11/18/16

Writing Mini Lesson: How-To Essay using Verbs

Learning goal: I can understand how to use specific verbs and interesting nouns in my writing
Standard:
NJSLSA.W2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and
information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of
content.
Unit: How-To Writing: specific nouns and interesting verbs
Indicator: Writers use verbs in their Directions.
Connection: We know that we created our own How-To essays. In order to give good
directions, we need to use descriptive verbs. Making our nouns & verbs more specific &
interesting.
Teaching:
What?: using specific & interesting verbs in our directions - verbs
Why?: to give clear directions
How?: by thinking about what the next step needs to be and wondering how am I going
to explain that the best way I can?
Verbs tell us what is happening, a verb is an action word or something you can do
Text to use to showcase point:
To: (Teacher models in shared text)
Example sentences: close reading
Then you spread the jelly onto one slice of bread.
Next we mix the ingredients together.
First we get out all our tools and place them on the table.
With: (Active engagement-students try in shared text)
Okay we need to identify the verbs and nouns in this passage. I will give you a couple minutes
to read it and we will find the verbs and nouns together. Then we will see if we can make any of
them sound more interesting or specific.
Ex: (below with SMART board items)
When John wanted to eat some breakfast he needed to get out his food. He reached into the
cupboard for a bowl and placed it on the counter. Then he opened the utensil drawer and took
out a spoon. When that was prepared he looked for the cereal box, poured out the cereal into
his bowl, and then closed the box. Then he began to eat.

By: (Active engagement-students try in own text)

When writing our How-To essays it is important to use precise and interesting nouns and verbs.
>>Have students work & travel in pairs on their Chromebooks

STATION TIME on Chromebooks

Students will be working in pairs of 2
They will share their writing in Google Classroom with another student in the class so that they
can only comment on each others paper
The time will be set to 8 minutes at each station
They will be instructed to highlight or comment on each others work for at least 3 suggestions
from each station
Activity--centers (8 min each)
Action verbs & Interesting verbs
Students will underline all action verbs in their partners writing.
Students will write a suggestion verb in a comment on at least 3 verbs that could be made more
interesting
Interesting nouns
Students will highlight nouns that could be made more interesting and write a suggestion in a
comment
Past-tense verbs/Irregular verbs
Students will find all past-tense verbs and make them BOLD to check them to make sure they
are in their correct form: regular or irregular

At the end of all these rotations students will go back to their independent seats.
Closure: Now you know how to use precise and interesting verbs and nouns to help the reader
understand the steps in your how-to essay better. Keep writing your steps, or edit the steps you
have already written, to include specific and interesting verbs and nouns.

They will look at their own papers and edit them using the suggestions that their peers made
until the end of the period. If they finish early they can independently read.

Reflection:

What I did well:

Students understood the meaning of verbs & nouns
I counted down in the beginning of the lesson to indicate to students that they needed to be
ready to listen & be quiet when I was done counting
Students were able to identify the words in the sample passage
We worked on it as a class and there was a lot of participation
Students moved from station to station well.
I set a timer on the computer to indicate when was a good time to move.
TIMING/Pacing---It was good, mini lesson was only 15-20 minutes which was good. (There just
wasnt enough time for students to complete activity)

What to improve upon:

Students did not know how to perform the actions I was asking them to do
I should have showed them on the smartboard how to highlight and underline and make the
words past tense words RED.
Next class I will show them on the smartboard while we are working on the example together
For the next class I am going to change making them RED to bolding the past tense verbs and
see how that works.
I didn't have enough time for the stations as I would have liked so I need to pick up the pacing
or hope that improving how they are able to highlight and underline will make it move faster.
I gave them way too much to finish in the 45-minute time span. The lesson took 15 minutes so
by the time they were paired up with their partner & understood the directions they only had 15
minutes to complete all the steps.
I should make it so that they only underline and highlight instead of all 3 centers because it took
the students longer than I expected to complete everything but I wanted them to still edit their
partners story.

IF I COULD RE-DO This lesson & there was enough time in the curriculum:
Split up nouns one day & irregular/specific verbs the next day in order to give students
more time to work together on editing each others stories.

On the SMART Board:

When John wanted to eat some breakfast he

needed to get out his food. He reached into the
cupboard for a bowl and placed it on the
counter. Then he opened the utensil drawer
and took out a spoon. When that was prepared
he looked for the cereal box, poured out the
cereal into his bowl, and then closed the box.
Then he began to eat.
You are helping make your partners story more
interesting at each station:
Underline all action verbs in partners writing.
Write 3 suggestion verbs
Highlight nouns that could be made more
interesting
Write 3 suggestion nouns
BOLD past tense verbs
Check for correct form