Victoria Moon

Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template
Writing

LESSON RATIONALE
 Being able to write a letter to someone getting them to change their mind on something is
important because there will be times in your life where there will be something in place
like a rule, and this rule might not be helpful for everyone and you decide that you want
to change it. It is important for you to know how to write a persuasive essay so that you
can convince the people in charge to change the rule or whatever it might be, to help
everyone.

READINESS
I.Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s): Students will be able to write a letter to their teacher trying to get her to change
something to help all students in their class.
B. Objective(s):
a. By the end of the writing time, students will be able to develop a letter with 3 reasons
why their teacher should change something.
b. During the conferencing time, students will be able to asses their ideas to see how
strong they are.
c. After the lesson is complete, students will be able to tell the purpose of writing a
persuasive letter.
C. Standard(s): 1.W.3.1 Write logically connected sentences to make a proposal to a
particular audience (e.g., a parent, classmate, etc.) and give reasons why the proposal
should be considered.
II. Management Plan
a. Time: 1 Hour & 30 Minutes
i. Anticipatory Set & Purpose Statement: 8 Minutes
ii. Mini-Lesson: 22 Minutes
iii. Writing & Conferencing: 30 Minutes
iv. Sharing: 20 Minutes
v. Closure: 10 Minutes
b. Space
i. Carpet
1. Anticipatory Set
2. Purpose Statement
3. Mini-Lesson
4. Conferencing
ii. Desks
1. Writing
2. Sharing
3. Closure
c. Materials
 i. Book: “Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus”
ii. Paper
iii. Pencil
iv. Eraser
d. Expectations and procedures
i. During the anticipatory set, students should think about how Moana was
trying to get Maui to restore the heart to Te Fiti
ii. During the mini-lesson, students should listen to the book and think about
the ways the pigeon tries to get the reader to let him drive the bus
iii. During the writing part, students should be writing their letter to their
teacher
iv. During conferencing, students should be working with their teacher to
adjust their ideas to make them stronger
v. During sharing, students should be listening as each student who wants to
share, shares their ideas
vi. During each part of the lesson, students should raise their hand if they have
a question or if they need to leave their seat
III. Anticipatory Set: 6 Minutes
a. “Have you ever wanted something so badly in your life before but you had to convince
someone to let you do it? If so, you aren’t alone. There are many people who have
wanted something but needed to convince someone to help them do it. Moana has
experienced this before. Moana became the chief of her village and shortly after things
started to happen. One thing that happened was that the village fisherman began to find
themselves catching less and less fish. To try and solve this issue, Moana suggested that
they fish beyond the reef to try to find more fish. When Moana suggested this, her dad
became upset because it is dangerous to go beyond the reef because someone stole the
heart to another island. Later, Moana’s grandmother told Moana to find Maui and have
him sail the ocean to restore the heart of Te Fiti so that peace in the land would be
restored. Today, we are going to watch a clip from Moana where she finds Maui and has
to try to convince him to sail the ocean with her to restore the heart. As you watch it, I
want you to think about how Moana never stopped trying to get Maui to board her boat to
restore the heart. We will talk about it after.” *Shows video to the students.* “Did you
notice how Moana continued to try to convince Maui to sail with her to restore the heart?
That is what I want you to do today when you write.”
IV.Purpose Statement: 2 Minutes
a. “Today you are going to be learning about persuasion. Persuasion is just a fancy
word that means to get someone to change or do something different than they
were planning to do. Persuasion is important because there will be times in your
life where there will be something in place like a rule, and this rule might not be
helpful for everyone and you decide that you want to change it. It is important for
you to know how to write a persuasive essay so that you can convince the people
in charge to change the rule or whatever it might be, to help everyone.”
PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION
V. Adaptations
a. If there is a student who struggles with spelling, I will help them spell the words
the best that I can
 b. If there are students who struggle to come up with ideas, I will let them
collaborate with their table groups

VI.Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

a. Mini-Lesson: 22 Minutes
i. “Today we are going to begin our lesson on persuasion by reading *hold
up book* “Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus” by Mo Willems. I want
you to focus very carefully on how much the pigeon wants to drive the bus
and pay attention to all the ways that the pigeon tries to get the driver to let
him drive the bus. Before I read, I have something to tell you. I am going
to need your help reading this book. I need you to help me tell the pigeon
‘No’ when he asks to drive the bus. Can you do that for me? Give me a
thumbs up if you can.” *See the students response and read the book.*
“What did you guys think of the book? Did you like it? By raising your
hand, I want three people to tell me your favorite part about the book.”
*Call on students who are sitting quietly. Allow time for students to
answer.* “Awesome! Now I want someone to raise their hand and tell me
why you think the driver didn’t want the pigeon to drive the bus.” *Call on
someone who is sitting quietly. Allow time for the student to answer.*
“That’s right! The driver wouldn’t let the pigeon drive the bus because
pigeons don’t know how to drive. Did you notice how the pigeon didn’t
give up on trying to get the driver to let him drive the bus? When you
write, I want you to have the same determination that the pigeon had when
he kept on asking to drive the bus. When people write persuasive essays,
they write them to inform someone of something and they are trying to get
that thing changed. For example, you might write a persuasive essay to
your parents about why you want to stay up a little later at night or older
children might write a persuasive essay to their principal stating why they
shouldn’t have homework. The goal in a persuasive essay is to try to get
someone to change something. In Moana’s case, she was trying to get
Maui to return the heart to Te Fiti that he stole, so peace would come to
Moana’s village and life could go back to how it was before Maui stole the
heart. Moana was trying to get something changed that would help
everyone in her village and that is how I want your writing to be. When
you write today, I want you to write with the goal of changing something
to help you and others. One thing that is super important in a persuasive
essay is your ideas. They need to be strong and they need to reflect why
you want something changed. Let’s go back into the book and look at
some of the ideas that the pigeon had. His first idea was that he would just
steer and not actually drive the bus. He wanted the reader to believe that
was what was actually going to happen even if the pigeon had other
thoughts. Later in the book, the pigeon tries to get the reader to let him
drive around the block since it is just a short amount of time. Then even
later in the book, the pigeons lists a whole page of ideas as to why he
should be able to drive the bus. If you want to get someone to change their
mind about something, you need a lot of strong ideas that will make them
 do that. The pigeon had a lot of ideas and he really wanted to drive the bus.
Before I tell you more about what I want you to write about, we are going
to do a little exercise to get your brain moving. I am going to write a
persuasive essay and I want you to help give me ideas. If I were going to
write a persuasive letter to Santa Claus about why he should bring my
favorite toy at Christmas, what should I write about? Raise your hand and I
will call on you.” *Allow time for students to think. Call on students who
are sitting quietly.* “Insert student name here, why should Santa bring my
favorite toy at Christmas?” *Allow time for them to respond.* “I have
been good. That is a good reason. What is another one, insert name here?”
*Allow for response.* “I ate all of my vegetables at supper. That is another
good reason. What is one more, insert name here?” *Allow time for them
to respond.* “I put away all of my toys after I finished playing. That is also
a good reason. So here is what my letter to Santa would say, ‘Dear Santa,
For Christmas this year you should bring my favorite toy. I was good all
year. I ate all of my vegetables at supper. I also put away all of my toys
when I was finished playing with them. From Victoria.’ Now it is your
turn to write. When you go back to your seat, I would like you to write a
letter to your teacher about something that you think she should change
that would help everyone in your classroom. I want you to have three
reasons why your teacher should change what you want her to change.
When you are finished writing, raise your hand and I will call you over to
the carpet and we can talk about your writing together. If you need help,
raise your hand and I will come help you the best that I can. I will dismiss
you back to your seats by your table groups. Cambri, your group can go
back to your seats. Trinidee, your group can go back to your seats. Korbin,
your group can go back to your seats. Zayvon, your group can go back to
your seats. Ryan your group can go back to your seats.”
b. Writing & Conferencing: 30 Minutes
i. “Now that you are back in your seats, I am going to pass around a piece of
paper to each of you and this is where you are going to write your letter to
your teacher about why she should change something in her classroom to
help all students. Grab a pencil and begin writing. You have 30 minutes to
do this.” *Walk around and help any students that might need it. As
students finish call them to the carpet and begin conferencing with them.*
ii. Conferencing *Call students back one at a time as they finish writing.
Have a piece of paper and put their names on it to take notes as they read
it.* “So how do you feel about what you wrote in your letter to your
teacher?” *Allow time for the student to respond.* “Can you read it for
me?” *Listen as students reads their letter. Take notes of what I hear as
good and jot down things that might be a little confusing or might need
adjusted a bit.* “So I noticed that you had some really good points.” *List
them for the student.* “I also noticed some things that might need some
adjustments.” *List them for the student.* “You said *insert phrase here*.
Do you think you maybe could say it a bit different to show why you think
she should change this?” *Allow time for student to think and respond.* “I
 think you have some good ideas but you just need to fix this one a bit. Why
don’t you go back to your table and fix it according to what we talked
about. Overall you did a great job!” *Once all the conferences are finished,
move on to the sharing part.*
c. Sharing: 20 Minutes
i. “Does anyone want to share what they wrote?” *Allow time for students to
share. Allow for students to give feedback if they would like. Once the 20
minutes are up, move onto the closure.*

VII. Check for understanding.

a. I will know that the students have learned about what persuasive means when they
read their letters to me during the conferencing time
b. I will know that the students know how to judge their own work during the
conferencing time
VIII. Review learning outcomes/Closure: 10 Minutes
a. “Today we learned about writing persuasive letters using the idea writing trait. We
learned that when someone writes a persuasive letter they are trying to get
someone to do something different than what they were planning to do or to
change their mind about something already in place. We looked at different works
of people trying to convince someone to do something like Moana trying to get
Maui to sail across the ocean to restore the heart of Te Fiti and the pigeon trying to
get the reader to let him drive the bus. You also wrote a letter to your teacher
trying to get her to change something to help all the students in your class. By
raising your hand, I would like at least 3 people to tell me their favorite part about
today’s lesson and something they learned about writing.” *Call on students who
are sitting quietly. Allow them time to answer.* “Those all sound great! Does
anyone have any questions before we finish the lesson?” *Answer any questions
that students might have.*

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

 Formative Assessment: The letter they wrote to their teacher

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
7. Did the video and the book help the students understand more about persuasion?
8. Did the conferences help students learn to assess their work?
9. Was each student able to write a letter to their teacher with 3 strong ideas on why she
should change something?