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Lesson Plan Design

Subject: Language Arts Grade: 1st Lesson Topic: ELA-Narrative Writing_____

Candidate’s Name: Candee Edgar ____ ID #: 02389110________

Site Support Provider: Emmy Meinke NU Site Support Provider: Vickie Burns-Sikora

1. Introduction: (Identify Grade Level K12 Academic Content Standard(s), rationale,

focus learner, create bridges from past learning, behavior expectations)
.
Standards: Rationale: Students need to be
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY. W.1.3 Write narratives given clear and attainable goals.
in which they recount two or more appropriately Students need to meet the Common
sequenced events include some details regarding Core State Standards for ELA for
what happened, use temporal words to signal grade one which requires writing
events, and provide some sense of closure. narratives using the standard English
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L1.1 Demonstrate grammar and usage and conventions
command of the conventions of standard English of capitalization, punctuation, and
grammar and usage when writing or speaking. spelling when writing. Students learn
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY. L.1.2 Demonstrate best to write when immersed and
command of the conventions of standard English, engaged in writing lessons daily.
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when
writing.
Purpose: Students will be following the stages
of the Writer’s Workshop writing process to
write a narrative story..
Bridges from past learning: In Kindergarten
students have learned how to include characters
in their stories, a detailed setting, and an ending.
Students need to know how to include words
which describe in detail their characters and the
setting of their narrative stories.
Behavior Expectations: Students know
classroom expectations and guidelines. Students
know the procedures for direct instruction, when
working on the carpet, in student activities, and
independently.

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2. Learner Outcome(s)/Objective(s): (What will students learn from this lesson? How
will you measure mastery of the outcome?)

Day One: Introduction to Unit and Writer’s
Workshop-Students will know why and what
Writer’s Workshop is all about.
Day Two: Students will understand that writers
use events from their lives, things they do or
things that have happened to them to write Small
Moment stories.
Day Three: Students will understand that writers
plan what they want to write about before they
start writing.
Day Four: Students will understand that writers
revise finished work: When you think you’re
done, you’ve just begun.”
Day Five: Students will learn to use the word
wall and spell words in their writing by recording
all of the sounds they hear.
Day Six: Students will learn to zoom in/focus on
their small moment.
Day Seven: Students will talk to other writers
about their writing.
Day Eight: Students will practice rereading their
writing.
Day Nine: Students will bring their stories to life
by adding more details through actions and
speech/quotes.
Day Ten: Students will share their narrative
stories with the whole class.
Rationale: These learner objectives
will be stated orally by the teacher
and written on sentence strips and put
into the pocket chart showing the
writing learning objective for each
day’s writing lesson. Students need
to hear, visually see, and clearly
know what is expected for their
learning prior to the beginning of
each day’s lesson. They can refer
back to the chart to be reminded of
what they are learning about in
writing.
Conducting the mini-conferences
throughout all of the Writer’s
Workshop lessons while other
students are writing will allow me to
observe, monitor progress, and to
check for students’ understanding of
the writing objective for each daily
Writer’s Workshop lesson.

3. Pre-assessment Activity: (Determine students’ abilities to achieve the Learner

Outcome and prescribe instruction accordingly. Consider: linguistic background,
academic language abilities, content knowledge, cultural and health considerations,
interests and aspirations, physical development, social development, emotional
development. )

What do you know about this class? This class
consists of 24 first graders who are enrolled in
Citizens of the World Charter Silver Lake School
located in Los Angeles, CA.
Considerations:
Linguistic background – 20% of the students
enrolled in this class are English language
learners. In addition some students speak
Rationale: Determining the
students’ abilities prior to planning
the lesson takes into consideration all
of the adaptations that are necessary
to meet the needs of each individual
student. All students are aware of the
classroom rules and expectations.
They know how to follow directions

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English primarily at home; some students speak after examples and modeling have
only their primary language at home. been completed. The students who
Academic language abilities – According to the need assistance based on their
end of the year assessments from last school individual needs and their IEPs and
year, 50% of the students are at grade level, 40% behavior plans will receive
are below grade level, and 10% are above grade accommodations from either the
level. In the 40% below grade level, there are 5 teacher’s aide or the teacher during
special needs students. The l0% above grade each daily lesson.
level represents two gifted students.
Content knowledge - Students have been
assessed with the Fountas & Pinnell, an
assessment that identifies their instructional and
independent reading levels along with benchmark
assessments in reading and math. The most
current content knowledge on students’ writing
skills is indicated by their writing samples
throughout the school year. 60% of the students
are writing on a first grade level. 40% of the
students are writing on a Kindergarten level.
Culture and health considerations – Currently
there are not any students with any physical
disabilities. Attendance is good for the majority
of the students. There are a few students that
have allergies and one that suffers from asthma,
but this will not cause any issues for these
writing lessons. This class consists of a diverse
group of students: Asian, Hispanic, White/non-
Hispanic, and one Romanian/White.
Interests and aspirations – These first graders
have developmentally appropriate interests.
Some have interests in becoming artists, writers,
astronauts, dancers, actresses, and professional
sports players. The majority of the students are
very motivated to learn and actively engaged in
student activities.
Physical development – These first graders are
very active. Many of them are involved in after
school activities such as dance lessons, music
lessons, swimming lessons, baseball, and soccer.
None of these students have any physical
disabilities.
Social development – The majority of these first
graders are socially developed and respectful to
one another. Most of these students find it easy
to get along with their peers. There are two
autistic children in this class, one who is autistic

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and emotionally disturbed and one who is autistic
and gifted, both students have great difficulty
with social skills and interactions.
Emotional development – Most of students are
in touch with their feelings and are
compassionate towards one another. One student
deals with transgender identity. About 20% of
these first graders struggle between independence
and insecurity. One of the positive aspects of
this class is that they seem to thrive on the
routine and structure of the daily class schedule.
Pre-Assessment: Prior to the introduction to Students will begin with this Writer’s
Writer’s Workshop Unit students will be asked to Workshop Unit by writing a narrative
show all they know about narrative writing by story realistic fiction story to
writing about a small moment, one time when demonstrate their ability to write and
you did something or one time when something use the conventions of standard
happened to you. Some students are still English. This will serve as a pre-
struggling with writing and will need to draw assessment to determine which
pictures with short sentences, while others are writing skills they students have and
writing on a beginning first grade level using the will serve as a pre-requisite to this
conventions of standard English. unit on writing narrative stories.

4. Differentiation, Adaptation & Accommodation Strategies: (Based on the pre-

assessments, modify Learning Activities based on learner characteristics to meet the
needs of ELL & special needs students, highly achieving students and low achieving
students)

Modifications for all ELL: Making content Rationale: By engaging ELL

more comprehensible by using hand gestures,
pointing to pictures in the lesson, frontloading
new vocabulary, and reinforcing vocabulary
development through using sensory and visual
graphics are all adaptations which will be
provided. During mini-conferences these
students will receive more explicit instruction
using more visuals and Spanish-English
cognates to help them better identify and
understand the meaning of new vocabulary.
students by using comprehensible
input, more visuals, and providing the
ELL students with additional time,
support, and reinforcement, these
adaptations will help to accommodate
their development of writing narrative
stories.

Modifications for High Achieving Students:
These students will be paired with struggling
students during partner activities. By having the
high achieving students to be peer tutors and
help the low achieving students understand the
Having the high achieving students
assist the low achieving students has a
dual outcome. The low achieving
students interact with a student who
can write effectively and use their

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academic language, this helps the low achieving
students to hear another student speaking and
modeling the new words and the correct spelling
of words; it also helps to develop the self-esteem
of the high achieving student.
Modifications for Low Achieving Students:
These students will be provided all of the
assistance that they need and additional time if
necessary. They will be partnered with high
achieving students for the partner activities.
These students will also receive additional
support from the teacher’s aide and the teacher.
Modifications for Special Needs Students:
There are four students who receive speech
therapy, two autistic students, one student who
has a specific learning disability in reading, and
on student who is emotionally disturbed.
These students will receive all accommodations
and modifications as written in their IEPs.
Reinforcement by the teacher and teacher’s aide
will be ongoing.
5. Resources: (Identify materials needed for this lesson accounting for varying degrees
of skill level)
Day One: Writer’s Workshop folders with green
and red dots inside, chart paper
Day Two: Book: Night of the Veggie Monster,
chart paper, markers, writing booklets, pencils
Day Three: chart paper, additional writing
booklets, pencils
Day Four: Shared class story from day three’s
lesson, How to Write a Story Chart, revision
strips-2,3,4, lined strips, writing booklets,
pencils
Day Five: Whiteboards, markers, pre-drawn
story with only first sentence, chart paper,
writing booklets, pencils
Day Six: Watermelon with seed visual, blank
booklet, pencils, mentor text
Day Seven: Each child’s name on strip of paper,
blank booklet, Storytelling with a Partner Chart,
How to Write a Story Chart, booklets, pencils
correct spelling which is excellent
modeling and reinforcement; the high
achieving student is developing his
self-esteem by helping share his
knowledge with others.
The low achieving students will
perform better with additional support
and additional time. All students will
receive ongoing feedback and positive
reinforcement.
All accommodations and
modifications are ongoing and
provided throughout the year to meet
the individual needs of the students
with IEPs.
Rationale: All of these resources are
age-appropriate. The resources such
as the various anchor charts follow
the Writer’s Workshop sequence as
outlined in the curriculum. The use of
the book, Night of the Veggie
Monster, helps the students to
understand how authors use important
details in narrative stories to make
stories come alive. Using the visuals
and charts helps the students to
visualize the concepts that are being
presented and demonstrate the craft of
writing for students. Using the
individual whiteboards and markers
allows the students to be actively
engage with a hands-on activity while
they practice how to make changes to
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Day Eight: Pointer, finished student pieces,
markers
Day Nine: Your own story, Ways to Bring
Stories to Life Chart, booklets, pencils
Day Ten: Students narrative stories, document
camera
make their own stories. Students will
use the writing booklets with their
pencils to write their narrative stories
come by using details, sound words,
and dialogue.

6. Learning Activities: Explicit Teacher Instruction – (Explain, Model, Demonstrate,

Check for Understanding)
Day One - Introduce Writer’s Workshop: Rationale: Teacher will explain,
What is writer’s workshop? Write all answers on model, and demonstrate using focused
chart paper that you can hang in the classroom. and direct teaching strategies
Why do we do writer’s workshop? Write all including showing the procedures, the
answers on chart paper that you can hang in the writer’s process, and the qualities of
classroom. good writing, spelling, and editing
Talk about how everyone in class is a writer and skills. Having students begin to use
how you will talk about ways we can help words that are troublesome for them
everyone to be a successful writer. to spell by using the strategies in the
Talk about what you want Writer’s Workshop to Ways to Spell Words chart will help
look and sound like: the students develop useful
What should the noise volume be? connections between speaking,
What do they do if they have a question? reading, and writing
What if they get stuck? Is it okay to ask a peer
for help?
Show students both of the WW paper.
What do you notice? Go over expectations.
Which one should they use?
What do they do if their done?
How do we treat paper?
Where is the paper?
Do we write first or draw first?
Show students the WW folder.
What do you know notice? Go over
expectations.
How do we treat our folder?
Where does the folder go?
What does the red and green side mean?
Tell students: “Now let’s start writing. You will
write about a small moment-one time when you
did something or one time when something
happened to you. Remember to include: a
beginning for your story, tell what happened, in
order, use details to help readers picture your

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story, and make an ending for your story.”
To check for understanding, observe and allow
students to respond and begin their writing of a
narrative story. Give positive reinforcement.
**All other lessons for this ten day unit are
included following Day One lesson’s Closure
beginning on page 9 and are written in the
format of the Writer’s Workshop curriculum
which our school follows.
7. Learning Activities: Guided Practice/ Collaborative Practice (Check for
understanding and provide feedback and re-teaching)
Day One: Students will observe as teacher
demonstrates and records their responses on the
chart paper to the different questions about
writing and the writing expectations using
Writer’s Workshop.
To check for students understanding, teacher will
ask questions and observe and listen to students’
responses. Positive reinforcement will be given.
8. Independent Practice: (Provide practice that supports the learning outcome. Note:
Independent activities are assigned assuming that students understand the concept well
enough to work on their own.)
Day One: Students will work independently to
write about a small moment using their writing
booklets and pencils about one time when they
did something or one time when something
happened to them.
Checking for understanding by
observing students demonstrating
their narrative writing skills allows
the teacher to monitor students’ on-
going progress. It also allows for
correcting any misconceptions.
Rationale: Having students work
together with their partner along with
teacher guidance will give the
students time to practice writing
skills being presented in the mini-
lessons. The whiteboards and dry
erase markers will allow for a hands-
on activity for students. Students will
also interact and talk with one
another about their writing.
Teacher will observe the on-going
progress of students as they work
with their partners to complete each
daily learning activity.
Rationale: Students are working
independently to write their stories.
Teacher will be conducting the mini-
conferences during this time. This is
the time to differentiate instruction
by working one-on-one with
students. It is also a time for the
teacher to gather informal
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9. Assessment and Evaluation: (Describe how you will assess and/or evaluate the
students’ learning. Describe differentiating assessment strategies you will use for ELL,
special needs students, highly achieving students and low achieving students.)
Assessment: As students are independently
writing, the teacher will hold mini-conferences
with individual writers. During the mini-
conferences, I will be observing and checking on
student’s writing progress by inquiring about
what they are working on, having them read to
me some of what they have written, and asking
them what they’re planning to do next. (In a
typical week, I can get around to each individual
student during this time while other students are
independently working on their writing.) At the
end of this unit, students will complete their
writing of a small moment narrative story which
they will share with the whole class. This
presentation will serve as an assessment of their
writing. Students writing responses will be
placed in their individual writing portfolio that
will document their progress of their writing
achievement throughout the school year.
Differentiating Assessment Strategies for:
ELL –Allowing these students to draw pictures
to illustrate their writing if students are
struggling with their language acquisition and
with writing words. I will allow the use of
sentence stems and word banks for their writing.
These ELL students will be provided additional
time for the completion of their stories.
Special Needs – Follow all accommodations
and/or modifications as listed in the special
needs students’ IEPs and behavior plans to
assessments of the writers’ progress.
During this time the teacher can work
with a small group of students to
address common areas of need.
Teacher is moving around and
observing students to check for their
understanding as they write their own
narrative story.
Rationale: These mini-conferences
are a built in part of Writer’s
Workshop which allows me to assess
and evaluate each individual student’s
on-going writing progress, to assist
with their writing, and give additional
help and feedback if needed. The
student’s finished small moment
narrative story will serve as an
indication of the student’s progress of
achieving the learning objectives of
this unit. The student’s individual
writing portfolio will serve as
documentation of the student’s on-
going writing progress throughout the
year. During each nine week grading
period a sample of student’s writing
will be added to this portfolio; this
will be used during parent
conferences to show student’s growth
and writing achievement.
Students need to be provided
differentiation in their assessment to
accommodate their individual needs
in order to support their development
of writing narrative stories. 60% of
these students are writing on a first
grade level, but the other 40% will
receive adaptations to accommodate
their language proficiency levels or to
accommodate their learning needs as
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support students’ learning achievement. specified in their IEPs.
High achieving students – Allow students to
write more stories to share with the whole class.
Positive praise and reinforcement will continue
to build this type of student’s self-esteem and
reassurance.
Low achieving students – During the mini-
conferences, I will scaffold writing instruction to
meet the low achieving students at their level of
functioning in writing. For example for
additional support, I might give the low
achieving student a sentence stem and a word
bank to use when writing.

10. Closure: (Describe how students will reflect on what they have learned.)

Closure: At the end of each daily lesson,
students will transition back to the carpet area
where they will be asked clarifying questions
about the day’s learning objective or writing
strategies which were presented to check for
students understanding and clear up any
misconceptions. Having students to share their
stories with the whole class and allowing time for
students to ask questions to the author provides
them valuable time for reflection. At the end of
this unit, we will celebrate writers’ narrative
stories by sharing them with the whole class and
putting them in the library for other students to
enjoy.
Rationale: Closure is important for
students to review and reflect on their
learning at the end of lesson. As
students share their writing this
allows students to learn to give and
receive feedback on one another’s
writing. This sharing of writing
allows the writer to gain valuable
information when other classmates
ask questions about the writing they
have just heard. When students share
their writing, this also gives students
practice on how to take and how to
use good constructive criticism.

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Lessons for Narrative Writing Unit Continued:

Day Two: Lives are Full of Stories to Tell

Tell the students: “Every day for Writer’s Workshop we will first gather on the carpet for a
mini-lesson and then write books like the ones that are found in our library. We will write all
kinds of books.”
“Even though this is just the beginning of Writer’s Workshop, I know my students are ready to
write their first book of the school year!! What do you all think?”
“Listen as I read to you, Night of the Veggie Monster.”
Read aloud: Night of the Veggie Monster.
After the read aloud, ask the students if they noticed any details in the story. “Writers who write
about small moments include LOTS of details in their stories. Writers first think of a small
moment that happened, then write what happened first, next, and finally, telling it with details.”
Re-read a part of the book that included details. Ask the students to pair-share with their partner
the details that they just heard.
“Just like the small moment in this book, you all will be able to write about small moments from
your lives.”
“Today I want to teach you that when authors write a small moment story, they first think of an
idea, then they plan, and then they write the story across pages of a book.” (Write this on chart
paper.)
Before creating this chart, walk over to the other side of the room, making it a big deal that you
forgot the markers to make the chart. As you are walking over, “accidently” drop all the markers
on the floor. (This will create a small incident that can become the source of what will be a
whole-class shared story.)
Create the following chart: How to Write a Story
• Think of an idea
A thing you do
A thing that happened to you
• Plan (leave a space here for adding “touch and tell, then sketch across pages”
• Write!! (leave a space for what you will add in another lesson.)
• Revise. Who? Where? When? What? How?
“Let’s all think of a small moment that has happened to us. Don’t think big like a vacation or a
birthday party, rather think small like the time you cut your own hair, fell out of bed, or just a
minute ago when I dropped all the markers on the floor.”
Student Activities: Have students actively engage in a pair-share about their small moment story
with their partner. Model for the class what they will be doing at their tables for independent
practice: Think out loud about a small moment. (Example, getting the mail when I was six and
getting attacked by fire ants)-can use a personal small moment.) Instruct students to get started
independently on their small moments. Allow students time to complete their independent
writing of their small moment.
Closure: Redirect students back to the carpet and select a few students to share their stories with
the whole class. Ask clarifying questions about what first graders need to know about how to
write a story referencing the anchor chart.

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Day Three: Planning for Writing-Writers Touch and Tell, Sketch, Then Write
Tell students, “Last night when I went home, I had the privilege of reading all of your small
moment stories that you started yesterday. And I have to say I was IMPRESSED!! Everyone did
an amazing job; everyone deserves a pat on their back.”
“It seems that most of you are really good at coming up with ideas for true stories, and that is
great. You already know the first step to writing a story.” (Re-introduce chart from previous
lesson.) “Sometimes, though, it seemed that writing your story across all the pages was a little
hard.”
Talking in a rushed tone while holding up a blank booklet, blurt this out. “When I was 6 my
chore was to get the newspaper in the morning before school. One day when I was running back
to the house after getting the newspaper, I dropped all of it on the ground. When I got back
inside my house, I realized that my entire arm was covered in fire ants.”
“Page 2: nothing. Page 3: nothing.”
“And some of you wrote your book like this: Page 1: The story about one small moment, like
when my arm was covered with fire ants. Page 2: The story of a whole different small moment
like, like when I cut my own hair.”
“I am not surprised it was hard to stretch your story across your pages because I did not teach
you the trick. Are you ready to learn the trick?”
“Today I want to teach you that after young writers come up with an idea for their stories, they
plan by doing this: touch and tell, sketch, then write. Instead of getting a booklet and then
starting to draw page 1, they touch and tell, sketch, then write.” Use the chart: How to Write a
Story: 1. Think of an idea
A thing that happened to you
A thing you do
2. Plan
Touch and tell, then sketch across the pages
3. Write!
“Many writers get so excited to write that they start writing without thinking about how the story
will go, and that’s when they end up writing the whole story on one page or forgetting important
parts to their story.”
“Maybe you can help me get ready to write, following our planning step-touch and tell, sketch,
then write.”
“Let’s begin to make a booklet of the small moment when I dropped all of the markers on the
floor yesterday. Well, I better draw myself walking over to get the markers. Oh, I have to
remember to get ready to write before I draw my picture!” Refer back to the chart from
yesterday’s lesson. “Hmm touch and tell the story. To do this, I need to remember where I was
and what was happening.”
Touch the first page: “One day, I forgot to bring the markers to the carpet. Before making a
chart, I walked across the room, got the marker container, and started back to my chair.”
Student activities: Recruit students to touch and tell the upcoming page in the shared story.
While I was walking back to my chair, I dropped the whole basked of markers. They fell
everywhere. After that we put them back in the basket, and I went back to my chair. What’s
next? (Gesture to the chart.) That’s right, sketch and then write. Make a sketch on each page.
Have students chant: “Writers touch and tell, sketch, then write.”

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For their independent practice, channel writers to think of a story they will write and to prepare
to write that story by planning across the pages. Have students to go back to their tables and start
to write. Check for students’ understanding and monitor their writing progress.
Closure: Have students read their story to their table partner. Instruct students that when they get
to a part without words, use the sketch to help them remember what they are going to write
during the next writer’s workshop.

Day Four: Using Pictures to Add On

In this lesson, students will learn that writers use pictures to help them add words to their stories.
Have the small moment story that you did as a whole class (story about spilling the markers) on
chart paper and read out loud for the students to realize that the story is too short.
“So, I realized I better add a whole lot more to our story. And the same might be true for some of
your stories. So right now, get a story out of your finished work pocket and talk to the person
beside you about whether your story might be awfully short as well.”
“I am sure some of you are thinking, but I am already done with my story. Students, when we are
done, we have just begun. Writers finish a piece and then go back and revise by adding more.
They often look at the picture and think who, where, when, what, and how.”
Ask students to reread and revise with you the shared incident story. Guide them in recalling
what writers do when they want to remember what happened: Writers look back at the pictures.
Writers reread. Writers ask: Who? Where? When? What? How? Refer back to the anchor chart:
How to Write A Story.
Student Activities: Have students to reread and revise the next page of the shared story. Check
for their understanding by having them show a thumbs up if you are going to start a new story
today and will plan by touching and telling, sketching, then writing. Thumbs up if you are going
to go back to a finished story and add more by looking at pictures and asking: Who? Where?
When? Where? What? How? For independent practice have students to use pictures to add on
and revise their small moment stories.
Closure: Bring students back to the carpet, and spotlight a conference with a student using
revision strips to add on to their writing and set the other writers up to revise their stories in
similar ways. Demonstrate using a revision strip and taping it onto the end for the student to add
on final details. Remind students of all the tools they have to revise any story they are writing.
Comment and give positive reinforcement: WOW! I can’t wait to see how you continue to revise
your stories.”

Day Five: Stretching Words to Spell Them: Hearing and Recording all Sounds
In this lesson, I will teach students that writers spell by stretching out each word, listening for all
the sounds and recording what they hear. I will explain to students that writers say words they
don’t know slowly and write all the sounds so that people can read their writing.
“I’ve been watching with excitement how you guys reread your writing. Do you notice how
sometimes it is hard to read your own writing? When words are hard to read, the writer usually
forgot the first and last sounds, but sometimes the writer finds that the middle part of the word is
missing. The thing is if we want to reread our own stories and let others read our stories too, we
need to record ALL the sounds in those tricky words.”
“Today, I want to teach you that when you want to write a word you don’t know, you’ve got to
work harder to hear and write all the sounds. Say the word while moving your finger slowly
across the page, hear the first sound and write it, reread sliding your finger under the letters. Hear

12
the next sound, write it, and reread, sliding your finger. Do this until there are no more sounds to
figure out.” Refer students to the word wall, and tell them that the word cards that we place on
the word wall for our first grade academic vocabulary will always be there as a reference and a
reinforcement to help them with their spelling of words and in their writing.
Student Activities: Have students independently write their stories spelling on their own using
the procedure just taught. I will support ELL writers and their letter/sound correspondence by
directing them to the alphabet chart to give them support.
Closure: Have students return to the carpet and ask students to turn and talk about strategies they
used to write tricky words. Listen in and reveal a few more strategies as you show student the
anchor chart: The Ways to Spell Words Chart:
Say it, Slide it, Hear it, Write it
Use snap words
Listen for little words inside.

Day Six: Zooming In Focusing on Small Moments

In this lesson, I will teach students that writers write with focus. “Writers, when you think about
true stories in your life, things you did, or things that happened to you, sometimes, the ideas are
giant! Like your life, or you school, or you family (gesture with your hands how huge these
topics are). “We call these big watermelon topics. Use the visual of the watermelon to help the
students understand this concept. These are big topics and hard to write because they weight so
much. Does your story feel like you’re carrying a watermelon? Does it feel like you have to write
and write and write and that you have to tell everything?”
“Today, I am going to teach you that instead of writing about a big watermelon topic, writers
write about a teeny tiny (seed) story, little stories inside the one big topic. I’m pretty sure that
when George McClements sat down to write Night of the Veggie Monster, he had a few big
watermelon topics. He probably thought, “I could write about my vacation (gesture as you refer
to this big topic) or eating his food with his family (gesture another big topic). Instead, George
wrote about one time when his son, who can’t stand vegetables and he put his parents through his
veggie monster performance.”
Use a shared class experience to demonstrate picking just one small story from a big watermelon
topic. Demonstrate touching, telling, planning, and sketching.
Student Activities: Tell students to think of another seed story that comes from the previously
used watermelon topic and that they will go off to their table and write, remembering to ask, “Is
my topic a watermelon topic? Or a tiny seed? Find the seeds! Off you go! During independent
writing time, I will check for students’ understanding, conduct mini-conference, and guide
students to focus on one event at a time. Give positive reinforcement and feedback to students.
Closure: Have students return to the carpet and read aloud excerpts from a few stories that are
filled with details, sharing with children the parts you love and letting them have a chance to
reflect and to find parts they love.

Day Seven: Partnerships and Storytelling

In this lesson, I will teach students that writers talk to other writers about their writing,
storytelling their ideas out loud.
“Sometimes when writers want to get their thinking going, they talk with other writers. Writers
get together with their writing partners and plan what they are going to write.”

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“Today, you will see your name and your partner’s name on a piece of paper. You’ll see the
paper says that one of you will be partner 1 and the other will be partner 2. You will be working
with your writing partner during Writer’s Workshop student activities.”
“One way writing partners help each other is by helping each other plan how their stories will go.
They tell each other their stories and then try to tell the stories again and even with more details.”
I will use a blank booklet, demo with a student what being a good writing partner looks like:
1) Touch and tell your story to your partner.
2) answer your partner’s questions (When a reader asks questions we understand more!)
3) Touch and tell the now-expanded story.
Example: One day I made a birthday cake for a neighbor. I put the icing on. (Turn the page) I
opened a can of sprinkles. (Turn the page) The sprinkles went all over the floor.
Turn to your writing partner and ask them if they have any questions. (Guide students into
realizing that the answers to these questions help us to add more to our writing!) Extract any key
details from the answers to your partner’s questions and retell the story again. Debrief with the
storytelling anchor chart: Storytelling with a Partner
1. First partner tells the story.
2. Next partner pictures it and ask questions.
3. First partner tells the story again, saying more!
4. Partners switch!
Student Activities: Have the students actively engage in their partner activity. During this time,
I will support writers who struggle with telling a cohesive story by having them touch and tell
the beginning, middle, and end. I will support writers who struggle with key details by having
them answer: Who? What? When? Where? How? During this time I will monitor students’
writing progress and guide students to notice that they can ask their partners to look at their
pictures and ask questions that will get them to say more.
Closure: Have student return to the carpet area, and say, “Writing partners help make our pieces
better, even when we work alone. When you’re writing alone ask yourself: What would my
partner like to know about this small moment? Have students reflect on some questions that they
would ask their partners.

Day Eight: Reading Our Writing Like We Read Our Books

“Writers, I looked up during Writer’s Workshop the other day and had to ask myself: Is this
Readers? Or Writers? I saw you doing all the things you do during Reader’s Workshop. Like
getting your mouth ready, saying sounds, sliding your finger, saying sounds again, looking at
parts you know within a word, chunking the word, and asking yourself, does it make sense?
Invite a student to read his/her story aloud to the class. After, have the class generate a list of
strategies they saw this student use.
• Looked at the paper and read words
• Touched the words one by one
• Reread a sentence that did not make sense
“Today, I want to teach you that writers go from being the writer to being the reader. When
writers reread their books, they read just as if they were reading a published book. Sometimes the
writer hears a mess up and says, ‘Oops’ and fixes that part.”
“Today students you will demo writers becoming readers. Today, writers will each of you
demonstrate what it looks and sounds like when a writer becomes a reader, reading your own
booklet like it is a published book. Remind students…Grown up writers reread their writing the

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same way they read books. Grown up writers read along until they come to mistakes, like words
they left out, and then they say, ‘Oops’ and fix it.” A writer points under his/her words/reading
the picture and the words. Sometimes a writer checks that their spelling is the best it can be.
Student Activities: Students will be given the opportunity to be readers of their own writing.
Have students take their finished pieces and fix up anything they notice needs fixing up with
their marker. Remind students of several things they do as writers before they go off and
continue on their story or work on an old story: When you’re Done, You’ve Just Begun. You
looking at the picture. Asking Who? What? When? Where? How? Shift into being a reader to
fix up any mess ups.
Closure: Today tell students that they will lay out their pieces for a gallery walk; review gallery
walk management procedures before the walk. Then have students return to the carpet area for a
time to reflect on today’s lesson. Have students clarify how writers can be like readers.

Day Nine: Unfreezing Our Characters and Our Writing

Tell students of a small moment story you wrote and then explain that after reading it you
realized the characters were “frozen.” Point out how it sounds a bit flat and does not sound like
the stories we’ve been reading by famous authors. “I heard the fire bell. I lined up for class. We
walked down the hall.” On the chart with the story, point out drawings and pictures that lack
detail using visual to represent this concept.
“I wrote what happened but I did not show what I did or what I said. Today, I want to teach you
that just like published writers, you can make your stories come to life. You can unfreeze the
people in your stories by making them move and talk.”
Demonstrate how you go about bringing the characters to life by recalling what happened and by
writing in more details.
“Let’s see, I say the bell rang. Hmm…maybe I should include the actual sound! Also, I did not
just hear the bell, I was startled by it. The bell was loud and made me jump. I have to put that in!
Model and demonstrate how to change the ‘frozen’ story. Also, I was not totally silent
throughout this moment. No, I called out to my students! I should write what I said! Clang!
Clang! Clang! Went the fire bell. I jumped. My pencil slipped out of my hand and rolled under
the desk. Everyone, quickly line up at the door! I called out. Suggest to students they can use
speech bubbles to bring their characters to life. What better way to make your characters come to
life than to make them talk, even before you write. Think what your character said, and touch
your picture to make that person talk. Teach students the purpose of quotation marks. Guide
them to think about the reader.
“When writers write dialogue (words people say) in their stories, there is a special mark they use
to show who is talking. You write the first quotation mark before the first word the person says,
and the ending mark after the laws word the person says. These marks tell the reader, “Change
your voice! Someone is talking!”
Student Activities: Have student continue with the next part of your story working with their
partners to bring the story to life. Tell them what happened next, then next, and, showing what
someone did or said, elicit some ideas for what to add that will bring the story to life. Introduce
the anchor chart, Ways to Bring Stories to Life:
1. Unfreeze the people
2. Make them move
3. Make them talk

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After students work with their partner, then send students to work independently at their tables to
write about a time when they had a strong feeling, a time they really remember well, so that they
can practice what we have just done and make their small moment writing come to life.
Closure: Have students return to the carpet area and review and summarize the lesson by asking
clarifying questions about how to make characters come alive in stories and how to unfreeze our
writing.

Day Ten: Sharing Stories with Whole Class

Today students will select one of the small moment stories that they have written during this unit
of writing narrative stories and share with the whole class using the document camera and their
story booklet. Students have been taught the classroom procedure of how to respect others when
they are presenting or reading a story, how to give their full attention to the presenter, and the
proper way to ask any questions after the student finishes sharing their story. During Writer’s
Workshop today students will place their writing booklet with their narrative story under the
document camera to share with the whole class. After students share their stories, these booklets
will be placed in the class library to share for a few days, then students will have one of their
booklets placed in their writing portfolio as evidence of their writing progress.

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