Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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
• Chart Paper
• Markers
• Glue
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• Pencils
• ELMO
• SMART Board
out of 4 is achieved.
• Students will engage in a “Quiet 10”, during which time, students are to silently write for
• 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!
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Students are instructed to use their five senses to help them use descriptive details to
Step 4: Assessment
• 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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