A Narrative Writing Lesson
Lesson Plan
- Name:
- WGU Task Objective Number:
General Information
- Lesson Title & Subject(s): English language arts: Narrative Writing.
- Topic or Unit of Study: My City: My Adventures in the City.
- Grade/Level: 3rd grade.
- Instructional Setting: The lesson plan will be implemented in the 3rd grade classroom for the group of 20 students. The students will be sitting at desks prepared for the writing activities. Students will practice in narrative writing with references to the topic ‘My City’ which combines several lessons in a unit.
Standards, Goals and Objectives
Your State Core Curriculum/Student Achievement Standard(s)
Writing Standards: “3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences” (Wisconsin Academic Standards, 2012).
Lesson Goal(s)
Students will be able to write small narrative pieces basing on the topic ‘My Adventures in the City’.
Lesson Objective(s)
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to present the small narrative pieces on the topic ‘My Adventures in the City’ which are written and assessed according the Six Traits Writing Model and in which students develop real or imagined events using descriptive details and clear event sequences (Wisconsin Academic Standards, 2012). The objective of the lesson is to review the Six Traits Writing Model and use it to help students write the effective narrative which is assessed basing on this model (6 point scale in relation to 6 criteria). The students are expected to demonstrate the ability to write narratives at the excellent (maximum – 36 points) and good levels (24 points).
Materials and Resources
Instructional Materials
Power Point Presentation ‘Connection of the Writing Process with the Six Traits Model’, the example of narratives presented at the board (scheme), the vocabulary table.
Resources
Gunning, T. (2010). Creating literacy instruction for all students. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson Education.
Wisconsin Academic Standards. (2012). Web.
Instructional Plan
Sequence of Instructional Procedures/Activities/Events
Identification of Student Prerequisite Knowledge and/or Skills (5 minutes)
Students have learnt the Six Traits Writing Model during the previous lessons. The task is to review the main features of the model. Students are asked to name the model’s components. The teacher listens to the students’ answers, corrects them, if it is necessary, and writes the components on the blackboard. The students are expected to review such components as voice, idea, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions. The teacher states that to write an effective narrative, it is necessary to pay attention to all these components, and the students’ task today is to write a small narrative piece on the topic ‘My Adventures in the City’ concentrating on the mentioned components or criteria according to which the narrative will be assessed.
New Knowledge, Skills to Be Taught (7 minutes)
The teacher states that the students will learn how to write narratives about their adventures in the city basing on their own experience and imaginary details (Gunning, 2010). The teacher focuses on the fact that such components of the Six Traits Writing Model as voice and idea are important during the prewriting stage when students have to choose the topic or think about the details of the topic and message of the story. Their personal writer’s voice should be rather unique and reflect their opinions on the topic. The organization is important while composing the story because any narrative has a beginning, middle, and end.
Word choice should be used in connection with voice to support the idea. Sentence fluency is checked after writing the narrative, and the last stage is the correction of the possible mistakes which is correlated with conventions. Presenting this information, the teacher demonstrates the Power Point Presentation ‘Connection of the Writing Process with the Six Traits Model’ in which all the mentioned information is discussed to accentuate the connection. The presentation is used as the visual material to help students write according to the criteria.
Modelling (3 minutes)
The teacher refers to the presentation and provides the examples to analyze the narrative according to it: “You should write about your own adventures in the city. You are the main character of the story. You can write about any real or imaginary events you experienced in the city, these events should be organized as your adventures. Draw the readers’ attention with the first interesting sentence in which you introduce your character. You can start your story the following way: “One day I woke up early and…”. Provide the events or adventures in sequence. State the order of the events using such words as ‘then’, ‘afterwards’, ‘next’. Present the interesting ending of the story in one sentence. You should write 5-7 sentences”.
Guided Practice (5 minutes)
Encouragement: “It is easier to start writing when you use the definite scheme. Please, pay attention to the structure of a narrative example presented at the board. According to the example, you can write the first sentence in which you state the main character and the setting of the story. It is your beginning. Then you can write about three wonderful events to describe your adventures in the city. The last sentence can present your vision of your adventures. Express your emotions”.
Encouragement: “Your narrative will be great if you use the vocabulary table to improve your word choice. Pay attention to words to describe the city, for instance (‘large’, ‘great’, ‘old’, ‘mystic’)”.
The teacher asks students to refer to the vocabulary table and create sentences about the city. Students read their descriptions. The teacher makes the necessary corrections. Then, the teacher asks students to use the scheme and write three possible events to discuss them in the story, using such words as ‘then’, ‘afterwards’, ‘next’, etc. The students read the description of events. The teacher assesses students’ ability to present descriptions in detail and events in sequence.
Independent Student Practice (20 minutes)
The teacher asks students to start writing the story. Students work at the narrative referring to the chart, narrative scheme, and vocabulary table. The teacher states it is important to pay attention to punctuation, grammar, and spelling. The name of the city should be capitalized.
Culminating or Closing Procedure (8 minutes)
The teacher discusses the students’ work with references to their questions during the writing process. The teacher is handed in the written stories to assess them according to the Six Traits Model.
Pedagogical Strategy
Direct instruction, the combination of the visual demonstration of charts and tables and verbal instruction to write the narrative.
Differentiated Instruction
The English Language Learners and hearing impaired learners are placed into groups to work with the writing worksheets and schemes for narrative writing developed for them.
Technology Integration
The Power Point Presentation ‘Connection of the Writing Process with the Six Traits Model’ is used during presenting the new material to state the connection between the model and stages of writing the narrative to help students observe the connection. The slides present the information about the elements of the model separately.
Student Assessment/Rubrics
Formative assessment: The teacher assesses students’ abilities to use visual materials, develop imagined events using descriptive details and clear event sequences during the guided practice to focus their attention on possible inaccuracies.
Summative assessment: At the end of the lesson, the teacher assesses students’ narratives. Students are expected to demonstrate the ability to write narratives at the excellent (maximum – 36 points according to 6 criteria of the model) or good level (24 points according to 6 criteria of the model). The Six Traits Writing Model assessment is based on the 6 point scale (1 – not yet, 2 – emerging, 3 – developing, 4 – effective, 5 – strong, 6 – excellent) in relation to 6 criteria (voice, idea, word choice, organization, sentence fluency, conditions). Works assessed lower than 24 points need to be re-written.
An Expository Writing Lesson
Lesson Plan
- Name:
- WGU Task Objective Number:
General Information
- Lesson Title & Subject(s): English language arts: Expository Writing
- Topic or Unit of Study: My City
- Grade/Level: 3rd grade
- Instructional Setting: The lesson plan will be implemented in the 3rd grade classroom for the group of 20 students. The students will be sitting at desks prepared for the writing activities. Students will practice in expository writing with references to the topic ‘My City’ which combines several lessons in a unit.
Standards, Goals and Objectives
Your State Core Curriculum/Student Achievement Standard(s)
Writing Standards: 2 a. Write informative texts to examine a topic, introduce a topic and group related information together (Wisconsin Academic Standards, 2012).
Lesson Goal(s)
Students will be able to write informative pieces like a short report basing on the topic ‘My City’.
Lesson Objective(s)
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to write an expository text in the form of a short report to examine the topic ‘My City’ and introduce the topic and the definite facts about the city together (Wisconsin Academic Standards, 2012). Students are expected to demonstrate the good level of writing (to receive 9-6 points according to the rubric).
Materials and Resources
Instructional Materials
The table with main points to assess, Power Point Presentations with illustrations and descriptions of the city, a set of questions presented in a table on the board, planning guides.
Resources
Gunning, T. (2010). Creating literacy instruction for all students. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson Education.
Wisconsin Academic Standards. (2012). Web.
Instructional Plan
Sequence of Instructional Procedures/Activities/Events
Identification of Student Prerequisite Knowledge and/or Skills (5 minutes)
The teacher states the main purpose of the lesson which is to learn how to write short reports about the native city. Students will present their short reports at the end of the lesson. The students have the prepared planning guides where the topic of the report is stated (‘My City’), subtopics are determined (popular places, famous buildings), and the facts about subtopics are provided with references to the sources (magazines, newspapers, encyclopaedias). Students have all the necessary material to start writing the expository paper.
New Knowledge to Be Taught and Modelling (7 minutes)
The teacher states that an effective short report about the city should be organized according to definite rules and some points should be followed. The teacher demonstrates the table according to which such points as the clear beginning sentence to present the main idea of the paper (the sentence should name the city, state the topic of the report, and have the proper grammar structure), the proper presentation of the facts and details on the topic (three facts supported with evidence from the planning guide), and the clear summarizing ending sentences (the conclusion as a summary of facts and details) will be assessed. For instance, “New York is the most populous city in the country, and the purpose of the report is to provide some facts about this city”. The teacher provides examples for each criterion.
Guided Practice (7 minutes)
Encouragement: The teacher demonstrates the Power Point Presentation with illustrations and descriptions of the city’s places and buildings to draw the students’ attention to the subtopics about which they will be writing.
Encouragement: The teacher guides the students’ writing with the help of a set of questions presented in a table on the board (Where is your city situated? Is your city old? What are the city’s places of interest? What facts you can provide about these places? What are the famous city’s buildings? What facts you can provide about these buildings?).
The teacher asks students to provide the examples of the beginning sentence, facts to discuss and ending sentences, following the recommendations from the table. The correctness of students’ answers is assessed according to the recommendations and rules. The teacher asks students to answer the questions from the table orally and compare the answer of the other students with the information from their planning guides. Students make necessary corrections, provide additional details guiding by the teacher. The teacher states it is important to pay attention to punctuation, grammar, and spelling. The name of the city should be capitalized.
Independent Student Practice (25 minutes)
The teacher asks students to write 10-12 sentences on the topic following the recommendations presented in the table. Students work at the report basing on the planning guides, illustrations, questions from the table.
Culminating or Closing Procedure (5 minutes)
The teacher states that today students have learnt how to write short reports about their city. The papers are handed in for checking.
Pedagogical Strategy
Direct instruction, the combination of the visual demonstration of tables and verbal instruction and explanation to write the report.
Differentiated Instruction
The English Language Learners and hearing impaired learners are placed into groups to work with the writing worksheets for expository writing (schemes) worked out for them.
Technology Integration
The teacher uses the Power Point Presentation with illustrations and descriptions of the city’s places and buildings as the encouragement activity during the guided section to draw the students’ attention to subtopics, details and motivate their writing.
Student Assessment/Rubrics
Formative assessment: The teacher assesses students’ abilities to organize sentences and their following rules and recommendations provided during the guided practice.
Summative assessment: The teacher assesses students’ skills at the end of the lesson. Students have acquired all the important skills if they receive 9-6 points according to the rubric where the maximum amount of points is 9, and the minimum is 3. The rubric assesses such criteria as the clear beginning sentence (the sentence should name the city, state the topic of the report, and have the proper grammar structure), the proper presentation of the facts and details on the topic (three facts supported with evidence from the planning guide), and the clear ending sentences (the conclusion as a summary of facts and details). Points: 3 – excellent, 2 – good, 1 – satisfactory, 0 – below the goal (revisions are required).
Lesson Activity to teach an irregular spelling rule
- Name:
- WGU Competency Number(s):
General Information
- Activity Title and Subject(s): The Practice of a Rule on Irregular Plural Nouns, English Language Arts.
- Topic or Location in Lesson: Guided Practice.
- Grade/Level: 2nd grade.
Objectives
Lesson Objective(s) Activity Relates to: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to form and use the plural form of the frequently occurring nouns which end in “s”, “ch”, “sh”, “o”, “x” with 90% accuracy.
Instructional/Learning Activities
Instructional Strategy
Direct instruction from the teacher, partner work in pairs during the whole lesson.
Explanation and Rationale for Instructional Strategy
Direct instruction is necessary to provide students with the rule according to which nouns ended in “s”, “ch”, “sh”, “o”, “x” form their plural forms. The partner work in pairs is helpful to improve students’ skills in forming plural nouns with references to correcting each other.
Learning Activity
The teacher presents the rule of forming plurals for nouns ending in “s”, “ch”, “sh”, “o”, “x”. Rule is formulated the following way: Add “es” if the word ends in “s”, “ch”, “sh”, “o”, “x” (Simonsen & Gunter, 2003).
Students are asked to form the plurals of the nouns from the working sheets basing on the rule and examples presented at the blackboard.
For instance, students see the example ‘box-boxes’, and they should write plural forms for ‘fox’. Students follow the example ‘bench-benches’, and they should write plural forms for ‘match’, ‘lunch’.
When the students are ready with the task, the teacher asks them to change the worksheets with the partner to say whether every plural form written by the partner is right.
Explanation and Rationale for Learning Activity
Students are able to remember the rule when they practice writing the words during a long period of time. Moreover, the concentration on checking the partner’s work is effective to pay attention to spelling of the irregular plurals. From this point, the activity can be discussed as effective.
Lesson Activity: Read-And-Describe Activity
- Name:
- WGU Competency Number(s):
General Information
- Activity Title and Subject(s): Read-And-Describe Activity, English Language Arts.
- Topic or Location in Lesson: The Independent Student Practice.
- Grade/Level: 3rd grade.
Objectives
Lesson Objective(s) Activity Relates to: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe another student’s expository writing on the topic ‘My City’ effectively with substantial detail.
Instructional/Learning Activities
Instructional Strategy (or Strategies)
Direct instruction from the teacher, partner work in pairs during the whole lesson.
Explanation and Rationale for Instructional Strategy
It is necessary to direct students to write their expository papers to their partners and to encourage the students’ listening to the papers attentively to describe the content of the writing to the class with substantial detail. The activity is based on the work in pairs.
Learning Activity
The students are provided with tables which should be filled in after the students’ reading their expository papers in pairs. The partner describes the content of the writing to the class basing on the notes from the table.
The table includes such columns as the topic of the paper, the object described, details of description, the object’s characteristics, the facts about the object, conclusion.
After listening to the writing, the student fills in the table during 5 minutes, makes necessary notes and describes the content of the writing basing on these notes.
Explanation and Rationale for Learning Activity
It is rather difficult for students of the 3rd grade to remember the details from the expository writing which are presented orally. That is why, they need some clues to guide their further description. The table reflecting the basic points of the writing can be successfully used to describe the content to the class.
References
Gunning, T. (2010). Creating literacy instruction for all students. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson Education.
Simonsen, F., & Gunter, L. (2003). Best practices in spelling instruction: A research summary. Journal of Direct Instruction, 1(2), 97-105.
Wisconsin Academic Standards. (2012). Web.