Snowman Writing

Name: Alexandra Carter Lesson Title: Snowman Writing Grade Level: 1st Est. Time: 45 minutes 1) Standards/Objectives: Standard: W.1.3 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some details regarding what happened RL.1.3 Describe characters, setting, and major events in a story, using key details. Objective: Students will be able to write a fiction piece with a setting and three specific details provided they have written an opinion piece. 2) Materials Chart paper One marker Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner 20 copies of story starters 20 copies of writing paper 20 pencils 3) Procedures: a. Motivation/Engagement: The students will gather on the carpet to begin the story. I will introduce the book Snowmen at Night. I will tell the students to be listening for what the snowmen do at night as I read the story. Once we finish the story, I will ask the students to think of one activity the snowmen did at night. They will turn to their partner and share (Think-Pair-Share Kagan). b. Developmental Activity: I will have the chart paper ready in the front. The students will share what their partner said snowmen do at night. Each partner will share from the pair. I will be recording the list of activities the students say. Once I have called on every student to share, we will talk about the story they will be writing. You will be writing a fiction story about a snowman. Say fiction. Fiction stories entertain us. Today we are going to write a story about snowmen. We will be using the list of activities to create our story. Next, we will discuss the setting. I will give the students 30 seconds to think of a setting for their story. They will share the setting with their partner. I will call on a few students to share what their partner said. I will record the ideas on the chart. I will dismiss the students by color rows to go back to their seats and begin their story starter. c. Culminating Activity: The students will begin their story starters at their desks. I will provide the beginning of the first sentence for the story starter on the whiteboard: Once there was a snowman The chart of activities and settings will be posted at the front of the room so the students can look at them. I will call back 5 students to work at the back table with Ms. Peterson. The students will complete the story starter by adding a

Snowman Writing

beginning sentence, setting, three details, and an ending. I will be walking around the room assisting students when needed and checking for understanding (LemovCirculate). Once the students complete the story starter and I check it, they will receive a writing paper. On this paper, they will complete a final draft of the snowman story. Not all students will finish the story starter. d. Accommodations/Modifications: Students who need additional help with writing will be working with Ms. Peterson at the back table. Each student will receive assistance putting his/her ideas on the story starter. Ms. Peterson will write their ideas and they can copy the word onto their story starter. e. Closure: The students will turn in the story starter to the back table. I will call on a few students to share one detail about the snowman in their story. 4) Assessment: a. Formative: As the students are writing, I will be using a checklist to document the students understanding of narrative writing. The checklist will evaluate whether the students have a: beginning, setting, 3 details, and ending. If the students are having a difficult time understanding how to create a narrative piece, I will reteach the concept. 5) Reflection: Overall, the lesson went well. I taught this lesson first thing in the morning. The students gathered on the carpet while I read them the story. Before I began reading, we discussed whether the story was written to entertain or provide information. The students decided the story was written to entertain. This intro was a great way to relate the students previous knowledge to the lesson. I started reading the story. Throughout the story, I stopped and talked about specific vocabulary (anxious). I had to stop reading a few times to remind the students to be on their bottoms in the listening position. I would definitely do this next time Im teaching a lesson because once you lose the students, its hard to get them engaged again. Once I finished reading, the students shared one activity the snowmen did at night. I wrote the activities down as the students shared. I would do this again because the students need to be able to see their ideas written out. When they went to their desks to begin the writing activity, they referenced the list of ideas we created. The writing portion of the lesson went very well. The students were engaged and working the whole time. After teaching this lesson, I would make some changes before I teach it again. When the students were sharing, it took too much time. I wanted all of the students to share their ideas, but next time I will only be calling on 5 students. My mentor said she only calls on 5 to limit the time spent on sharing. Next, I would remove my teacher example from the front of the classroom. When the students were going to the front of the room to look at the list of examples, they were also copying the example I modeled. I would take this down next time so they have to come up with their own ideas. I learned I am becoming much more comfortable in front of the class. If the students are misbehaving, I address the problem and move on. In the past, I would get nervous and off-track when this would happen. My mentor noticed this change as well. Im happy Im moving in the right direction. I learned the students need a model of writing to fully understand the concept. Sometimes its only necessary to talk about what the students will be doing, but the new concepts need to be modeled.

Snowman Writing