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Grades level iconsGrades 5–6
Session time icon1 Session: 1.5 Hours
Genre information iconNarrative, Poetry
Resource type iconLessons

Inspired by Under Milk Wood

Miriam Nash, Ministry of Stories and BBC History
In this lesson, students will emulate Dylan Thomas’ famous drama, Under Milk Wood. Students will create imaginative works of fiction that examine their neighborhood in order to bring it to life.
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“Inspired by...” — Handout
What Your Students Will Learn

Your students will write imaginatively about a neighborhood meaningful to them in order to gain a personal experience into how writers explore the places around them.

Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3 Common Core Standards Icon
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.B Common Core Standards Icon
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D Common Core Standards Icon
Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3 Common Core Standards Icon
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3.B Common Core Standards Icon
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3.D Common Core Standards Icon
Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.
What You Will Do
Session 1
Timer
1.5 Hour
Inspired by...Under Milk Wood
This session will inspire your students to look at the world around them with fresh eyes, peeling back the layers of the objects, places, and people in their neighborhood. Through several different individual exercises, your students will create maps, narratives, and poems, all exploring the significance and magic that a single neighborhood can hold for someone.
Introduction :

It’s no secret that great writing breathes life into people and places; it’s why readers are drawn to certain stories or why we can close our eyes when reading and feel like we’re right next to the protagonist. Dylan Thomas, a great writer from Wales, knew this, and worked to breathe life into everything he wrote. Under Milk Wood, one of his dramas, focused on the details of a small village. Thomas not only brought his village to life but inspired others to do the same—Round About Candle Street is a collection from young writers exploring their own neighborhood. This lesson, in the same vein, will ask your students to explore a neighborhood of their choosing and examine it from different perspectives, ending with an original map, a piece of fiction, and several short poems.

Session 1: Inspired by...Under Milk Wood
You Will Need

Markers, crayons, colored pencils (optional)

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