This is the first of six lessons on informative writing for third grade students. This fulfills a need my students have; paragraph writing is problematic for a number of them and they need to prepare for much more lengthy writing in 4th grade and up. Differentiation in content, process, product, affect, and environment are incorporated. This series of five lessons plus a presentation component were written for Fresno-Pacific University CRI 708 Curriculum Design Theory and Practice.
Lesson I Title: The Pen is Mightier
Than the Sword!
Part I: Planning to Teach
1.
Intent
What do you expect the students to
learn/explore/discover?
Students will be able to identify informative writing
and discern what an author's purpose in writing informational text is. They
will be able to distinguish writing conventions used. They will brainstorm a
topic, pair share their ideas, refine, and select a topic for writing an
informational composition. They will write a purpose statement about what they
want people to know about their topic and why, to help focus their composition;
for example, "I am writing about manatees because I want people to
understand that they are wonderful creatures and people will want to protect
them."
2. Rationale
Why are you doing this lesson?
Standard: CCSS W.3.4 With guidance and support from
adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are
appropriate to task and purpose.
Student Interest:
Too many students see writing as work, and this lesson is intended to
engage students in writing as a powerful tool to express their goals and
interests and share them with others.
3. Plan for Differentiation
- · Content is differentiated because students will determine (with teacher input and guidance) a topic that interests them, through brainstorming and sharing with other students.
- · Affect is differentiated mainly through interaction with content. Because students will be guided to choose a topic they truly want to inform others about, their emotions will be engaged. This will have an impact on their process as well.
- · Environment will be differentiated in that students will be given options for pairing and sharing their work at each stage.
4. Materials
·
Teacher Use: Projector to display samples
of informative writing; document camera for magazines/ encyclopedia.
·
Student Use: Books and magazines to find
pictures of topics of interest, paper and pencils
5. Plan
for Assessment & Analysis of Student Learning
·
Pre-Assessment will take place as students
read informative paragraphs and reflect on the topic and purpose; also as they
begin to produce purpose statements.
·
Formative Assessment will be based on how
they begin to fulfill the assignment by producing purpose statements.
·
Summative Assessment will be based on the
end product of the entire lesson.
6.
References
Tomlinson, C. A. (2014). The Differentiated
classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd Ed.). Alexandria:
ASCD.
Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. (2013). Assessment
and student success in a differentiated classrom. Alexandria: ACSD.
Part II: Procedures for the Lesson
Total time allotted for the lesson: 80 minutes
15 mins Engagement
·
Introduce students to the adage, “The pen
is mightier than the sword.” Ask students what they think it means. Remind them
that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” but also in written words.
Did God speak His saving words to us today vocally, or by His written word? Our
words can be mighty! Here are some examples.
•
Students will be shown a high-interest
passage (via projector) and be asked to classify it and analyze it:
o
Does the passage appear to be fiction, or
non-fiction?
o
What genre would you place this passage
in? What in the passage supports your thinking?
o
What is the topic of this passage?
o
What are the details about the topic?
o
What writing conventions do you notice
that the author used?
o
Why do you think the author wrote this
passage, what was their purpose?
•
Repeat the above activity with two or
three informative paragraphs.
10 mins Statement
or Demonstration of Lesson Intent
•
Tell students that they will:
o
learn how to write an informative passage
so that they can tell others about a topic that interests them, the same way
(name the authors) wanted to share with us what interests them.
o
brainstorm a topic, pair share their
ideas, refine, and select a topic for writing an informational composition.
o
write a purpose statement about what they
want people to know about their topic and why, to help focus their composition;
for example, "I am writing about manatees because I want people to
understand that they are wonderful creatures and people will want to protect
them."
•
Have the class participate in brainstorming
on a topic they all know something about; for example, exercise, trees,
elephants, etc. and demonstrate brainstorming about the topic as a review.
•
Show one or more examples on the
projector, or whiteboard, of high-quality and low-quality purpose statements;
formulate a purpose statements for the brainstormed topic.
40 mins Learning
activities sequence
•
Give students about 5 minutes to pair
share ideas for topics. Have non-fiction books and magazines available for
those who are having trouble.
•
Students should then leave the books or
magazines and be seated and spend about 5 minutes brainstorming. Remind
students to write down any ideas they come up with, without deciding if they
will use it or not.
•
Students choose partners to pair and share
their topic ideas with. At the end of 10 minutes they should have chosen one
topic to write a paragraph about.
•
Next, ask about three students to share
their topic and demonstrate writing a purpose statement for their topic as
follows:
o
Ask for students who wish to share their
topic (or randomly choose a student)
o
Ask them why they want to write about the
topic. If they cannot state why, ask what it is about the topic that interests
them, and do they wish others knew?
•
Students then spend about 10 minutes
writing their purpose statement. During this time the teacher should visit and
help individual students get started or refine their work.
•
Teacher can call out a small group of
students who are having difficulty completing their purpose statement and guide
them through the process.
15
mins Closure
·
Call on volunteer and non-volunteer
students to share their purpose statement.
·
Tell students that tomorrow they will begin
researching details for their topic.
Part III: Reflecting on Student Learning Outcomes After You Teach the
Lesson
• Differentiation
strategies
Pairs and small groups will work better for some
children than others. Some students will
still needed individual help or guidance.
• Summary
of all three levels of assessment.
Pre-assessment: Students will have varying levels of understanding and ability to state the author's purpose, and generating their own purpose statement. Some will need support from peers and teacher.
Formative: As students complete their purpose statement, their level of understanding will become evident.
Summative: While I will not grade
student work at this stage, I can evaluate how well they executed the task of
producing a topic and purpose statement.
Next steps: Re-teach small groups if
needed.
