TE 405 Craft-Based Writing Lesson Plan

Name: Madeline Andrews Date: April

2018
Mentor Name: Shawn Millhouse Grade Level:
1st

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

Title/Topic: Informing our Writers in Workshop

Broad Writing Concept Focus: Writers workshop on informational texts
Common Core State Standard(s) (CCSS): Select one writing standard only. CCSS.ELA-
LITERACY.RI.1.7
Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas.
Genre Focus for Teaching: Informational Texts
Mentor Text and Author: See What A Seal Can Do by Chris Buttersworth

Teaching Point: Develop ONE TEACHING POINT for your lesson. This may be written as one
sentence: “Good writers add captions to their pictures to give the readers more information. In
your writing, you can add information captions by your pictures like Chris Buttersworth uses in
See What a Seal Can Do to help your readers understand what your pictures are about.” For
example: Good writers use a text structure for their writing that helps their reader understand
and focus on the most important ideas. In your writing, you can use the ‘True or False?’ text
structure like Gilda and Melvin Berger use in their books to help your readers understand and
pay attention to surprising information about a topic.

Content Rationale: Why is it important that students learn this content (the craft you chose)?
There are a few reasons why this an important craft move for students to learn. The first
is that it teaches students how to add details to their thoughts about an informational topic. It
helps students to progress their skills from talking about what they know thought illustrations, to
showing know through illustrations and captions. It is a bridge to building strong writing skills by
adding more information and details through words.
Another reason that students should learn this content is to be able to express their ideas
about information that they know and want to share with their peers. Students are knowledgeable
about a variety of topics, and being able to demonstrate that knowledge through writing is an
important skill. Giving students the opportunity to express their knowledge about a topic that is
important not only helps to build confidence in their writing skills, but it also helps to build
confidence in their communication skills with their peers.

Instructional Strategy Rationale: Why did you choose these pedagogical strategies (e.g., using
a mentor text)?
There are a few reasons that I chose the pedagogical strategies that I did. One of the
strategies that I chose to use for this lesson was finding a mentor text that demonstrated my craft
move. The book See What a Seal Can Do by Chris Buttersworth provides great examples to
students on how authors create captions to supplement their illustrations to give the reader as
much information as possible about seals. Having a mentor text is a great way to demonstrate
your craft move to your students, so they have a way to stay engaged with your teaching, and a
concrete example of what the craft move looks like in writing.
Another pedagogical move that I am using in my lesson is creating an anchor chart that
demonstrates my craft move. On the anchor chart is information and visuals that provide
examples to students about what a craft move should look like in their writing. An anchor tool is
a great tool to use for students, because it provides a visual that they can refer back to in future
lessons, or if they need a reminder of what a certain craft move should look like.

Differentiation: Above you have thoughts generally about instruction for this group of students,
but each student has individual needs. Briefly describe the students in your group and their
learning and/or participation challenges. Think about academic, social, or linguistic support they
might need during the lesson. (Note that students may not need all three types of support). See
example/model and aim for this level of specificity.
Because I am doing this lesson with a whole class, there are a wide variety of needs that I
need to keep in mind when I am thinking about planning this lesson. My class has a range of
personalities, ranging everywhere to those who are very shy and do not enjoy talking, students
who are engaged and want to be participating, to those who will even become angry and
frustrated if things do not go their way. Socially, the students will need support to make sure that
they are receiving the emotional support that they need in order to feel successful around their
peers. There are a few students in the class who, if they do not feel like they understand the
lesson, will become aggressive or violent with those around them. It is important to make sure
that they receive additional support or one on one time, not only to make sure that they feel
competent, but to also make sure that the other students around them feel safe in their classroom.
Like social needs, my students also have a wide variety of academic needs. There are
about 6 students in the class who receive pull out reading and math support, and often are
apprehensive when it comes to writing. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a few students
who are very proficient academically, and are reading/writing more at a second grade level, rather
than a first grade one. Because of the wide variety of needs, I will need to create challenges for
my higher level students, such as adding more than one caption, or making two sentence captions
so they are not bored by the task at hand. For my students who need more academic support, I
could provide them with a more structured template, or suggest that they work on drawing a very
detailed picture, instead of a caption.
Finally, there is one emergent bilingual student in my class. This student who speaks both
Spanish and English, speaks English very proficiently. In the entire time that I have been in the
classroom with him, he has not needed additional support linguistically to help him complete his
work.

Setting Norms: How will you set expectations with your students for positive, respectful, and
productive interactions (including expectations for behavior and verbal interactions)?
Unfortunately, because my class has a wide range of personalities that often clash with
one another, being respectful and kind to others is still a skill that my students are working on
mastering. To set the stage for this lesson, I would explicitly tell them that it is alright to have
different ideas or opinions from your fellow classmates, but it is not okay to make fun of, or treat
others without respect because you disagree with them. I will encourage students to share their
ideas, and encourage their peers to show support for their enthusiasm as well. Since, as I
mentioned before, respect is a skill that my students struggle with, I hope that very explicitly
stating my expectations at the beginning of the lesson will help students have a better
understanding of the norms that I am trying to set for the lesson.

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence (Assessment)

Formative Assessment: How will you determine what progress students have made in utilizing
your teaching point in their own writing and/or meeting the lesson standard? Please be specific.
Include a checklist or simple rubric specifying the success criteria you have for the student work
generated in this lesson.
 There are a few ways that I plan to assess my student’s work from this lesson to see if
they are grasping the concept that I am trying to teach through my craft move. Below is a rubric
that demonstrates the criteria that I am looking for in my students work that shows me their
knowledge of the presented craft move.
 Students have created an illustration that demonstrates the information that they are
trying to portray to their reader. This illustration is…
o Colored
o Relates to the information that they have written about in their caption
o Can be explained in detail by the student
 Students will create a caption to accompany their drawing. This caption should…
o Relate to the illustration that they have created
 Include keywords relating to the topic, detail, and descriptive of what is
happening in the picture
o Be at least one sentence long
o Easily explained by the author

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences (Procedure)

Numb
Instructional Sequence/Procedures: What activities will take place during this er of
lesson? (Note: Use bullet points to outline your ideas.) Minut
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Opening/Activator: How will you set the purpose for the lesson?

 “Good writers add captions to their pictures to give the readers more
information. In your writing, you can add information captions by your
pictures like Chris Buttersworth uses in See What a Seal Can Do to help your
readers understand what your pictures are about.”
 Talk with students about how we are going to work on becoming better writers
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when we are talking about topics that give information to a reader.
o Explain to them that readers want lots of detail when they read a text
about information, so today, in our writers workshop, we are going to
learn how good writers can provide lots of information to their readers
though adding captions to their illustrations
MINI LESSON 10-15
minut
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Mentor Text:
 Pages:
o Page 7: On this page is a picture of a seal! When we read the two
captions on the page, it tells us more information about this seal. The
author made captions to tell us about what kind of seal this is, and that
they are mammals! Let’s look for more captions the author makes to go
with the illustrations to tell us as much information as possible.
o Page 9: On this page, the author uses another caption underneath the
picture. What is in the picture? Seals on the beach! The caption tells us
that seals spend time together on the beach, but swim alone in the
water. The author used his writing to tell us as much information as
possible about what was happening in the picture.
o Page 25: On these pages, the author uses two captions to tell us about
what is happening in the picture. In the picture, there is a seal lounging
on the beach. Both of these captions tell us about what seals do when
they lay on the beach. Like we saw before, the author can add captions
by illustrations to help us learn more about a topic. We now know more
about why seals lie on the beach because of the captions the author
wrote
 What language will you use to help students notice the craft technique the
author is using in their text?
 There are a few language techniques that I will use to make sure that
students are understanding the craft move that the author is using in the
text. The first is that I will use the actual terms of the craft move that is
being taught to students. This means using words like captions or
illustrations instead of “small words” or “drawings”, so students
understand the vocabulary of the lesson. These words will also be
followed with visual examples of these terms in the mentor text. When
we talk about captions, I will show them a caption in the book, and
explain what it is.

Modeling:
 How will you demonstrate your own use of this craft technique in writing?
This is where you do your own writing in front of your students.
 I will demonstrate this craft move in writing to my students when we complete
our anchor chart. I will have a illustration and caption already made on the
anchor chart, about a topic that I feel I know a lot about. I will explain to
students how I chose to write about a topic that I know a lot about, and drew a
illustration that matched my caption. Then, I will draw another picture about
my topic, telling my students that this is related to what I already drew, but
teaches the reader something different. Then I will explain my illustration to
them, and explain my thinking out loud as to why I would write a certain
caption for this picture.

Guided Practice: How will students help you with writing you model? Include
anticipated student interactions/questions.
 When I am working on my second example for my anchor chart, I will ask
students for suggestions of what I could draw that would still relate to my first
picture, but tell a reader new information about that topic. I will ask students
for suggestions, and then ask them why the thought of the answer that they did.
We will discuss with the class, and then create an illustration that we feel will
 fit our topic. After we have created our drawing, I will ask students for
suggestion about what we should write for our caption. I will ask students for
suggestions based on what we drew for our illustrations. After students have
offered ideas, we will decide on one that we can write for our caption.

Independent Practice: Share how you will have your students “make a plan” for their
writing time in workshop and specify what you will do while they are writing.
 After we have finished our mini lesson, students will return to their
desks to have some time to brainstorm about a topic that they feel they
are very knowledgeable about. They can make a list of topics, or draw
pictures about these topics, then pick one to work with.
 Students can use the back of their writing worksheet to create a plan for
writing, and once they feel they are ready to get started on their
worksheet, they can begin writing and drawing about their topic.
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 While students are working independently, I will be walking around
minut
from table to table to see if students are using the craft move that I have
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taught them, and to what extent they are using it. I will spend extra time
walking around and meeting with students who will need extra support
with the lesson, to make sure they are not becoming frustrated, and feel
successful.
 I will ask students what they chose to write about, why they chose this
topic, and what information they are going to share with their readers.
 I will also point out craft moves that they are using, and provide
suggestions to the students based on their writing.

Share Time: What will students do to share their writing with one another and
give/receive feedback?
 Students will have a chance to share their writing (if they want to) in
small groups at their table. If students are at larger tables, then they can
5-10
share their writing with the student next to them, so that way everyone
minut
has the chance to share if they want to. After students have shared in
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small groups or partners, they will have the chance to share with the
whole class. I will pick out a few students and they can share what they
wrote out loud with the whole class.

Closure/Summary: How will you wrap up the lesson?

 I will wrap up the lesson by having students put their papers on the
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teacher table, review how authors can use captions to add more detail to
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their writing, and thank them for doing great work as authors during
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writing workshop

Anticipated Total Time Required (enter in column to the right) 30-40

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 Other Important Information:
Materials:
Teacher: Mentor text, anchor chart, marker
Students: paper, pencil, crayons, colored pencils

Modifications and Accommodations:

Students who need extra support:
 When rotating around the room during writing workshop time, make extra stops at the
desks of students who may need more academic/social support. If they are feeling
frustrated by the writing portion of the lesson (creating captions), suggest that they work
on adding as much detail as they can to their drawing, and if they have time, work as best
as they can on writing. If they are still needing extra help, I could have them tell me what
they want to write, and then I can help them write it for their caption.
Students who need more challenges:
 For students who are more proficient in writing and may need an extra challenge with the
lesson, I would suggest that they make multiple pictures and multiple captions about the
same topic to demonstrate as much as they know about the topic.

Extension Ideas:
 Create multiple drawings and captions for the same topic
 Take time to make a background for their drawing to make it look more detailed