Fourth grade

Narrative writing unit

Day 5: Lead: Hooking your readers
Lesson Overview: In this lesson, students will learn how to write a strong opening lead to
their personal narrative which will “hook” their readers and get them interested in their

story from the beginning. Teacher will read an excerpt from a mentor text which has a

great example of the author using descriptive details in the opening (specifically describing

the setting in great detail) in order to hook her readers. Students will discuss possible ideas

for their lead in a whole group setting at the carpet before being given time to

independently craft their opening paragraph and reflect on their work thus far with a
partner utilizing their Self-Evaluation rubric.

Time: 60 minutes

Resources or Materials Needed

• Mentor Text: Excerpt from The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson

• Chart Paper

• Markers

• Student Writing Notebooks

• Glue

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• Pencils

• ELMO

• SMART Board

Performance Objective: Given a prompt, students will demonstrate an understanding of

appropriate introductory paragraph writing, and thus, will orient the reader by establishing

a setting/situation and/or introducing characters/problems in their introductions. Student

work will be formatively evaluated using a criterion-based rubric, in which a minimum of 3

out of 4 is achieved.

Step 1: Pre-Instructional Activities

• Students will engage in a “Quiet 10”, during which time, students are to silently write for

ten minutes without stopping.

• Students are asked to think about a time that they saw fireworks (real or imagined).

Students are instructed to write about their five senses during the firework show: what
did they see, feel, smell, taste, and hear? Students are encouraged to be as detailed as

possible!

Step 2: Content Presentation

• Students will join teacher at carpet area

• Teacher will start the mini-lesson by reminding students that yesterday, we planned out

the beginning, middle, and end of our stories by making our detailed timelines. Today, we

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are going to begin drafting our pre-write. Before we can jump right into our story,

however, we need to make sure that we really HOOK our reader – we need an

introduction that will really catch our reader’s attention and make them want to finish

reading our story!

• Teacher will tell students that one great way to write a strong opening to a story, is to
describe the setting in detail, and will read the first few pages from the narrative mentor

text The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson aloud to students to share an example of this.

• After reading the story’s introduction, the teacher will explain to the students that during

the opening, the author was telling her readers what it was like the morning the family

moved.

• Teacher will ask for examples of how the author described the setting.

• Teacher will allow students think time to decide whether it would make sense for them

to start their story by describing the setting in detail? If so, could they utilize their five
senses to help them describe the setting? If not, what other ways could they hook their

readers?

• Students are given time to share the idea for their hook with their shoulder partner.

• Teacher listens to discussions, asking 3-4 students to share their ideas, jotting some

notes down onto the chart paper.

Step 3: Learner Participation

• Students will return to their seats and take out their writing notebooks

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• Students are asked to turn to the next clean page in their notebooks and are given time

to write their hooks.

• Students are instructed to use their five senses to help them use descriptive details to

hook their readers in the opening paragraph.

Step 4: Assessment

• During learner participation, teacher will be walking around, formatively assessing

students on their “hook” using a criterion-based rubric.

Step 5: Follow-Through Activities

• At the close of the lesson, students will be asked to refer to their self-evaluation rubric
(provided to them during Lesson 2) to see whether their story is heading in the right

direction. Students are asked to turn to their shoulder partner and share their thoughts –

do they have a strong opening to their story? Is their lead strong enough to earn a 4?

• Shoulder partners may switch notebooks and read one another’s work, providing

thoughtful feedback.

Printable RESOURCES
• Criterion-Based Rubric (Page 5)

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