The “How to Be…Advice Assignment” series is a fun and insightful way for your students to explore various life stages and roles. This assignment offers guides
on topics like being a baby, a teenager, a parent, or navigating adulthood. Each guide blends practical advice with humor, providing a unique perspective on everyday challenges. This would be a great culminating assignment for the end of a course after students have learned about the subject they will be writing about.
Teacher Notes
- The beauty of this assignment is its flexibility as it can be modified for a variety of life stages, roles and topics. So, the first thing you need to do is decide how you’re going to use this and in which class(es).
- Encourage students to be humorous and fun, yet school appropriate, as they create their guides. Have them try to think like the “role” they are writing for incorporating information they’ve learned along the way from the course, from their experiences and from those they’ve observed.
- After students have written their rough drafts, set up peer editing groups and/or teacher conferences to be sure they are following the criteria.
- Once final drafts have been written and graded, have students do a read aloud like they are a stand-up comedian, sharing their guides and advice with the rest of the class. This way the guide is being read as intended with students emphasizing their advice in a humorous way.
- Another fun way to present these is to have students record their readings and present them in video format!
How To Be Topics
- How to Be a Baby
- How to Be a Toddler
- How to Be a Parent
- How to Be a Teenager
- How to Be an Adult
- How to Be a Cook
- How to Be a Chef
- How to Be a Child Based on Birth Order
- How to Be a Roommate
