Shelby Bond

Writing Lesson Plan

LESSON RATIONALE
This lesson is important because as students strive to become better writers, they must learn to express their ideas
and purpose in ways that are appropriate to the audience and the topic. Teaching perspective alongside the topic of
voice allows for students to obtain a greater understanding of writing as characters other than themselves, as well as
better understand their interactions with others outside of literature.

READINESS

I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s):
- Students will be able to re-write an event or story from the perspective of a given character.
- Students will be able to express the unique voice of a character through a first-person account.

B. Objective(s):
- At the end of this lesson, students will be able to write using a distinct sense of voice.
- Upon completing this lesson, students will be able to re-write an event or story from the
perspective of a fairy tale character.
- After completing the writing workshop, students will be able to describe unique elements that aid
in creating a character’s voice.

C. Standard(s):
- 2.W.1 Write routinely over brief time frames and for a variety of tasks, purposes, and audiences;
apply reading standards to write in response to literature and nonfiction texts.
- 2.W.4 Apply the writing process to generate a draft by developing, selecting, and organizing ideas
relevant to topic, purpose, and genre; revise writing, use appropriate reference materials, by
adding details; edit writing for format and conventions; and provide feedback to other writers.

II. Management Plan:

- Time:
- Anticipatory Set: 5 minutes
- Mini-Lesson: 15 minutes
- Writing/Conferencing: 20 minutes
- Sharing: 10 minutes
- Space:
- Anticipatory Set: This part of the lesson will take place around the group circle with students on
the floor.
- Mini-Lesson: During this time, students will be sitting on the floor at the group circle, where they
all will be facing the teacher.
- Writing/Conferencing: This part of the lesson will take place at the students individual desks. The
teacher will move around the room observing the students writing and meeting with individuals to
conference at their desks.
- Sharing: This part of the lesson will take place around the group circle, with students all facing the
special author’s chair.

- Materials:
- The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!​ by Jon Scieszka
- Various types of shoes
- Heels
- Work Boots

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 - Ballet Slippers
- Running Shoes
- Shoe boxes for each pair of shoes
- Teacher writing sample
- Teacher graphic organizer correlating with writing sample
- Graphic Organizer (2 Types)
- Sheet for draft
- Anecdotal Recording Form
- Document Camera
- Copies of Little Red Riding Hood

- Expectations:
- Anticipatory Set: During this time, the students are expected to work alongside one another to
discuss different ideas they have relating to the owner of the shoes. After the activity, the students
are expected to raise their hands to answer the questions given by the teacher, actively
participating in the discussion.
- Mini-Lesson: During this time, students are expected to listen quietly while the teacher reads the
story to the class. Afterwards, they are to actively participate in class discussion when asked to by
raising their hand and talking with a partner when directed to. They are expected to contribute
ideas when asked and sit at their designated spot on the carpet so as to not distract their peers.
- Writing/Conferencing: While students work on their writing, they are expected to work quietly on
their own at their individual seats, using their ideas to fill in the graphic organizer to the best of
their ability. As the teacher conferences with students, these individuals are expected to listen to
the teacher and use their feedback to help support their writing. During this time, the teacher must
choose what students they want to share after the writing and conferencing is done.
- Sharing: While students share their work, these individuals are allowed to sit at the special author's
chair and are expected to sit up straight and talk in a clear manner so that their peers can fully
understand them as they read. As students listen to their peers, they are expected to sit quietly and
snap as a sign of respect after the reading is complete.

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

III. Adaptations:
- ADHD: This lesson requires for students to sit for longer periods of time. While a good portion of this
encourages active discussion and engaged listening, the independent writing portion requires for students to
sit for around 20 minutes at a time. As sitting still for extended periods is difficult for a lot of the students
in class with ADHD, the teacher could break the writing portion into 2 ten minute portions, allowing
students to take a brief brain break where they can stretch and do hand exercises. The teacher could also
ensure that additional seating options are available for students, whether this is a yoga ball, exercise band
around their chair, or even having them grab clipboards and work somewhere in the room of their choosing.
- Anxiety: The writing process looks differently depending on each individual student. Because of this,
students may all be at different stages of the writing process, which is completely natural. While this lesson
mainly focuses on the prewriting stage, the teacher must emphasize that the students will not finish during
this class time. This student frequently becomes anxious when they must move on from a task they have
not completed, so it is important that the teacher makes this ideology common among all writing
experiences. Another way to aid in helping them not become anxious is to give them a two minute warning
before moving on to the sharing portion of the lesson.
- Differentiated Learning: One way in which this lesson supports differentiated learning is by explaining
various examples of voice before sending the students off to work on their own ; verbal examples, a
children’s picture book, the teachers writing, and even a group writing piece. This helps each learner
understand voice and others perspectives through various means. Another way in which learners are
supported is through their opportunity to choose their own character to write about upon being given a
familiar list. By having the ability to choose what to write about from a given prompt, the students will be
more interested in writing and will be more likely to include creative detail in their stories.

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IV. Lesson Presentation

Anticipatory Set ​(5 minutes)

- The teacher will break the students into groups of five all around the group circle. Each group will start
with one shoe box.
- “In life, it is easy to only think of our own perspective. We all have unique experiences and
opinions, so it is sometimes easy to forget to think about others. Today, we are going to be
learning how we can put ourselves in the shoes of others, especially as it pertains to our writing.
First, we are going to do an activity to help us begin to explore this concept. With your group,
discuss who you think would wear the shoes in the boxes that you each have. What are they like?
What job do you think they have? What is their personality? After you talk for a minute, I am
going to have you rotate your shoe box to the next group to the left of you. Can you each point to
your left for me? Great.”
- Have the students participate in the activity, encouraging them to discuss with one another what they think
the person is like who wears the shoes. Rotate after around one minute of discussion.
- “I’m interested to hear of the different qualities you thought of when it came to these people. Can
someone raise their hand and tell me something they thought of for the heels?” The teacher will
proceed to do this briefly for a few more of the shoes, allowing volunteers to share their ideas.
After focusing on one trait, ask the students if anyone thought of something different for the same
shoe.
- “If you would, put the lid back on the shoe boxes and place them behind you so they aren’t a
distraction. In this activity, we were pretending to put ourselves into the shoes of other people. Do
we really know what these people were like? No! That said, it is important that we think of the
perspective of others in life, not just our own. We can do this as authors as well! If we were to go
over to our library, we would find book after book written from the perspective of animals. Was
the animal the one to actually write the story? No! The author of the story had to put themself in
the perspective of the animal in order to make the story believable. This happens in history as
well! As you all have been working on your Wax Museum projects, you have been putting
yourself into the shoes of someone from the past.”

Purpose: “Today, we are going to explore this concept by taking a well-known fairytale and twisting the point of the
view in the story to help us better understand how to use the voices of others in our writing. Knowing how to include
expressive voice in our writing through the perspectives of characters other than ourselves is important to know as
we grow into more mature writers.

Mini-lesson ​(15 minutes)

- Introduce the concept of ‘voice’ to the students.
- “As I pointed out earlier, authors are always writing from the perspective of other people, just like
when they write from the point of view of animals or people who lived a long time ago. In order to
make the story believable, they need to be intentional to use the specific voice of the person or
thing they are writing as. The voice of the writer is the unique way in which they express
themselves. If I was writing from the perspective of a small child, would it make sense for me to
use sophisticated language, like an adult? The voice you choose to write in is heavily dependent
on the character you choose to write as, the perspective in which the story is told.”
- Example of trait through a read-aloud
- “To help you better understand this concept, I want to read to you a unique take on the well known
fairytale​ The Three Little Pigs​. We’ve been focusing on fairytales as a class, so this story should
be familiar to you! In the original story, whose perspective is the story told from? The pigs! What
are the pigs like in this story? The wolf? We are given the idea that the pigs are innocent and the
wolf is big and bad. While I read our story, see how your opinion of the animals shifts as you
encounter a new perspective. Pay particular attention to how the author describes the events using
the wolf's voice instead of the pigs.”

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 - The author will read ​The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!​ outloud to the class.
- “We talked earlier about how the original story portrayed each of the characters. In this story, we
read from the perspective of the Wolf. How did this change your opinion of the pigs and wolf?
What tone was the wolf's voice during this story; sad, angry, happy? Are there any other characters
in this story whose voice we could use to tell the story?”
- Provide information towards how to include voice in own writing (I do)
- “The author of our story took a unique perspective towards the story of the Three Little Pigs.
Through emotion and specific word choice, we were able to learn more about the Wolf and the
true story (or so he says). The author wrote the Wolf with a very specific voice that made him
believable - I felt as if I was truly listening to the character tell the story! As you guys have been
learning about fairytales, I thought it would be fun to rewrite my own take on Jack and the
Beanstalk from the perspective of Jack’s mother. In order to do this, I had to do some
brainstorming to effectively portray the Harp’s voice in my writing. Before I even began writing, I
used a graphic organizer to organize my thoughts.”
- The teacher will walk the students through their process before writing, highlighting the emotions,
thoughts, actions, and one extra event of the Harp. This example will already be filled out by the
teacher ahead of time and will correlate with the piece of writing they already have prepared.
- “After filling out my graphic organizer, I began to write a draft of the story, using my notes to help
me figure out what to include in my story. When I thought of the Harp’s perspective of the story, I
pictured her as worried, for she probably didn’t know why she was being stolen. When I began
writing, I tried to portray her voice as worried and a bit scared. Here is my first draft…”
- The teacher will read to the students their first draft of their story.
- “When the young boy came and snatched me away from the Giant, I was a mixture of
emotions. I was so confused on what was going on, and had so many questions! Where
was he taking me? Who was he? Oh, my, but what fear I felt! I started singing at the top
of my lungs, “Help me! Help me!” until the Giant came racing after me.”
- “After this, I would revise and then edit my story until I was happy with the end product. Today,
you all are going to focus on organizing your ideas on a graphic organizer and on creating a draft
of a story similar to what I did on my own.”
- Shared-Writing time (We do)
- “Who is another character that we could use to rewrite the story of Jack and The Beanstalk.”
(Allow students to list characters) “I think the Giant would have a very distinct voice that would
be fun to write. First, let’s start by organizing some thoughts. Let’s focus on the part of the story
when Jack comes and steals his harp and hen. What are some of the emotions that you think the
Giant felt during this time? How did he feel getting his belongings stolen? What do you think he
was thinking? In the story, what did he do when the harp and hen were stolen? What is one extra
thing we could include about the giant and the moment that we wouldn’t originally know from
reading the story? Be as creative as you want, but make sure it makes sense with the grand scheme
of Jack and the Beanstalk. After you think, discuss your ideas with a partner before we share as a
class.”
- As the teacher asked questions, they will fill out the graphic organizer using the document camera
for all students to see. Allow multiple volunteers during this time.
- “Now, let’s draft a few sentences using the information we created.”
- Using the information obtained from the different categories, the teacher will guide the students in
verbally retelling the story, writing down sentences after they all agree. As the teacher writes, they
will reread what has been written. After a few sentences, the teacher will stop, even if the story is
not complete.
- Check for understanding
- “So now that I’ve shown you an example of my own writing using the voice of the Harp and
we’ve written a few sentences together as a class using the Mother’s perspective, I am going to
have you do something similar on your own. Through our fairy tale unit, we read the story of
Little Red Riding Hood. Whose perspective is this story typically told in? Little Red Riding Hood!
Who are other characters within the story?”

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 - As the students list the characters, the teacher will make a list on the board for the students to later
reference.
- “You all are going to have the opportunity to put yourself into the shoes of one of these characters
and rewrite the story or an event in the story from their unique perspective. In order to write using
their distinct voice, I want you all to first fill out the graphic organizer with your ideas. Just like
with our Jack and the Beanstalk stories, I want your story to be in the first person. This means that
you are writing from the voice of the character of your choosing - fill our the organizer to try and
get in their head! Ask yourself to think about what they would be feeling during this time, what
they would be thinking, what actions they performed and why they really did this. Think back to
our examples from the story we read and all the writing samples we created if you get confused. If
you need a reminder as to how the story of how Little Red Riding Hood goes, there will be copies
at the front for you to use as a reference. As well as this, the story must continue to make sense
with the original story. In our rewrite of Jack and the Beanstalk from the Giant’s perspective,
would it have made sense if we write that the Giant cut down the beanstalk before Jack ever stole
his harp and hen? No! We are not rewriting the events of the story, just retelling it from a different
perspective and trying to work on our ability to write with distinct voice.”
- “As you work on your graphic organizers and begin to draft your story, I will be coming around to
conference with a few of you to discuss your ideas and help guide you through the writing process.
If I am not working alongside you, I expect you to be working hard on your own and using your
creativity to create an exciting retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Does this mean if I am not
working with you specifically you should be talking with one of your friends? No! If we are
talking, it takes away from the other students who are trying to work on their writing. If you all
can follow these directions, I will allow time at the end for a few of my friends to share what they
have with the class while sitting in the special chair reserved for my authors-in-training. Can
someone tell me what they are doing if I am conferencing with them? (Listening and working
alongside the teacher) What are the other students doing during this time? (Working hard on their
own). Give me a thumbs up if you feel like you can follow these directions.”
- The teacher will release students to go work at their desks where they will be passed a graphic
organizer.

Writing:​ (20 minutes)

- During this time, the students will work individually at their desks where they will put their ideas into the
graphic organizer. After this, they will begin to draft their story. The details of this time are explained
through the dialogue above.

Conferencing:
- While the students work on formulating their ideas through the organizer and begin drafting their writing,
the teacher will spend time in observation and conferencing with four to five specific individuals. Each
meeting will be around five minutes, give or take, depending on the needs of the student. After giving the
students all a few minutes to get settled in and begin working, the teacher will go to the desks of certain
individuals who are known to struggle formulating initial ideas as well as students who the teacher could
sense needed additional help to understand the concept of voice during the mini-lesson. During this time,
the teacher will go to the desks of the students and help give support as they begin the writing process
through questions and helpful feedback.
- Questions the teacher may ask:
- What character’s perspective are you writing from?
- If you were the character during this event, what would you be feeling, thinking, doing?
- How are you going to use the information you tracked in your graphic organizer to help support
create a distinct voice for the character?
- Is there a twist you could include to emphasize the voice of the character?
- After meeting with these individuals to help formulate ideas, the teacher should spend a few minutes going
around the room and observing students current progress. During this time, they should begin to assess who
they would like to possibly share at the end of class. After they observe, the teacher will conference with
the second round of students. These students are ones who are known for rushing through assignments to

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 simply get done and move on to the next thing. During these conferences, the teacher will focus more on
the writing of the student and how they included the concept of voice in their story. The teacher will spend
time helping these students to add more detailed expression to their writing, putting themselves into the
shoes of the character.
- Questions the teacher may ask:
- How could you add more detail to the story to convince the audience that you truly are the
character?
- What else do you think the character would have been thinking, feeling, and doing during this
time?
- Does your twist still fit in with the original story? Would this change the reader's perspective after
reading both the original and your own version?
- In both of these types of conferences, the teacher will begin by pointing out the strengths of the student,
whether this be their ideas, writing, or more. As they conference, the teacher will take a few anecdotal notes
of the student to reference back to later. These notes will help the teacher later on track the growth of the
student as a writer.

Sharing ​(10 minutes)

- After the teacher has conferenced with all the individuals they had planned to meet with, they will have the
students finish up their ideas/writing and move to the circle with their pieces. The teacher will have around
five students in mind to share their writing with the class, some students with drafts and other students
simply sharing their ideas. When the teacher has the specific students in mind, they will write their names
on the board. When it comes time for these students to read, they can have the choice to either go to the
author’s chair or pass by shaking their head.
- “You all did such a great job during the writing time, so I would love to take a moment for some of you to
share your ideas and pieces with the class. I have written the name of the people I would love to share on
the board. You all did a great job, but these will be our readers for today. I would love for you all to have a
chance to share your stories on another day that we do this! Keep working hard and you will get the
opportunity. Come up in the order that is on the board. When you do, sit up straight, read loud and clear,
and take pride in your work! You are the author in this moment, even if it is just a draft or idea! If your
name is on the board and you would rather not read today, just shake your head. For my friends in the
audience listening to the reader, it is your job to be respectful towards them. How do you think we could do
this and be the best audience possible? (Stay still, don’t talk, etc.) When each person is done, I would love
for us to all give them a short clap as a way to say good job! Thumbs up if you think you can follow these
directions.”
- After each student has read or shared their idea, the teacher will share something that they enjoyed about
the piece. After they have done so, the teacher will allow two volunteers to also share something that they
enjoyed from the reading or something they like about the idea. This will be good practice for students in
vocalizing kind words, tying in with the big idea.
- After all students who have been chosen have read, allow time for students to turn to their partners and
discuss their ideas and things they are excited about in their writing.

V. Check for understanding

Throughout the anticipatory set, the teacher will observe the students as they discuss with one another various
perspectives they believe the shoes could represent. After they move into the lesson, the teacher will begin
scaffolding support as they practice including the trait of voice in their writing. The teacher will begin by reading the
story of ​The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!​ to the class before moving onto their own example. After this, the class
will create their own piece of writing as a group with an emphasis on voice. As the learning is scaffolded, the
teacher will make observations on the students' understanding based on their responses to the discussions and the
ideas offered during the shared writing time. If the students appear to need additional support in understanding the
concept, the teacher will adjust the teaching to help the students better understand how to incorporate voice in their
writing. One way they can do this is by including additional examples, such as having the students consider the
perspectives of a farmer trying to catch a mouse in his garden and the mouse as it tries to escape the farmer. If they
were to write as these characters, how would they portray their unique voices? Later on, the teacher will conference
with individual students. During this time, the questions asked and feedback given will rely heavily on the writing of

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the student and where they are personally at. The teacher will have to adapt their guidance on a person to person
basis, all depending on what will best help the specific students.

VI. Review learning outcomes / Closure ​(2 minutes)

- The teacher will end the lesson by tying the topic of voice back to the unit idea of kindness.
- “You call did a great job today including different perspectives and voices in your writing. We
will continue to work on this skill while finishing our stories, as well as including it in other pieces
of writing in the future. I loved your creativity that you used and how expressive the voice of the
characters were in your stories. Just as it’s important to write using someone else's voice, it is
important that we remember to keep in mind the perspectives of others as we interact with people
all around us. As we saw in our stories and practiced today in our writing, there are two sides to
every story! In order to keep growing in kindness, we must remember to try and consider the
“shoes” of others before drawing conclusions.”

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

- Anticipatory Set:
- During this activity, students are challenged to think of other perspectives beyond their own by
imaging who the owner of each shoe would be. By doing this, the teacher will be able to observe
the students ability to think outside of themselves and assess their understanding of other
point-of-views ​(Formative).​
- Mini-Lesson:
- During the mini-lesson, the teacher will scaffold learning so that the students can experience
various examples of voice before applying the trait to their own writing. As the teacher discusses
each example and has the students discuss, they will observe the students understanding of the
concept ​(Formative).
- Writing:
- While students write, the teacher will walk around and observe their progress through reading
their graphic organizers and story drafts ​(Formative).​
- Conferencing:
- While the teacher conferences with each individual student, they will take anecdotal records of the
students progress ​(Formative)​.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objectives? If not, why?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses as I taught?
3. Was the literature and examples I included appropriate in modeling the desired trait?
4. Were the students able to stay focused during the 20 minute writing period? Was this an adequate amount
of time for a writers workshop?
5. Were the expectations for writing successfully communicated and understood by all?
6. Was my feedback appropriate in supporting students during conferencing, broad enough to allow their own
growth yet specific enough to communicate what they can include as an author?
7. Were all students actively participating in moments of discussion?
8. Does the given prompt allow for a balance of creativity and structure as the students write?
9. Were the graphic organizers useful in aiding students during the writing process?

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