Burger Madness!

 

I created a lesson plan this week using the tales of "The Gingerbread Man" and "The Gingerbread Baby" as examples of how stories can be change based on who is telling it.

For the assignment we wanted the students to create their own gingerbread tale with a twist (maybe having a French fry boy or maybe it is set in a jungle). They had to keep the same trouble (the main character runs away) and resolution (the main character stops running) but they could be as creative as they wanted for the rest of the story. We used a CSTAR burger- (character, setting, trouble, action, and resolution) and had them fill out each section of their burgers as a way to help them organize their ideas before they started their stories. Below is the handout I created for them as well as the corresponding smart board lesson I used.

We then emphasized the structure of stories by having the students make their own burger story based on their CSTAR handout. I tried to emphasize which parts of CSTAR go in which structural components of a story. Below is the smart board lesson that corresponded with this portion of their work. I do not have a copy of the handout I gave them but I will try to take a picture and load it tonight. In the mean time it was a large, lined, 2 page worksheet with a bun top for their introduction, a large section for the "meat" (body) of the story, and a large bun bottom for the conclusion of their story.

 

I then turned the tables on them and told them I didn't think they should be the only ones to have homework. I told them that if they worked hard for the period I would use the last 5 minutes to share my story with them and they could be the "teachers" (and judge whether I met all the criteria of CSTAR in my story). The kids lit up at the idea of being teachers and they worked very hard. I was a great way to end the class and everyone had a fun time. I would defiantly do this lesson again with a few small tweaks. I will try to type up my story and add it later.