Danielle Early

Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade

November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017

PART ONE: THE LESSON

A. TITLE OF LESSON (Writing Focus): Writing complete paragraphs and having a

strong introduction

B. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

2.12 The student will write stories, letters, and simple explanations.
a) Generate ideas before writing.
b) Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end for narrative and
expository writing.
c) Expand writing to include descriptive detail.
d) Revise writing for clarity.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND
Students will begin to understand the elements that make up a strong
paragraph.
Students will begin to understand how to write a strong introductory
sentence.
KNOW
Students will be able to include an introduction, 3 supporting sentences,
and a conclusion sentence.
DO
Students will add supporting details to their quick write piece.
Students will revise their introductory sentences in their quick write piece.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
I will assess learning both formally and informally. I will do so by observing students
while we discuss the mentor text, listening to their conversations with their peers when
discussing how they revised their writing, and based on the conversations I have with
them throughout the lesson. These observations will help me assess students
understanding of what makes a strong paragraph, how the author uses it, and how they
can use it in their own writing. I will also assess the impact of this lesson by closely
evaluating their writing using a rubric to see to what extent the included the 5 parts of a
paragraph and the strength of their introductory sentence. By using a rubric, I can ensure
the criteria is the same amongst students.

PART TWO: LESSON PLAN PROCEDURE

A. CONTEXT OF LESSON
I will be teaching students about writing complete paragraphs with strong introductory
sentences using the mentor text A Fine, Fine School. This lesson will be taught as one of
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
the rotations during their literacy time. The students have been learning about what
makes a complete sentence, how to write a complete paragraph, and beginning to work
on writing introductory sentences that show, not tell. This lesson will serve to be a
review of strong paragraphs and introductory sentences as the students continue to work
on making their writing stronger. The end result of the lesson will be the students ability
to successfully write a paragraph using 5 complete sentences, one of which is a strong
introductory sentence.

I will read sections of A Fine, Fine School that show the use of complete paragraphs with
strong introductions. Students will do a quick write and then will be asked to revise their
writing, adding supporting details, and making the introduction stronger. After they have
revised their writing, they will be given time to discuss the ways they revised their
writing.

I came up with the idea for this lesson in conjunction with my CT. She gave me the areas
of writing that students needed to be working on. I found the book, and came up with the
activity based on the writing needs of the students, and they types of writing activities
theyve been working on.

B. MATERIALS NEEDED
A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech and illustrated by Harry Bliss
Writing notebooks

C. PROCEDURE
Discuss how you will address the topics below. Provide specifics about what you plan to
say, questions you may ask, and strategies you will use to make the lesson a success.

CONNECT At the small group table, ask the students Who

Students learn why todays
instruction is important to
them as writers and how the
lesson relates to their prior
work (if applicable). The
teaching point is stated.
Before
remembers reading this book this morning?
Show students the book. Ask them to remind me
what happened. Allow a couple students to share
what they remember. Today, we are going to
learn something from the book that can help you in
your own writing. This is something that many,
many, many authors use in their writing to ensure
they have complete paragraphs and are able to
capture your attention. Based on what youve
been learning about writing with Ms. Williams and
Mrs. Ochoa, what do you think we could be
working on today? Allow students to discuss and
share.
Were going to be working on making sure our
paragraphs have an introductory sentence, at least
3 supporting sentences, and a conclusion sentence.
Once our paragraphs have those 5 sentences, were
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
TEACH
The teacher shows the
students how writers
accomplish the teaching point each of our sentences needs to have a capital
in the mentor text
During
ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
After we teach something,
students are given a chance to the conversations/their grasp on the learning
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)
going to work on writing strong introductory
sentences that show the reader something rather
than telling them something. Were going to look
at some of the pages in the book to see if we can
figure out where Sharon Creech uses these
strategies.
Im going to give you a few minutes to write a
paragraph about why you love Bluestone, or the
school you went to last year. Remember that
letter at the beginning, a who or what, an
action, and punctuation at the end. Give
students 3-5 minutes to write their quick write. Re-
read page 1. If you think about what we are
going to focus on today, who can tell me
something they notice about this page? Read
page 7. Thinking about what we just talked
about, what do you notice about this paragraph?
Allow students to share elements of a strong
paragraph and a strong introduction. Do you see
how we can use these strategies to write stronger
paragraphs? Tell students, today youre going to
be working on using these strategies in your own
writing. So were going to take some time to
look at the paragraphs that we wrote and add some
details, as well as make our introductory sentences
stronger. Im going to be asking you some
questions about your writing so we can work
together to make it stronger.
As students work on their writing, ask them what
theyre adding to their writing, and make notes of
intention.
Bring the small group back together. Have
students pair up based on their shapes and have
them share one way that they revised their writing.
Ask, Does anyone want to share the way they
revised their writing with everyone? Allow
students the opportunity to share. Ask students if
they can remember what our goal was during this
rotation. We used something called a mentor text
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
to help us make our writing stronger. We looked
at ways the author made her writing strong, and
did the same thing with our writing. When youre
working on writing the next few weeks, and the
rest of the year, try to remember the strategies we
worked on today to make our paragraphs nice and
strong.

D. DIFFERENTIATION
Since students are working on making their writing stronger through revision, its
important for the teacher to monitor their progress and provide additional assistance
based off of the needs and strengths of the student. One way this can be done is by
varying the sentence complexity expected of students. Another way to provide this
support is having students make a list of what they want to add to their writing so that
they can organize their ideas before beginning to revise their writing.

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

The students may struggle to add details to their paragraphs. In response to this, I
will work with students individually during the rotation by prompting them with
questions about their topic.
The students may struggle to follow my directions. I will remind them that the
expectations remain the same whether theyre at the group with Ms. Williams, or
if theyre at the group with me.

Observations

Student Anecdotal Notes

Name

Aydrian Worked on making introduction stronger, and add more details to

his paragraph; not quite to a bold beginning

Zabibu Had a stronger beginning than most; approaching strong writer;

needed prompting to get started

Ezequiel Able to write introductory sentence; struggles to write supporting

details and conclusion

Lena Completely lost in the assignment; still working on formulating

complete sentences
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
Anna Stronger introduction than peers; incomplete paragraph

Ghaith Not prepared to write an entire paragraph; still struggling to write

sentences

Sanel Needs to work on creating a bold beginning; able to present numerous

supporting details

Lacy Question as intro sentence; seems ready to begin working on sentence

complexity

Jocelyn Weak introduction; reluctant to add details; focus on brainstorming

Shakirah Weak introduction; needs to work on writing supporting details

Mordecai Weak introduction; cohesive supporting details; focus can shift to

bold beginning

Kriti Weak introduction; includes supporting details; focus can shift to

bold beginnings and sentence complexity

Ali Weak introduction; sentence variety in supporting details; decent

conclusion

Oscar Weak introduction; supporting details build upon themselves, rather

than disjointed

Rubric

Student Name: 2-Beginning Writer 3-Developing 4-Strong Writer

Writer
Comments: The students The student includes The student includes
paragraph is lacking an introduction, but a strong
either an not a bold introductory
introduction, beginning, at least 3 sentence, that is a
supporting details, supporting details, bold beginning, at
or a conclusion, but and a conclusion in least 3 supporting
contains the other their paragraph. details, and a
elements. conclusion in their
paragraph.
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
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.
As with any lesson written, this one did not go according to plan. There were
a number of factors that affected my lesson. The literacy block was
shortened by 15 minutes, which is not long in the grand scheme of things.
However, the students took a lot of time to transition, which reduced our
time to work to 15-20 minutes. My CT had indicated to me that the students
were working on writing paragraphs, including bold beginnings. When I sat
down with the students to do this lesson, it became evident that most of the
students were not prepared to write a complete paragraph, even with
guidance. Most of the time of this listen was spent on writing the paragraph.
Many of the students did not get a chance to finish their quick-write because
they did not know how to brainstorm paragraphs. Due to these weak skills,
most of the students were not able to go back and revise their work.

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.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would focus more on the deficits in skills
that the students had. Instead of pushing them to write a paragraph, I would
perhaps focus more on writing complete sentences and on the writing process
as a whole. It became evident that my students were not used to the writing
process from beginning to end. I struggle with ways to incorporate more
developmentally appropriate practice, since this was something I consulted
my CT about and we planned jointly. The students at this age are expected,
by the state, to be able to write a complete paragraph. However, the
students writing has not developed to this point, so I think it is important to
intentionally incorporate writing lessons to bring the students writing up to
your standards.

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?
Based on the assessment I created, I cannot really conclude anything about
my impact on student learning. I am not confident that the students learned
much from this lesson. As I previously mentioned, the students did not
appear to have the skill set necessary to write a complete paragraph. Some
of the students, such as the one whose work is attached, grasped the concept
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
of a bold beginning, including detail sentences, and having a conclusion. This
student was also open to revising his work, adding details, and was able to
talk through ways to make his beginning stronger. Based on the assessment
of the students, as a whole, I would re-teach the lesson starting with the
basics of sentence structure and then move into the instruction on the writing
process, starting at brainstorming.

D. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about children as learners?
Planning and teaching this lesson was very eye opening for me. One big
thing I realized is that children need consistency. I think my CT does a great
job of teaching literacy, but writing is an area in which instruction is lacking.
So, the students struggled to actively engage in the lesson because it was
something new and unfamiliar. Additionally, when students are used to
having a relax and read period of time during their reading rotations every
day and you take that familiarity away from them, they are more reluctant to
engage because it is different. Both of these situations are things I had to
combat with my lesson. I can appreciate their desire for consistency, in
which they know what to expect and they know what the expectations are of
them.

E. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about teaching?
This lesson helped me accept that teaching is a balancing act, in which you
have to be flexible and responsive to the needs of students. This lesson
clearly did not go as planned, but I was able to take it and work with
students on at least getting some ideas together. I also learned that
consistency is a big part of teaching. One student in particular blatantly told
me that he wouldnt be conducting himself in a certain manner if he were
asked to do the activity with my CT. So, again, students crave that
consistency that through teaching we can provide them. And, finally, it was
refreshing to see the hard work that goes into planning a lesson pay off when
even just a small number of students begin to grasp a concept. When things
arent being taught or worked on consistently, you cant expect perfection
after one 15-20 minute lesson. So, I also learned patience through teaching,
both with myself and with my students.

F. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had
reinforced about yourself?
This lesson made me learn a lot of things about myself. First, I learned that I
feel like my lessons are more effective when I am able to assess what skills the
students possess before teaching a lesson so that I have realistic expectations
going into the lesson. I also learned that I need to embrace patience when
teaching these lessons. Countless times throughout my lesson, students were
incredibly disrespectful. And while it was frustrating, I had to intentionally
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017
remind myself not to take this disrespect personally. Patience is something
that I must continue to work at. Finally, I also learned that I need to let go of
what I think are reasonable expectations based on the age of my students and
create reasonable expectations based on the skills of the students in my class.
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017

Introduction

Detail 1:

Detail 2:

Detail 3:

Conclusion
Danielle Early
Bluestone Elementary, Felecia Williams, 2nd grade
November 14, 2017
Given to CT: November 7, 2017