Brief Description: The story is about a little girl, growing up with a loved doll her grandmother had made for her. However, once the child goes to school, she must leave her security doll home. The child is unable to cope without her doll. By the end of the story, the girl has a secret doll, tucked away in her back pack. Her security, and strength, has become something that only she (and her grandmother) knows.
Prior Knowledge: Students have been reading Cynthia Rylant books all week. They have been discussing the author’s life, and how she brings what she knows, and feels into her writing. They have also been developing their writing skills, which the assignment will help to further.
Objective:
Students will retell a story from another character’s point of view. They must
be able to convey their feelings as this character.
Assessment: Students will write a story from the point of view of the doll within the story “The Ticky Tacky Doll.”
Rationale: Students will need to be able to create persuasive writing pieces, as well as understand writing styles.
Hook: Students will first give an example of a security toy or item that they could not “survive without,” when they were younger. Students will then read the story about a little girl whose world seems to come crashing down when she can’t bring her favorite doll to school.
Activities:
- The class will read "The Ticky Tacky Doll” by Cynthia Rylant. The students will talk about how the little girl was so attached to the doll, and how she must have felt.
- The class will talk about how they felt when they first went to school. If students had that special wubby or blankey, they will share why it was so special, what it was like to be away from their security toy, and why they don’t have it with them now.
- For the writing assignment, students will pretend to be the Ticky Tacky doll. They will create a conversation between the doll, and the child, telling her how the doll feels. Before beginning their writing, the class will brainstorm some ideas of what to include. Some ideas may include how they, the doll, feels when the little girl leaves and when the little girl comes back, what the doll would like to do/be, and what she hopes for the little girl (such as doing well in school.) Students can include how they feel with the new doll that goes to school with her.
Closure: Students will need to say a feeling that could describe one of the characters in the story in order to go to their seat.
Individualization: Three students have IEP's. Two students are diagnosed ADD; one tends to be disruptive as he walks around and talks to other students. The second is more likely to drift off, and play with objects around him. The third has difficulty focusing due to difficulties in processing.
Students will not be required to write as much as the other students. In addition, students can select any child hood toy to write about.
