Name: Alexandra Pogue

Lesson taught on: 3/19/18

Mentor Text Writing Lesson Plan

PART ONE: THE LESSON

A. TITLE OF LESSON (Writing Focus): Descriptive Writing

B. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

3.8 The student will write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and
expository. f) Elaborate writing by including supporting details.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND -
The students will understand that descriptive writing is an important aspect of providing details to
writing in order to improve the reader’s mental picture.

KNOW -
The students will know that more information can be added to their writing to support reader
understanding.

DO -
The students will be add a new descriptive word to each of their sentences. The students will
incorporate their descriptions into their planning stage of writing about Spring Break.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
I will be assessing students through their writing and conferencing. I will collect their notebooks by the end
of the day in order to assess. Successful writing samples have an extra descriptive word in every sentence
they write. If they do not have the usual topic sentence and three additional sentences, but have the added
descriptions, it is still successful for the lesson at hand. Less successful responses will have attempts at
adding description. Unsuccessful responses show no effort.
While conferencing, I will look for students to demonstrate understanding of how to incorporate
descriptions. Responses will vary depending on timing. Early conferences are successful if the student
demonstrates understanding of the goal at hand. Mid-way conferences are successful if students can point
to what they have done, what they plan to do, and what it does for the writing. Late conferences should look
like mid-way conferences, with some students finished.

Writing: Successful (2), Less Successful (1), Unsuccessful (0)

Conference: Successful (1), Unsuccessful (0)
Name: Alexandra Pogue
Lesson taught on: 3/19/18

Student Conference Writing Sample

1 1 2
2 N/A 2
3 1 2
4 1 2
5 1 2
6 N/A Modified 2
7 1 2
8 N/A Modified 2
9 1 2
10 N/A 2
11 N/A N/A
12 N/A 1
13 1 1
14 1 2
15 N/A N/A
16 1 2
17 1 2
18 1 2
19 N/A Modified 2
20 0 0

This was completed by student 4. They elaborated upon each of their sentences. They provided a solid
description on what the unicorn looks like, what and who would be at the beach, and what they would need
to play softball.
Name: Alexandra Pogue
Lesson taught on: 3/19/18

PART TWO: LESSON PLAN PROCEDURE

A. CONTEXT OF LESSON

I am going to teach on descriptive details. This should truly be a review lesson, as it is a second grade
standard. I have seen a few writing samples from my students, and they are all very to the point with little
detail. I am hoping that this lesson will lead to more descriptive writing in the future. For this lesson in
particular, I want to see evidence that they know how to add detail to what they write.
Magic Tree House is a very popular series with my 3rd graders. They are all at least familiar with the series.
I will introduce the lesson by reading the prologue of the book to bring us all to the same page.
My CT has given me rather free reign with this lesson. I selected Spring Break as the writing prompt, as the
prompts used in class usually relate to what is happening.

B. MATERIALS NEEDED
List ALL the materials that will be needed to conduct this lesson including the Mentor Text/Author/Illustrator
Writing Notebooks
Document Camera
Highlighter
Whiteboard and marker
Magic Tree House #15 Viking Ships at Sunrise. Mary Pope Osborne. Sal Murdocca

C. PROCEDURE

CONNECT
Students learn why today’s
instruction is important to them
as writers and how the lesson
relates to their prior work (if
applicable). The teaching point is
stated.
Before
TEACH
The teacher shows the students
how writers accomplish the
During teaching point in the mentor text
I will start at the front of the room and show the students
the book.
“Today we are going to look at a book and try to learn
some tips and tricks from the author, Mary Pope
Osborne. I know many of you like the Magic Tree House
series, who has read Viking Ships at Sunrise? For those
of you who haven’t, I will read the prologue, which
introduces the book.”
Read pages 1 & 2 aloud.
“Now as we continue to read the book, I want you to
close your eyes and think about what words she uses to
help you make a mental picture. We are going to learn
to use more descriptive words in our writing. We will
have an opportunity to practice afterwards”
Read pages 3 - 5 aloud with students’ eyes shut.
Head over to the document camera, while asking
students to raise their hands to share anything that
stood out to them. Place the book under the document
camera. Highlight the words or phrases that students
share. Point to the phrase “a thin gray light” on page 3
as a model if needed. As each student shares, ask them
Name: Alexandra Pogue
Lesson taught on: 3/19/18

and the class as a whole how that helped them

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
After we teach something,
students are given a chance to
practice what has just been
taught with new writing or
revising a prior piece. (May
assess during this time)
After LINK
The teacher reiterates what has
just been taught and gives
students an opportunity to share
(May assess during this time)
understand what was going on better. Continue for
about 5 words or phrases.
“Now I want you to open your writing notebook and try
adding more descriptive words yourself. These
descriptions will tell a little bit more about the “who,
what, where, when, why, or how” that you are writing
about. I would like you to write about what you plan on
doing for Spring Break. I want you to add more detail to
all of your sentences you are working with. If you are in
the planning stage of your writing, write the original
sentence you want to write at the top of the square, and
the descriptive words you can add at the bottom of the
square. (Demonstrate on the white board) Share with a
partner what you plan to do, then go ahead and get
started.”
Allow for a moment for the students to get started, then
begin conferencing. Ask the students what they are
working on and go from there.
Go to the front of the room.
“I saw a lot of great descriptive writing. I can’t wait to
see more of it in what you write in the future. Would
anyone like to share?”

D. DIFFERENTIATION


Three students are assisted by a full time aide, and will be receiving assistance for the writing portion of the
lesson. Students who finish early will be invited to share with a partner. Students who are struggling will
receive more guidance in conferencing.

E. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT? 


Descriptive words are not intuitive. It may take more modeling to show how to recognize and write with
more descriptions. I have not been present for a start of a writing prompt, so I am not really sure what my
students are used to. This will be different from whatever it is, which may cause them to have behavioral
issues. I will repeat my expectations and praise students who are following instructions.
Name: Alexandra Pogue
Lesson taught on: 3/19/18

PART THREE: REFLECTION

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts
below to guide the writing of your 6- paragraph reflection (1 paragraph for each letter). Be thorough in your
reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

A. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and
explain why you made them. 


One major change that stood out to me was that I accepted far more than 5 examples from the text
of use of descriptive language. Across the 2 pages, I have 11 examples highlighted. The early
examples were not really what I was looking for, so I kept accepting more answers in hopes of
better examples. Additionally, from this and other lessons I have found that I let the students guilt
me into letting everyone who has a hand up share, which is terrible for my time management. Due
to this and the sheer number of people I needed to conference with that I did not even get to, the
students did not have the opportunity to share. However, when students finished other work
throughout the day, they asked if they could move on from the planning stage and write their rough
drafts. My CT said it was up to me, so I got to guide them in how to transition the mess of the
planning page into cohesive writing.

B. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a
better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.

I would have put more thought into what I hoped to see from my 3 students who receive full time
support from a class aide. I assumed that she would support them in going through the planning
process that I modeled from the class, but she instead gave them a very different assignment. She
wrote the topic sentence and blanks for them to fill in, no planning squares. I would have discussed
with her what they usually do and what appropriate expectations are for them. I do believe that they
would be able to add more descriptive words in their writing as they are very creative students, but
I needed to do more preparation for them to have the opportunity to do so. They each got a grade
of a modified 2, because they met the requirements set for them, thought they were different from
my requirements.

C. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student
learning? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?
Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the
classroom teacher? 
 


A majority of the class got full marks as they did exactly what I asked, but I did not get what I was
really looking for. I asked them to elaborate on the “who, what, where, when, why or how” and most
of them focused on the who. A common theme of the responses was to list out the names of
everyone involved. This did elaborate and tell me more, but it was not the type of descriptive
writing I was looking for. Moving forward, I would use the same writing prompt and guide the
descriptive writing more. This time I would have them focus on the physical description of whatever
Name: Alexandra Pogue
Lesson taught on: 3/19/18

they were talking about. I would also do a better job of modeling what I wanted to see in order to
better support the skill.

D. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
children as learners? 


I learned how creative students can get with seemingly straightforward instructions. While a
majority of the students completed the task in the manor that I modeled, many students put their
own spin on it in an effective way. One example that stood out in particular was a student who
listed each noun and a descriptor to go with it. A few students skipped the middle step and went
straight for the more descriptive sentences which was great to see. They were also far more into it
than I expected. They all wanted to show off what they had written. Many of them requested to
onto the full on draft writing stage. It is fascinating to see the difference between the students who
loudly and proudly show off their work and the one student who quietly said that she thinks she
wrote too much.

E. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
teaching? 


Time management is a larger component than I had ever considered before. It is so easy to want
to spend tons of time on a activity so students can get as much out of it as possible, but it does
need to end in a timely manner. It also requires more closure than I have planned for. It is too easy
to get caught up in what you are doing that other things go by the wayside. I was only able to
conference with about half of the class when I wanted to work with each student. The hardest part
about teaching is that you cannot give each student the one on one time that they deserve.

F. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about
yourself? 


Time management is definitely not my strong suit. I get so caught up in the moment that I can
forget about the big picture. The students did not get the opportunity to share their writing and there
I did not provide good closure as we ran out of time. When planning, I should have thought about
how much time each part should get and try to stick to it. I am also not in the habit of looking at the
clock, which absolutely needs to change. My CT recommended using timers or alarms to help,
which I will probably utilize in the future.