Formal Observation Lesson Plan

Teacher: Alexa Cordray

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2018

Subject / grade level: 4th and 5th grade writing

Materials:
Oakland Schools Literary Essay Unit
Short Stories (?)
SMART Notebook file
Questions to Ask to Craft a Complex Claim handout
Prompts for Elaborating or Saying More handout
Close Reading handout
Writer’s folders and notebooks

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.9.A
Apply grade 4 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Describe in depth a character, setting, or
event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g., a character's thoughts,
words, or actions].").

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.9.A
Apply grade 5 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Compare and contrast two or more
characters, settings, or events in a story or a drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g.,
how characters interact]").

Lesson objective(s):
● Students will be able to use close reading techniques to better understand literary texts
● Students will be able to ask significant questions about their stories to craft complex claims
about a relevant theme
Differentiation strategies to meet diverse learner needs:
• Visual representations of information on Smart Board
• Handout used to organize notes and thoughts
• Strategically planned groups for small group instruction
• Sentence starters used for prompts to elaborate thinking

SUMMARY
In this lesson, students build upon previous day’s writing lessons by asking questions about stories
to deepen thinking and understanding. They will be completing close readings of six different short
stories before deciding on one that they wish to write their final literary essay on. Once chosen,
students will answer questions and elaborate on their thinking in order to craft a complex claim
about the story’s theme.
MINILESSON (10-15 minutes)
• Remind students of the work we did as a whole group when crafting a claim for the theme of
the short story Spaghetti by Cynthia Rylant
• Display the Questions to Ask to Craft Complex Claims on SMART Board and review how
asking these questions as readers and allow us to strengthen our claim about the theme in
a story
• Display the Prompts for Elaborating or Saying More on SMART Board and remind students
to use these prompts when asking “How can I say more about the text?”
• Remind students that they will be thinking as a reader and a writer today
• As a reader, we will use our Close reading strategies to talk back to the text and gain a
deeper understanding of each story before choosing the one we wish to write about
• As a writer, we will be thinking deeper about the text and the authors purpose while asking
questions to write complex claims about the story’s theme

INDEPENDENT WRITING AND CONFERRING (30-35 minutes)

• Send students off to being reading the short stories found in their folders
• Conference with students individually as they have questions
• Meet with pre-determined student groups to facilitate the question-asking process

SHARE (5-10 minutes)

• Gather students back on the carpet, encourage students to sit with peers that chose the
same story as them.
• Have students turn and talk about claims they made about the theme of their story

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT
• Formative assessments throughout writing workshop-individual and small group
conferences, turn and talk
• Collect handout to assess students’ understanding of crafting a complex claim