Judith Viorst’s story of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day focuses on the chronological organization
of a very bad day in Alexander’s life. The amusing story begins
with Alexander’s morning and ends with his bedtime. Judith
Viorst weaves a catch phrase (the one about moving to Australia)
throughout the story as well--another element of good
organization. This writing lesson has students write
chronologically about a bad "school picture" day, using a strong
introduction and conclusion, while weaving an original catch
phrase in between the story's details. Teachers: Click here to
see the entire lesson plan. 6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:
The focus trait in this writing assignment is organization;
writers plan for a story that has an interesting introduction
and conclusion, and a story that is woven in between a repeated
use of an original catch phrase. The support trait in this
assignment is sentence fluency; in between the repeated catch
phrase, students will develop ideas in the f