by David Shannon
I was in Borders
Books in downtown Ann Arbor the first time I saw No, David! I picked it
up, skimmed through it, gazing at the pictures and not reading the words, and
thought, "This book sucks."
A year or two
later, I saw it again, picked it up, read the words, and fell in love.
I've now read this book to 13 straight classes ranging from Kindergarten
to Fifth Grade. It is a wonderful book that shows that people can be
forgiven even if they do a bunch of dumb stuff.
I just discovered
that this book is great for teaching students how to revise for ideas too.
If you haven't read No,
David! before, David gets yelled at by his mother for a variety of
infractions. Each infraction is shown with a two page picture spread and
David's mom's words. Nothing else, so it is great for adding to.
I started my
lesson by telling the students that they would be revising part of a story for
ideas. We then discussed possible techniques to use for revision of
ideas, such as thought shots, adding dialogue, and exploding the moment.
Next I read them No, David! After that I
told them to listen to the story again and choose one moment to revise.
Upon completion of the second read, I asked students to write down three
word description of what moment they had decided to revise.
We reviewed the
possible revision techniques and students then began to write. I circled
around the room, reading over student shoulders, praising and encouraging
different revisions.
After 10 minutes
of writing, students shared with their partners, and then I drew sticks for
three students to share with the class.
We repeated the
lesson the next day, and students were begging to do it a third time but I had
a different lesson planned using a benchmark text from Using Benchmark Papers to Teach
Writing With the Traits. My guess is that we will come back to No, David! in the future.
Published: 1998
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