Mobius Teachers

Below is a writing assignment lesson plan using Mobius to great success. Fran Bland, a Fourth Grade teacher in Elko, Nevada, developed this lesson plan and recommends its use.

Author's Note: I was very pleased to see Fran's indication that Mobius is appropriate for grades 1-12. Ideally the self-help the book promotes would be encountered at an early age. However, if it isn't, it continues to be valuable in later years. Mobius may be enjoyed at many different levels; pictorially, a simple child's story, self discovery, appreciation for our own unique abilities, philosophy, science, and inter activity.
I have avoided magic, fantasy, religion, ethnicity, and color. It is my belief Mobius can be of real value to many children.

Integrating Writing, Reading, Math, and Art
Grade Level: Appropriate for 1-12 grades with adaptations.

Purpose: This activity emphasizes writing skills while integrating reading, math, and art. An added benefit to reading this book is the resounding theme of self-discovery and self-acceptance. I found that my fourth- grade students wrote longer stories for this activity. Moreover, they remained involved and enthusiastic until the end of the project.

Materials: Copy of the book, The Journey of Mobius and Sidh, by Mark Kashino, pencils, crayons or colored pencils, paper strips of unlined paper measuring approximately 2-1/2 inches x 30 inches (adding machine tape works), scotch tape. Laminate the strips after the students have completed them. Wipe off markers or wipe off crayons.

Meeting the writing content standards:

5.0 Students write a variety of texts that inform, persuade, describe, evaluate, or tell a story and are appropriate to purpose and audience.

6.0 Students write with a clear focus and logical development, evaluating, revising, and editing for organization, style, tone, and word choice.

7.0 Students write using standard English grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.

Procedure:

Lead a discussion appropriate to your grade level about journeys.
Primary students may have to define the word, journey. Prepare the students to listen to a story about a journey.

Read the book, The Journey of Mobius and Sidh, to the students.
They will be able to identify with some of the same feelings as Mobius. Discuss the story summarizing, making inferences regarding character's traits, and identifying the author's purpose. Use any strategies necessary for the students' comprehension.

Gather materials and prepare for the writing process.
You may want to wait until later or the next day to begin the writing process. I waited another day and then had the students retell the story using the Mobius strip and marker. I had the strip put together beforehand. We used a corner of a desk to support the strip as we moved it along. A student controlled the marker as we retold the story by pictures on the strip. Retelling the story using the Mobius strip intrigued the students. We then had a discussion about the mathematician, August Ferdinand Mobius, his discovery, and how to make a Mobius strip. I reassured the students that they would be making their own Mobius strips for their stories upon completion.

Brainstorming ideas for their own writing is the next step.
We did this, but the students were not limited to patterning their story after the book. Some did, some did not. However, it seemed that the natural progression of this story led them to write longer stories.

Continue the writing process.
Writing the first draft, revising, editing and proofreading, and publishing took us a few weeks to complete.

Make Mobius strips to retell their stories.
I think this was an incentive to write a longer story, also. They wanted to fill up that Mobius strip with illustrations! I cut butcher paper into strips measuring 2-1/2 inches x 30 inches. We taped the ends together after giving one end a half twist (180 degrees) before they started illustrating. This helped them keep their place as they worked. We marked off a small section near the tape that would not have any illustrations, so that we could cut it apart for laminating.

Share the writing.
Some of the students read their stories to the principal, the class, or other people at our school before taking them home. All, especially the principal, were quite impressed. They were also invited to share them at the Young Author's Conference.

Assessment: The books could be scored according to The Six Traits of Writing, or a teacher created rubric.

Thank You Fran