Lesson Name: FIrst 20 Days of Writing- Week 2 Estimated timeframe: 5 Days (60 minutes daily) Grading Period: 1 st 9wks ARC 2 Grade level: 1 st Grade Writing Lesson Components Lesson Objectives: The students will learn the necessary procedures and how to use the tools in the classroom to support their own writing. The students will learn how to choose ideas and start to expand on topics with words and illustrations. The students will use different strategies to spell words. Language Objectives: The students will generate and write about topics in grade level appropriate conventions. Prior Learning: The students should know how to generate topics that are important to them. Standards(Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills): 1.17 Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to: (A) plan a first draft by generating ideas for writing (e.g., drawing, sharing ideas, listing key ideas); (B) develop drafts by sequencing ideas through writing sentences; (C) revise drafts by adding or deleting a word, phrase, or sentence; (D) edit drafts for grammar, punctuation, and spelling using a teacher-developed rubric; and (E) publish and share writing with others. 1.18 Writing/Literary Texts. Students write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas. Students are expected to: 1.18A write brief stories that include a beginning, middle, and end; and College and Career Readiness: Compose a variety of texts that demonstrate clear focus, the logical development of ideas in well-organized pieces, and the use of appropriate language that advances the author s purpose Essential Questions: How do authors choose their topics? How do authors incorporate illustrations to enhance their meaning? What strategies to writers use to get the words onto the page? Enduring Understandings: Authors choose to write about topics of interest to them. They build upon meaning by revising their writing to include precise details in their words and illustrations. Authors use a variety of strategies to spell words. Vocabulary Essential: Writer, author, illustration, topic Lesson Preparation Anchors of Support Supporting: tools, mentor text Gather two familiar books, one that has a picture on each page and a sentence or two accompanying the picture such as Corduroy by Don Freeman and another text that has labeled drawings such as School Bus by Don Crews Spanish Texts: Corduroy by Don Freeman El Autobus Escolar by Don Crews Gather necessary materials for minilessons (chart paper, markers, teacher writing samples) Our Writer s Workshop Schedule Writers Meeting (15 minutes) Writing Time (20 minutes) Sharing Time (10 minutes)
When I m Finished o Add to the picture o Add to the words o Start a new piece Writer s Workshop Looks Like Writers writing Writers sharing tools Writers thinking Sounds Like Writers using one inch voices Writers talking about their ideas When I Don t Know How to Spell a Word, I Can Write the sounds I hear Check the word wall Check with a friend Look in a book I know Read the room Try writing it another way Circle it and move on Differentiation Strategies Special Education: Provide students with specific instructions regarding tools to help them write words (e.g. letter sound cards, ABC books, picture dictionaries, word wall, etc). Refer to the student s IEP for other routinely offered accommodations. English Language Learners: For students who are just beginning to learn English, allow them to choose to write in their native language or English. Provide students with specific instructions regarding tools to help them write words (e.g. letter sound cards, ABC books, picture dictionaries, word wall, resources in their natie language, etc). Extension for Learning: For students who are comfortable writing at the beginning of the year, provide them with modified paper that has more room for them to write and grow their ideas. 21 st Century Skills The students will generate topics that interest them. They will evaluate and critique the quality of their writing in order to find opportunities for revision in their writing and the writing of others. English Language Proficiency Standards: Mandated by Texas Administrative Code (19 TAC 74.4), click on the link for English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) to support English Language Learners. Lesson Cycle
Engage Lesson stages Remind the students of the goals that they set for themselves at the end of the previous week. Talk about how you are going to accomplish your goal as a writer and give the students a chance to turn and talk to a partner about how they might accomplish their goal. Day 6: Drawing Even Hard-To-Make Ideas 1. Tell students that sometimes writers hesitate to draw or write about particular topics because they aren t sure how to draw or write about the subject. Tell them you ll show them what you do in that case. 2. Reenact a writing episode in which you encounter difficulty. Consider options for an easier topic and then decide to persist with the challenging subject and draw either a person, place, or object that may represent that topic. Add details to the illustration to further describe your idea. Then, use written words to explain the illustration. 3. Act out the entire process again quickly so the students see another example of what you mean. 4. Ask children to name what they saw you doing when you got to the tricky part of the drawing. 5. Remind students that you expect they will draw their own pictures the best they can. They may begin by drawing one illustration that represents their idea (person, place, or object) and then add details to it. ACTIVITY 1: Students discuss with a partner/bilingual pair ideas they want to share in their writer s notebook but find difficult to draw or write about. Partners/bilingual pairs provide support to eachother of how they can share their ideas through an illustration or in writing. ACTIVITY 2: Students complete a journal entry using the feedback provided by their partner/bilingual pair. During writing time, when you see someone try to take the advice of the minilesson, celebrate it by pointing it out to the whole class. 6. Gather whole group, select a writer who tried the work of the minilesson, and have the child tell the rest of the class how it went. Remind students they can try the work of this session any time during writer s workshop. Day 7: Using Both Pictures and Words, Like Famous Authors 1. Tell children that writers write different kinds of writing. Some writers use sentences to tell a story and some use labels to describe their illustrations. 2. Show two texts (Corduroy and School Bus), pointing out that in each the author includes writing.
ACTIVITY 1: Ask students to point to the place on their pages in their writer s notebook where they will draw and to the place where they will write. Students discuss with a partner/bilingual pair a brief story to write about and begin by adding a simple illustration. ACTIVITY 2: Students lable their illustration with minimal words and briefly write a story. Remind students to use pictures and words. 3. Gather whole group to share and reflect on successful uses of the minilesson. 4. Make sure all students in the class realize that they have the ability to write as best they can. Day 8: Stretching and Writing Words 1. Tell the class you will teach them how to write words they may have trouble with. 2. Write publicly, demonstrating stretching out words and recording the sounds that you hear. 3. Ask students to join you in writing the sounds you hear in the words you write. ACTIVITY 1: pass out dry erase boards/dry erase markers and have students with a partner/bilingual pairs practice stretching out words and recording the sounds they hear. ACTIVITY 2: Students try on their own what you have done together and write a brief message for a classmate. 4. Point out the initiative of a student who has done some independent revision. 5. Gather whole group. Choose a student to tell the story of his or her process of stretching out a long or hard word to write down. Day 9: Stretching and Writing Words: Listening for and Recording Initial Sounds 1. Tell students you ll show them a way to get started writing, building on what they have already learned. 2. Return to a piece of writing you ve used previously in a minilesson and say aloud a new part you want to add to extend the idea. 3. Tell children to watch how you get the words onto the page (stretching out the words and recording sounds). 4. Retell the process you used to record words. 5. Ask them to try the process with you. ACTIVITY 1: Students discuss with a partner/bilingual pairs how to stretch out a word and write what they hear paying attention to initial sounds. ACTIVITY 2: Students select a journal entry in their writer s notebook and extend the writing using the strategy learned independently. Remind students to get started by listening for the beginning sounds of words, then to listen for the sounds that follow.
6. Share writing whole group. Day 10: Spelling The Best We Can And Moving On 1. Remind students that they previously learned to draw the best they can and keep going. Tell them this idea applies to spelling as well. 2. Demonstrate hesitating, trying to spell a hard word, writing it the best way you can (stretching the word and writing the sounds heard), and then continuing on to write more. 3. Point out what you want them to notice in your demonstration (stretching out words). Invite them to help you go through the process again. ACTIVITY 1: Create a chart entitled When I don t know how to spell a word, I can Students discuss in partners/bilingual pairs ideas to add to the chart. Complete as a class. ACTIVITY 2: Students select a topic and in their writer s notebook complete an illustration and a brief story using the strategies learned to draw and write. Closure Activity Check for Understanding (Evaluation) 4. Choose children who took the minilesson to heart, whether they implemented the advice exactly or found a new strategy, and ask them to tell the class about their strategy. Have the students share with the whole group what they have learned about themselves as writers this week and what they plan to work on next week. Formative: Anecdotal record from conferences with individual writers Summative: Evaluations of students finished writing samples against teacher-generated rubrics.