Writing Features Workshop. (Organization)