6 +1 Trait Writing Instruction Template

Name: Allison Oeding School: Aspen Community School Grade Level(s): 3rd/4th

Writing Trait (Mark the primary Trait this lesson is targeting with a P. If other Traits are also addressed in this lesson, mark
these with an S for secondary.)

__ Ideas

_S_Organization

__Voice _S_Word Choice _P_Sentence Fluency _S_Conventions

Name of Writing Lesson/Activity/Strategy: Improving Sentence Fluency Materials & Resources: Sasha first draft and revised draft, Sentence Fluency rubric, Analyz e a Paragraph worksheet, colored pencils, run-on paragraph worksheet, sentence stretcher worksheet with Who, What, When, Where, How helper, Grandma!!! and My Grandma, students writing notebooks, pencils. Brief Summary of Pre-Assessment Results for the Primary Trait: The pre-assessment results indicated a need for further instruction and support for the Sentence Fluency trait. The whole class scored an average of 2.9 out of 5 for Sentence Fluency. Separately, the fourth grade class averaged a score of 3 out of 5 and the third grade class averaged a score of 2.8 out of 5.

Rationale for Selection: Explain why you selected this particular lesson/activity/strategy and where you got the idea for this
lesson/activity/strategy: I chose to spend more time working with the Sentence Fluency trait because the pre-assessment results indicated a deficiency in understanding and applying this trait in writing for the class. Ideas for this lesson were developed from the text of 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham and from the WritingFix website.

Implementation: Describe how you implemented your lesson (If you used a direct instruction lesson plan formatlabel the
steps in your description: anticipatory set, input, modeling/demonstration, guided practice, closure, and independent practice.)

Anticipatory Set: Read the paper titled Sasha (first draft). Have students discuss with their learning partner what they think about this paper. Write some of their thoughts on the board. Input: Hand out Sentence Fluency rubric. Read through with the students the different levels of proficiency in the Sentence Fluency trait. Then, have the students discuss important details to remember for good sentence fluency with learning partner. Next, have students write what they think is the one most important detail to remember to have good sentence fluency. Guided Practice: (I DO) Show the Analyze a Paragraph sheet. Demonstrate how to analyze the first sentence of the first paragraph in Sasha (first draft). Record the first word of the sentence in the box, count and record the number of words in the sentence, and record the verb from the sentence. (WE DO) Pass out an Analyze a Paragraph sheet to the students (one for each set of learning partners). Guide the students in completing the same for the next two sentences in the paragraph. Answer any questions through this process.

(YOU DO) Have students complete the analysis with their learning partner. After they finish with the sentence analysis, instruct them in boxing sentences using two different colored pencils, switching color every other sentence. Discussion: Ask students what they discovered in the paragraph analysis and boxing sentences. Ask how this writer could improve this piece. Share the revised draft of Sasha. Additional Activities: Students will choose from various activity options to further study the Sentence Fluency trait. The Choice Board includes: 1. Run-on paragraph activity. (This activity has students read a paragraph that goes on and on with the conjunction and and determine how to separate the paragraph into separate sentences.) 2. Sentence stretcher activity. (This activity has the students add more details to a simple sentence.) 3. Contrast the two Grandma writings. (Students will write a short paragraph contrasting the differences in the two similar pieces of writing.) 4. Analyze a paragraph in your writers notebook. (Students will choose a piece of writing in their notebook to analyze with the same sheet from earlier.) 5. Create a checklist for Sentence Fluency. (This activity gives the students an opportunity to create a checklist of important details to remember when checking their own writing for Sentence Fluency. Closure: Have students record what choice(s) they chose to work on during the Additional Activity portion of class and explain why they chose that choice.

Self Reflection for Continuous Improvement: Explain what went well in the implementation of your lesson, whether or
not you feel the activity/strategy is beneficial for your students, what some challenges were, whether or not you plan on using this activity/strategy in the future, and what changes you would make to improve the lesson for the next time.

Overall, the lesson was organized well and provided multiple opportunities to discover more about good sentence fluency in a paper. I felt the students all gained information to apply to the own writing. Also, there was an appropriate amount of challenge and choice in the lesson to provide motivation. There were also a few areas that could be changed or improved for the future use of this lesson. For example, the students could have used a mini-lesson on be verbs, clearer Choice Board guidelines, and more explanation time for the additional activities. I learned through this lesson that the students need more instruction on verbs. Specifically, they need a better understanding of verbs that are not action verbs. They struggled with recording the correct verb for the sentence in the Analyze a Paragraph activity because most of the sentences had be verbs. The Choice Board offered various activities to deepen their understanding of the Sentence Fluency rubric; however, the expectations needed to be clearer to the students for this work time. This would have minimized the management needs during this time. Also, students could have been more prepared to work independently with a little more explanation of each activity.

Please elaborate and explain how you accounted for learner differences in this lesson. How did you incorporate
what you learned about differentiating your instruction from Unit 3 into this lesson? Did you differentiate for some students based on: ~Readiness ~Interest ~Learning style

Or did you vary the tasks for individual students: ~Content ~Process ~Product

A section of this lesson gave students the opportunity to choose which tasks to complete in order to further their study of the Sentence Fluency trait. In this way, this work time was mindful of student interest and learning style because these tasks varied in material and substance. Also, the Guided Practice section of this lesson gave students the opportunity to work with another student to complete the activity and learn from each other through this process. In the end, the product varied depending on the levels of each students readiness. The results from the product of each student help provide an understanding of each students needs in future lessons.

Active Learning Self-Assessment:

What was at least one of your strengths? A few of my strengths that I discovered in the Active Learning Self-Assessment include: application of relevance in lessons, creative/critically thinking, think-pair-share/cooperative learning opportunities, and offering activities with choices to excite/interest students. What is one of the areas you could work on regarding Active Learning based on your self-assessment? Giving students the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned is an area that I would like to continue researching and implementing in future lessons. What are some ideas you have to work on this? 1. Start with a wrap-up activity in certain lessons that gives students the opportunity to tell the class or a partner the most important piece of new information they learned. 2. Implement a reflection question more often in the Exit Ticket. 3. Have students write up to three new things they learned and why they are important to know.

Elaborate and explain how you accounted for student motivation and engagement. How did you incorporate
what you learned about student motivation and engagement from Unit 5 into this lesson? Did you set up the lesson with particular consideration for diversity, English Language learners, student interests/popular culture, using meaningful active learning and/or Blooms Taxonomy? I chose to set up this lesson with particular consideration for student interests, using meaningful active learning, and the Blooms taxonomy. Students were motivated to complete an activity of their choice in the later section of the lesson. They were also motivated to work together on the first activity. The think-pair-share and white board strategies provided simple engagement throughout the lesson for the students to interact with the learning process. A couple of whole group discussions throughout the lesson provided an opportunity to ask higher order questions to the class. When comparing the two similar papers, students were asked to think critically about the outcome of the papers for the writers.

Evidence of Implementation: Scan student work as proof of implementation and/or include photos of instruction