Ours not to reason why

Today in class I had my students write their obituaries. Of course, this being the age of NCLB, I had to fit this into a standard or framework or anchor or whatever they are currently called, so I used the act of writing obituaries as an opportunity to study point of view. It was one of the most enjoyable lessons I have taught. The kids were involved and learning, and all of us had a lot of fun. This is how the lesson was structured:

1. Bell-Ringer. Talk to students about death. Ask them to write down three things that happened when a person dies. On the board, divide these into three sections:
Physical Ceremonial Other
2. Discuss obituaries. Ask which column they would fit under.
3. Read some example obituaries. In my class I used the obituary of an average person, in this case an engineer from Florida, and the obituary of a famous person, in this case comedian and Dave Jones lookalike Chris Farley.
4. On the board, have students write down some elements they observed in these obituaries.
5. Review point of view, specifically 1st person, 3rd person objective, 3rd person omniscient, and 3rd person limited. Ask obituary-related questions using point of view terms (i.e. what point of view are obituaries written in usually? why aren't most obituaries 1st person? etc.)
6. Now have the students brainstorm what they would like to include in their obituary. Will they list the family members they left behind? Will it focus on their personal accomplishments? Which point of view would they like it written it?
7. Students spend the rest of the period writing and sharing their obituaries.

This worked so well this summer I plan to make it a two-day project with all my classes in the fall. It was so fun, and it really helped drive home the differences among the different points of view.