Plain Polly: Adding relevant details

This instructional technique creates a lasting visual image of how relevant details help develop a character and a focus. Students learn to add only details that are related to the main idea of a “Plain Polly” stick figure. These mascots serve as reminders to students to be selective with the details they use to support their main idea.

A lesson plan for grades 3–4 English Language Arts

By DPI Writing Strategies

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Related topics

• Learn more about cooperative learning, details, elaboration, language arts, word choice, and writing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant details
• learn to add only details that support the main idea/focus of their narratives

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 minutes

Materials/resources

• Two transparencies with the stick figure attachment
• Various colors of overhead pens

Technology resources

Overhead projector

Activities

Modeling/Mini-lesson

1. Say: “Today I want you to meet a friend of mine. Please be nice to her though because she is very shy.”
2. Take two transparencies (both should have identical stick figures drawn on them so that they match and look alike) and place them on the overhead. Teachers can use the stick figure attachment as a guide. Introduce students to “Plain Polly.”
3. Say: “My friend Plain Polly has a problem. Can you tell what that problem might be?” (Expect two varieties of responses.) Then say: “Yes she is plain and she is just a stick person, but she is on a mission. She has a goal. That goal is the main reason that she is here today with us.” Write on the bottom of the transparency: Plain Polly wants to become more magnificent (or interesting, or special, or fancy). Ask: “How can we make her more magnificent? The focus of this lesson is to make Polly more magnificent. What can we do for Plain Polly?” Respond with “Give her details.”
4. The next step is to ask students what is the key word in Polly’s request sentence: Plain Polly wants to be more magnificent. Students should suggest the word “magnificent.” Underline the word “magnificent” and remind students frequently that all details added should support Polly’s main goal: To be more “magnificent.”
5. Have students volunteer to come up to the overhead projector and add a detail (with the colored pens) to Polly. Students add make up, jewelry, clothes, shoes, etc. with the colored pens. Polly transforms into a “magnificent” girl right before students’ eyes.
6. Frequently question students about whether the detail about to be added will make Polly more magnificent. Add some “un-magnificent” details (for example, a firefighter’s hat, a rake, army boots) and ask students if these details will make Polly more magnificent.
7. When Polly is complete, ask students for a new name for the new Polly. (Most groups enjoy calling her “Magnificent Molly.”)
8. At last pull up the top (now detailed) Magnificent Molly to reveal that there is still a stick Plain Polly on the first transparency. Make the connection between a Plain Polly and a magnificent Polly by putting the first stick figure on top and moving it back and forth. Ask students if they prefer Plain Polly or Magnificent Molly. Connect this idea to the importance of adding details that move a story along by focusing on the main idea.
9. On an ongoing basis, ask students to look at their stories and their details. “Is your story a Plain Polly or a Magnificent Molly? Do the details move your story along toward the main idea. Is it complete and fully supported?”

Guided Practice

10. Have students draw another stick figure named Plain Polly or Plain Paul. Have students choose another goal (focus) to give to their stick figure:
    • He/She wants to become a soccer player.
    • He/She wants to become a police officer.
    • He/she wants to become a firefighter.
    • He/she wants to become a clown.
    • He/She wants to become a cowboy/cowgirl.

    Have students add details to this stick figure. Remind them that the details for their stick figure should be focused toward making that main idea come to life.

11. Have students write a paragraph giving their stick figures new names and describing the details in their picture. Have students read their paragraphs to a partner and check that all the details match their main idea/focus.
12. Classes (or groups of students) can make larger art versions of the figure and write stories about that figure.

Assessment

• Can students add relevant details to their stick figures that support their focus?
• Can students write a paragraph with relevant details that support their topic sentence?

Supplemental information

Other Resources:

• Features: Support & Elaboration, Focus
• Writing Process Stage: Revising
• Writing Environment: Expressive
• Writing Genre: Narrative