My Favorite Relative

Students create a video that names their favorite relative and supports their opinion with reasons and examples.

Engage

Begin by talking to students about the meaning of family. Students will easily share words like mom, dad, brother or sister. Some may even include extended family like grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins.

Some students may have a concept of family that goes beyond people related to them. Ask students if they have anybody they consider “family” who may not be related to them, such as a parent’s friend from college who visits all the time.

Share Teaching Tolerance's definition of a family:

“a group of people going through the world together.”

Let students know that they will be creating to showcase the reasons a particular person is their favorite relative.

If your classroom includes children in foster care, or with other unique family situations, emphasize a broad definition of family or name the project Favorite Friend.

Create

Once students have decided on their favorite person, have them complete a character traits or cluster graphic organizer to identify the characteristics that make that person special, and thus, someone they would like to honor.

Cluster Organizer

You might prompt them with questions like:

• What is the one word you would use to describe this person?
• What qualities does this person have?
• What fun experiences have you had with this person?

Students should name the person in the middle and add words to describe the person and experiences they have had with them in the connected circles.

My favorite relative (friend) is “_______” is an easy way to state an opinion. The writing in this project focuses on the reasons and examples that back up that opinion without the need to persuade others to your view.

Give students an O-R-E-O graphic organizer to help them craft their writing, stating their Opinion, Reason, Example, and restating their Opinion.

OREO Organizer

Depending on their age, students may be ready to craft a 4-page presentation with the information from each section of their O-R-E-O organizer on a page. Older students can write statements that use multiple reasons or examples across the pages. You can even have students record their voice for an extra special memory.

Share

Save or export student projects to video. Email the videos to the family members mentioned in the student’s work, or to family members who can forward or share with the appropriate person.

This lesson plan was written to help other educators implement Barbara Plum’s My Favorite Relative project. Read her story for more details and for the powerful parent reactions her student’s work received.

Standards

Common Core Standards for English Language Arts

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.1
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is...).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.