After their experience at NIMH, the rats felt they didn't fit in anywhere. Sometimes people feel this way. Write three things you could do to help a person who feels left out to fit in. Many animals in the story help one another. Write about a time when you and a friend, neighbor, or family member helped each other.
Students respond in electronic journal and save to disk.
The Student Writing Center's journal mode works well for this activity, but a word processor would work as well. Teacher periodically collects disks through unit and responds to the students in a different color font. The teacher may also have students switch disks and comment to their peers using positive feedback and constructive criticism. This process must be modeled first, however, so that students can see how to write specific feedback and constructive criticism. This is a learning processing that involves a great deal of teacher and peer modeling in order for growth to occur.