If Your Students Love "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", Try This Lesson Plan

Dear Diary,

I went into the library and asked what books were popular with "the kids" these days (yes, I did feel old). The librarian took me down the aisle and pointed out book after book. Guess what? The majority of his recommendations were diary books!

To see what all the hype was about, I promptly checked out Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, and Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell. They were both fun reads, and I can see how kids would enjoy "snooping" into someone's secret diary.

These books also contain a lesson in writing character voices. If your students enjoy books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries, try this creative writing lesson plan. The goal is to help students develop unique character voices in their writing.

ENGAGE

-Display some popular diary books (For example, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, Dog Diaries, Dear Dumb Diary, Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess).

-Tell them you were carrying these diaries to school when suddenly a huge pack of wolf-dogs thundered past! They ripped up the diaries into little pieces! Now it's up to you to put them back together. Which bits of writing go together?

-Give them typed-out sections of the various diaries (with ripped edges for dramatic effect). Have about three or four short selections from each diary. Try to pick paragraphs without too many identifiable clues, such as character names. All of the selections should have the same font.

-Let's say you're using four different diary books. Ask the students to separate the slips of paper into four piles. They don't have to know which diary the selections come from, but their goal is to look for clues in how the character talks and figure out which ones are from the same diary.

EXPLAIN

-Talk about the results. What clues did they use to separate the diary pages? Were some easier than others?

-Display a list of personality words. You can find lots of examples here: 167 Adjectives To Describe a Person, With Meanings & Examples

-Make a word web about the personalities for each character. For example, make a bubble around Greg (from Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and choose words that fit his personality.

EXPLORE

-Have a big basket of toys. Each student picks two toys.

-Have them make a word web about the personality of each toy (they make the personality however they want).

-Using that information as inspiration, the students write two short diary entries for each toy. Give them all a common goal. For example, their characters are trying to steal a cookie from the cookie jar.

-Share with a friend. They mix up the four diary entries, and their friend has to figure out which two entries go together. The characters should have different enough voices that it's easy to tell who wrote what.

I think this lesson would be a lot of fun! There's reading comprehension, creative writing, toys, and diaries! Give it a try.

Well, diary, that's all for today. Thanks for listening to my story. Please don't share this with anyone. And please look out for wolf-dogs. I hear they like to rip up diaries.