Get Writing Tips on The Writing Fix

The Writing Fix has a long list of mentor texts by writing type and lessons to go with them.

Have you explored The Writing Fix website? It has a plethora of ideas and lessons ready to go. In this post, I share a model lesson I used from it to give you an idea of how it might help you.

As busy teachers, it’s often hard to find go-to resources for free, but when I discovered The Writing Fix, I thought I’d hit the lottery! It is one of THE best sites for teaching writing, and I wanted to highlight some of the things I discovered.

Introducing The Writing Fix

The Writing Fix is a resource site that freely shares ideas, resources, interactive apps to be used for lessons, and teacher tested lesson plans. It has been in existence since 1999 when the founder, Corbin Harrison, purchased the domain name and began collecting resources other teachers had designed.

Fast forward to today, and you will find materials that will take you through each year to grade twelve.

If you have favorite literature you enjoy, you can locate writing resources to go with them using the site bibliography that is linked to the resources. It is amazing just how much is included. The preview below is just a snapshot! So many great titles!

Using My Lucky Day as a Mentor Text

My Lucky Day is a great mentor text for writing Thanksgiving stories. Your students will love the story and enjoy the writing assignment included on the site

I first learned about Writing Fix when I ran a weekly link up on my site called Six Trait Sunday. The bibliography blew my mind. If you have a certain type of writing you need to address (persuasive say), you can easily scan through to locate what you need on the site. I did this, and found a list of 195 lessons. A favorite of mine features the book, My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza.

Integrating Book Video

I use this writing lesson set at Thanksgiving. Of course, I begin the writing assignment with the book. I didn’t have a copy of the book on hand, so I used this youtube video clip which works well since you can pause and discuss writing examples, and students can better see the pictures as well. Plus, I think my students truly enjoyed hearing this author read it.

Introducing the Assignment

Once you introduce the assignment with the book, Writing Fix offers the full step by step lesson plan and materials you need for each writing stage as well as anchor papers for modeling. I love that the site gives multiple grade levels of papers too as it provides my students with a “road map” for where their writing needs to go. I am truly impressed by the growth my students (who are struggling readers) have shown, and I can’t help but believe that the repeated modeling and practice connected to strong literature helps the children better understand how to improve their writing and actually enjoy it. For this plan, you can see a little synopsis below.

Summary of this Lesson’s Mentor Text:

Have you explored The Writing Fix website? It has a plethora of ideas and lessons ready to go. In this post, I share a model lesson I used from it to give you an idea

In the picture book, My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza, a hungry and naïve fox is surprised to find his dinner knocking at his door. Could this be his lucky day? Unfortunately, an intelligent and somewhat sly pig has other ideas. Using the power of persuasion, and a keenness for trickery, the pig outwits the fox and ultimately ends up clean, fat and happy. The fox, exhausted by the persuasive suggestions of the pig, collapses and is unable to “roast” his guest. A formidable opponent, intelligence clearly wins over stupidity, or an empty stomach in this case.

Analyzing the Text

After the students have analyzed the text, it’s time to begin the prewriting stage. The website includes all of the graphic organizers you need like this one. Students can work to plan out their papers. Then, the teacher can use the anchor papers to demonstrate where the assignment is heading and what works well. Here is an example of one story.

My Lucky Day is a clever book, and this exemplar paper featured on The Writing Fix helps students learn to analyze their own writing. Check out this post for a fantastic lesson on persuasive writing.

Anchor Papers

I love hearing my students critique the papers, but it is interesting how spot on they can be. They are able to identify weak hooks and arguments, analyze the sample for word choice, sentence fluency,etc. They can also reread if they find they have a little writer’s block.

For the revising stage, this author shared checklists for Voice and Ideas. Handy huh?? For publishing, you can even add your “star” papers to the lesson site

So…what are you waiting for? Hop on over and see what’s all included. Be sure to check out this tab to see the featured mentor text lessons. They are my favorite!

My Lucky Day Unit

I loved using this book so much that I decided to create a resource to use with it. The focus of the unit is on analyzing author’s craft within the book. It is such a clever text, and your students will really enjoy it. Here are the skills I included:

Schema builder on playing tricks
Vocabulary organizer and word cards
Story elements
Guiding Questions/Text Evidence
Making connections
My Favorite Trick
Story Retelling
Analyzing Text Column Notes
Question Task Cards
Narrative Writing Prompt including planning, drafting pages, writing checklist, and final draft pages for publishing.