Lesson Plan: Writing Lesson 6 - Seed Stories

Overview: Children will learn to write personal narrative stories based

around one small moment. Introduce this idea, known as a “seed story”,
meaning a story about one small moment of a bigger story/event,
represented by a single seed rather than a whole “watermelon story”. (How to
narrow a topic for personal narratives.)

Objectives/Standards:
 The students will select narrow topics for personal narratives.
 Learn about choosing/writing about one small moment out of a larger
one.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.3
Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short
sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings,
use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
*2nd grade standard modified for 1st.

Materials needed:

Teacher:
 Access to a computer (projectable screen so students can watch what
you’re doing/showing)
 Char paper (anchor chart)
 Markers
 Mentor texts (Student made and/or Roller Coaster)

Students:
 Daily writing materials (writing folders, pencils)

Note/Things to do before teaching the routine:

 Gather students on carpet in front of white board/projector, first
having them face your teacher (later will turn towards board).
 Have copies of new booklets for students who are ready to start new
books/topics.
 Writing journals for students with stories to continue working on
should be readily available.

Procedure:
1. Gather students on carpet in front of white board, facing you/teacher.
2. Remind students how we sit, listen, and raise our hands during group
time.
3. “Writers, you have been writing a lot with your personal narratives
over the last week! Some of you are already close to being done with
your first story, and may be ready to start a new one soon. If you not,
don’t worry, that is absolutely ok and this lesson can help you
finish/prepare you for when you are!”
4. “Today, I want to teach you a strategy to help you choose interesting
topics for the personal narrative that you write. Remember when we
made our anchor chart about personal narratives we wrote about how
writers focus on one small moment? Well this has another name! This
is called a seed story. This means taking one small moment in time and
focusing on that in your writing, rather than something bigger – which
is known as a watermelon story. For example…(talk about David’s
example of going to Cedar point [watermelon], but how he is choosing
to focus on one ride instead [seed story]).
5. “Writers, this is important because writers of personal narratives try to
look closely and focus on stories too, picking out one special and
important moment to make it more interesting and detailed! Let me
show you what I mean. (Share student-written story booklet that does
a good job of showing this “one small-moment”.- Draw picture of
watermelon with seeds representing each event that make up this
watermelon – using student example).
6. Now, lets work on some examples together! (This is when you will
make the T-chart/anchor chart. On one side, write Watermelon Stories,
on the other side, write Seed Stories.
a. Examples: Use children’s writing that you already talked about,
give an example on each side of what their whole watermelon
story could be but what their seed story is.
b. “Let’s pretend that I want to write about a time when I went to
the zoo. I could write about how we drove there, and all the
animals we saw, and then how we went home. But that’s really a
too big story, because think about ALL of the animals that I saw
at the zoo! That is way too much to write about. (Write onto
anchor chart.) “Instead of writing about my WHOLE zoo trip, I
could write about how I got to feed a giraffe, etc… That would be
a more interesting topic wouldn’t it?)
7. “Writers, when you choose topics for your personal narratives from
now on, I want you to ask yourself, ‘Is that a ‘Watermelon Story’ or a
‘Seed Story’? Choosing seed stories will help make your stories more
 interesting, and they are easier for you to write about because you only
have to think about one tiny moment in your life! “
8. As conferring with students today/in the future, refer back to anchor
chart you created to help them choose “seed stories”. During
independent writing time today, if you notice that a few children have
done a good job choosing focused topics, have them share their work
with the other students during sharing time. Compliment these
children on choosing ‘seed story’ topics rather than ‘watermelon story’
topics.

Adaptations for particular students:

-If students are misbehaving, have them pull out a chair and sit separate from
the group so they are not distracting themselves/others.
-Reminding students to show you “how we sit at group” and raising their
hand to share instead of shouting out. Remind them that if they have a
connection to something you are sharing, to show the personal connection
symbol (thumb and pinky out) to show instead of tell/yelling out “me too”.

Assessment/Observations:
-Participation
-Writing