Will ideas drop out of the sky? And we don't need no stinking organization either!

One of my favorite writing lessons is about ideas and actually comes from Writing Fix. In this lesson, the picture book Dogzilla by Dav Pikey is used as the mentor text. It's a great book with vivid details in both the story and the pictures; the students love the story and are quickly enraptured. What's cool is that the students have so much fun using this prompt that they don't realize that they're practicing ideas and organization in their writing.

First, I read aloud the story, which tells of a scientific experiment gone awry akin to the creation of other famous monsters in popular horror movies. In this case, Dogzilla is awakened from her slumber by the aroma of a barbeque being held in the town of Mousopolis. Mice residents first run in fear then must come up with a way to get rid of the large, smelly creature that's a combination of a dog and the monster Godzilla. By the story's end, the students are excited about the book and the knowledge that they're going to be writing their own "monster" story.

Writing Fix offers the students an idea generator to find two different creatures to combine for their story. Then an outline is provided for the students to follow so they know the basic plotline with the details added by them.

Once they've begun the story, the students are quickly engaged in writing the story. I think the reason they love this particular writing lesson is because it's so funny, but also because the basic story structure is provided for them. Students enjoy the embellishment of the story but often stumble on putting together a good story structure.

More details about this lesson plan can be found on the Writing Fix website at http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/Dogzilla1.htm

http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/Dogzilla1.htm