Teachers Name: Katie Richards Date of Lesson: March 10, 2017

Grade: 3rd Grade Topic: Organizing and Categorizing

Learning Objectives:
- Students will be able to organize their evidence into appropriate categories.
- After students see which categories have different types of evidence, they will be able to see
what categories need more writing and research.

Common Core Standards Alignment:

1.) Domain: Text Types and Purposes
Cluster: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.
Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.1.A,B,
W.3.1.A-Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create
an organizational structure that lists reasons.
W.3.1.B- Provide reasons that support the opinion.

2.) Domain: Production and Distribution of Writing

Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as
needed by planning, revising, and editing.

3.) Domain: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources;
take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

4.) Domain: Text Types and Purposes

Cluster: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons
and information.
Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1.B
W.4.1.B- Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.

Rationale: Students will be accomplishing these standards during this lesson because they are
going to continue writing about their chosen seed topic that they will expand upon for 5 lessons.
The other classroom teachers, the writing partnerships and myself will provide support to
students while they work on their writing.

Assessment Plan:
Formative:
During the teaching and active engagement portion of this lesson, I will be introducing an
example of how we could organize our classroom seed idea about having no quiet time during
lunch. I will have already prepared an entry in my notebook, and have an idea for how it should
be organized. I will present to the students what the entry in the notebook is, and will have the
writing partnerships take a few minutes to think about how I could organize my writing. This
will help me assess students understanding about how important organization is, and how that
can be done into like categories. I will also assess students understanding about organization of
their writing during my one on one conferencing time with them. I will see what students have
worked on so far during that day and check in to see how their writing ideas can be organized
and grouped together. Understanding of this topic should be seen in their writers notebooks.

Integration:
Another important content area that is included into this writing lesson includes reading.
Additionally, depending on the students given writing topic, they may be writing about a
science, social science or history topic. For example, a couple of students are writing about
animals, recycling or pollution. Those topics certainly reference content learned in science.

Differentiated Instruction:
During the lesson, students will be instructed in a whole group setting to start. Both Mrs. Rileys
class and the team class will be instructed at the same time. While on the rug, students will be
given the opportunity to share and confer with their writing partners (of which were chosen by
the teachers at the beginning of the year). Students will talk and share their writing at given times
of the lesson. Students will be asked questions and will be either cold called or chosen,
depending on participation levels. At the writing portion of the lesson, students will be working
independently, although can ask questions or share with their writing partners.

Modifications/Accommodations:
In the class that I primarily teach for, there are two students who have IEPs, which are Individual
Education Plans. The two students will be present for the entirety of the lesson, but during the
individual work portion, those two will go down to their Special Education teacher for more
directed assistance. After about twenty minutes, the two students will come back to our
classroom and will work on the lesson that we learned for today, but they will have formats given
by their Special Education teacher that more accurately fits their learning needs. Their other
teacher will have likely given these two students a graphic organizer, which is a great tool for
them to help with organization in their writing. In this classroom there are also two English
Language Learners, both speaking very minimal English. These students will listen to the lesson,
for language immersion, but they will not be partaking in persuasive writing. Instead, the two
ELL students will work on sight words and sounds on their computers from a program called
Imagine Learning. This daily work will last approximately thirty minutes and will keep them
working for the entirety of the independent work. Added sections to this work will be added if
necessary.
Accommodations are provided for this lesson for students who need them. Students may sit in
chairs opposed to sitting on the rug if that helps them focus or are more comfortable for their
bodies. Students may use a fidget, which is a small token that keeps their hands occupied while
they are listening, if that helps them.

Extension:
Since this lesson and writing unit is very student directed, meaning students write based at the
level in which they are able, the only extension provided to students are to continue to write as
much as they can about their topics. Students who appear to be doing exceptional work might be
advised to check back to their goal sheets and make sure that they are meeting their goals.
Materials/Resources/Technology:
A grocery list to help students with connections
Draft of the class idea about having no quiet time during lunch (written in a disorderly
way), have copies available for each student to look at
Pre-thought category lists for class idea
Classroom chart about categorizing writing for students to reference
Students writing notebooks
Document camera and Smart Board

Sources for Lesson Plan/Resources:

This lesson was taken directly from Lucy Calkins and Kelly Boland Hohnes Grade 3, Unit 3
book Changing the World: Persuasive Speeches Petitions, and Editorials.
An example of what this might look like can be found here:
http://www.heinemann.com/unitsofstudy/writing/

I also chose not to use the Connection piece of the lesson from this writing book. My mentor
teacher and I discussed that we thought it would be a good idea to write a grocery list for
students to categorizing, rather then the Connection that the book provided.

Teaching and Learning Sequence:

Beginning: 10 minutes
Students from both classrooms come to the rug with their notebooks, writing folders, and
a pencil.
Tell students that I need help with organization of a grocery list. How can I organize it?
Share list on the document camera for students to look at and talk with their writing
partner about how it can be organized.
Come together as a class to talk about listing/categorizing strategies.
Tell students what the teaching point is for the day.
Give each student a copy of the writing from our classroom notebook about having no
quiet time during lunch. Ask students to read the entry, and when they are done, talk
about how it could be better organized with their partners.
Highlight what different students mentioned after class is pulled back together whole
group.
Reveal the ways that I would categorize the writing and place it onto the classroom chart.
Let students know the value about organizing their writing, as they will be able to see
what category needs more work and which categories might be complete.
Body: 50 minutes
Students will go back with all of their belongings and sit at the desk near their writing
partners.
This is an independent work time, where voices should be off, but students may talk with
their writing partners if they need any assistance.
 Mrs. Riley and myself will be walking around conferencing with each student at a time.
We will be asking students about how their writing is going today and see the progress
that has been made in categorizing their writing.
After 25 minutes, I will ring a bell that will signify to students to put their pencils down
in both classrooms and have their attention on me. I will compliment a particular student
with their work on categorizing. I will say that I noticed that a student realized that they
need more work in a particular category, and that will be their work plan for the
following day during writing time. That is a great idea for an action plan. After a 2-
minute interruption, have students get back to work.
Students will continue to write, and when it is 9:55, let students know that they have 5
minutes to continue writing.
Closing: 10 minutes
Have students come back to the rug with their writing that they worked on for the day.
Have each student explain to their partner what they worked on today and if they worked
on organization.
Partners will read each others work from today, and they will let each other know if they
understood the organization, or if they can think of an improvement on how organization
or categorization could be improved.

Common Core Teaching Standards and Rationales:

Standard #1- Learner Development
Students individual progression of writing persuasive speeches is catered to their own
abilities and goals that they have set for themselves. Learning is scaffold by allowing students to
work at their own pace and to improve their writing based upon what they have learned and want
to include in their own writing. With individual teacher to student and then student to student
conferencing, all students are getting feedback upon their writing and are able to see what they
need to continue working on and improving upon.

Standard # 3- Learning Environments

Students will be in an encouraging environment that lets them celebrate the goals they
have accomplished in their writing or let them see what they need to work on in their upcoming
writing. Students will collaborate with their writing partnerships to discuss what their goals are
and what they want to work on in their writing. I will encourage students to share with myself
and others what they have accomplished in their writing, what they are writing about due to a
passion that they have for it, and what they want to continue improving on. A supportive
environment is essential so students feel comfortable sharing what their struggles are in writing.

Standard #4- Content Knowledge

I understand the lesson completely and was able to change around the connection piece at
the beginning of lesson to make more sense to myself and be able to have something that the
students can connect with. I also was able to make my writing disorganized to help show
students how I would organize such a disorganized piece.

Standard #11- Technology Standards

I chose to use the Document Camera and Smart Board in this lesson to give an alternative
to students using more paper. This camera showed the students the grocery list, and the
disorganized writing entry in a larger way. I did this so students could follow along with what I
was saying and so they could see better in a large-scale format.

Reflection:
Overall, I think this lesson went really well and I think it was an important lesson to teach to
students. Students had a difficult time understanding how I organized my disorganized writing
piece into the chosen categories that I picked ahead of time. If I were able to do this lesson again,
I would have asked students to come up with a list of what they would organize the writing into,
and then I would have allotted 3 or so minutes explaining why I chose the categories that I did
and how they are representative of my writing. Students did an excellent job organizing their
own writing, even if 4 students needed a push into choosing categories for their writing. Those 4
students wanted to continue writing in one big paragraph, so during the individual conferences I
had to explain again why organization is so important.

Artifacts??
-Grocery list
-Disorganized writing piece
- picture of classroom chart
-example of students disorganized vs organized piece