Rewriting, The Little Red Hen

The essential questions for this unit of study are:

How does reading help me become a better writer?

What can I learn from other authors and illustrators?

How can I make use of the craft of other authors and illustrators in my writing and drawing?

The Little Red Hen

by

Byron Barton

This week we studied the text, The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton. This choice is for the following reasons:

· Most students have experiences with farm animals (familiarity and prior knowledge)

· There is a parallel story happening (from seed to bread) providing procedural text as well as fictional text

· There is repeating dialogue

· The illustrations support the text

· The story is so well known there are similar story examples to draw from

· The story lends itself to a lesson being taught (hard work reaps rewards)

Monday- I read the book and students listened. There was a follow-up conversation about the book. The majority of my students knew this story. They had a hard time listening and began to chime right in from the beginning.

Tuesday- I read the book again and most of my students joined in. I asked students what they noticed about this book. They listed the following: the animals are not helping, the little red hen had to do all the work, they animals are not nice, the little red hen taught them a lesson.

Later, I placed a chart on the overhead and asked students to tell me whether they thought the little red hen had done the right thing or not. I asked, should she share the bread or not? Ten students said she should not and seven said she should. We talked about the word opinion and how when we read, we get to form our own opinions about what is happening in the story. I asked students to share their opinion about the little red hen’s decision. As a follow up I placed a writing prompt in a center and asked students to respond to the same question in written form. This proved to be very hard for them but gives me a reference for later in the year when students will be expected to write their opinion.

Thursday- there was no school (which has happened to us a lot this semester). This project works best with five days in the school week.

Friday- the students reread the text for a final time. Then I set up a graphic organizer so the students could create their version of The Little Red Hen. The students nominated and then voted for a problem (making spaghetti), characters (a pigeon, a crow, an owl, and a bluebird), a setting (a fancy restaurant) and began to create their story. They were not very far into the story before the students began having trouble. It turned out; none of them knew how to make spaghetti. I could not have planned this if I had tried. All fall we have been talking about writers choosing topics they are familiar with or topics they care enough about to do research to gather information. My student writers were stuck because they did not know enough about their topic. I told them they would have to learn more about making spaghetti or change their problem. They voted to change their problem and went back to the original nominations for story ideas. One of the choices was building a house. The class voted to use that problem. I asked them if they knew how to build a house. Many answered yes and voiced the order in which one would build a house. They were close enough for us to get a sequential story and here it is.

One Day of Work

By Mrs. Brown’s First Grade Class

One day a crow decided to build a house.

“Who will help me build the frame?” she asked her three friends.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Fine I will do it myself,” said the crow.

Who will help me build the roof?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Not me,” tweeted the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me shingle the roof?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Fine then I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me build the walls?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” tweeted the bluebird.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me build the doors?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me build the windows?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” said tweeted bluebird.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me build the chimney?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Fine, I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me build the porch?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” cooed the pigeon.

“Not me,” hooted the owl.

“Not me,” tweeted the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” cawed the crow.

“Who will help me move in the furniture?” asked the crow.

“Not me,” said the owl.

“Not me,” said the pigeon.

“Not me,” said the bluebird.

“Fine I will do it myself,” said the crow.

“Who will help me watch football on TV?” asked the crow.

“I will,” said the owl.

“I will,” said the pigeon.

“I will,” said the bluebird.

“Oh NO you won’t!” screamed the crow.

“You didn’t help that’s why you don’t get to come in MY house!”

We have not illustrated this story yet. We ran out of time. We only did a bit of revising. I asked if everyone was happy with the word said all through the story. A student suggested that we use other words. The class came up with cawed, tweeted, cooed, and hooted. Then a student suggested we pattern the story so on one page we used said and on the next page we used the bird sounds. I found it interesting that although many students thought the little red hen should have shared her bread, no one wanted their crow to share his house and TV at the end of the story. This project felt rushed this week. I feel we could have done much more but had to deal with the time allotted.