Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template

Writing Lessons
2007 ACEI Standards
Megan Rust
Ms. Deavers' 3rd Grade Class

READINESS
Big Idea: Signs and Clues Lead to Solutions
Lesson Rationale: The students have already done a previous discovery of facts about an animal in a science lesson. They are
going to use their facts as evidence to support the claim of their persuasive piece of writing. Instead of looking for signs and
clues, the students have an opportunity to create signs and clues of their own for the reader to discover when reading the
paper.

I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal: Students will distinguish a suitable environment for an animal according to given characteristics.
B. Objectives
1. Students will use evidence from previous research to write a persuasive piece.
2. Students will use adjectives and superlatives in writing to persuade the reader.
3. Students will collaborate with their peers and their teacher about writing.
C. Standard(s): Professional Society/State/District
a. 3.W.3.1 Write persuasive compositions in a variety of forms that
i. • State the opinion in an introductory statement or section.
ii. • Support the opinion with reasons in an organized way
iii. • Connect opinion and reasons using words and phrases.
iv. • Provide a concluding statement or section.
b. 3.W.5 Conduct short research on a topic.
i. • Identify a specific topic or question of interest (e.g., where did Benjamin Harrison grow up?).
ii. • Locate information in reference texts, electronic resources, or through interviews.
iii. • Recognize that some sources may be more reliable than others.
iv. • Record relevant information in their own words.
v. • Present the information, choosing from a variety of formats.
c. 3.W.6.1c Adjectives/ Adverbs –Writing sentences that include comparative and superlative adjectives and
adverbs, choosing between them depending on what is to be modified, and explaining their functions in
the sentence.
II. Materials
III. Management
a. Time: 60 minutes
i. Mini-lesson 15 minutes
ii. Writing: 30 minutes
iii. Sharing: 5 minutes
b. Materials:
i. “Welcome Home, Bear: A Book of Animal Habitats” by Il Sang Na
ii. Student research materials and text from science lesson
c. Space
i. Anticipatory set – students seated on rug in classroom library
ii. Mini-Lesson – students seated at desks
iii. Writing – students move around to a comfortable place to share with a partner, then return to
their desks to write
d. Students
i. Students are expected to activity participate in whole group and small group discussion.
ii. Students will work with a partner to brainstorm ideas and then engage in a time of independent
writing.
iii. Students will work with the teacher during conferences.
PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION
Use major concepts, principles, theories, and research to construct learning opportunities that support students’ development,
acquisition of knowledge, and motivation.
(ACEI 1.0)
IV. Adaptation to Diverse Students-- Demonstrate your understanding of the development and approaches to
learning unique to the students in this class as you describe the specific instructional opportunities provided in
this lesson.
 Sentence starters for struggling writers and ELL students
 Peer discussion to support students who have trouble getting started writing or have difficulty in the planning
stage of writing.
(ACEI 3.2)

V.
o Skill: Improving word choice to improve persuasive arguements
o Minilesson (Whole Group)
o Anticipatory Set
 Read-Aloud of the story: “Welcome Home, Bear: A Book of Animal Habitats by Il Sang Na
 “Today I am going to read the story “Welcome Home, Bear: A book of Animal
Habitats written and Illustrated by Il Sang Na. As I am reading, I want you to pay
attention to the reason bear gives to not stay at each location.”
 Grand Conversation following the story
 “What did you think of this story?”
 “What do you think about bear?”
 “Have you ever wanted to live somewhere else?”
 “Why do you think bear ended up going back home?”
o “What reasons did he give for not liking the other places.”
o Purpose Statement
 “Today we are going to create a persuasive writing piece to challenge the thoughts of our
reader.”
o Introduce Text:
 “Remember how you were able to do some research and learn about animals to help the
Indianapolis Zookeeper? Today you are going to do something else with the information you
learned about the animals through the reading passages and the notes you took. You are
going to write through the perspective of the animal you learned. So, you get to pretend to
be the animal. Your task is to first decide if you like the habitat you want to live in, or if you
are like bear from our story and you want to find a different place to call home.”
 “Once you have decided if you are going to move or stay, you will want to have some reasons
with evidence from the research you did to support your decision. You are going to try to
persuade the person reading your paper that staying is really better than moving, or that
moving would be much better than staying in your current habit.”
o Provide information
 “I’ll use the Ostrich as an example again, since no one chose the Ostrich as their animal to
research. Let’s look at my notes sheet and see what information I already found about the
Ostrich and its habitat.”
 Point out specifics from the notes and ask “How would I be able to use this to
persuade someone that my animal should move? Could I use it to stay that the
animal should not move?”
 Have students point out specific information from the notes and tell how they
would use it to support one side or the other. “What else would be good to
consider from the notes or the reading passage you read? How can you use that to
support your opinion that you have the best habitat or that you need to move?”
o Supervise Practice
 “Now that we have some ideas about what we could use to convince our audience that we
should move to a new habitat or stay in our current home, let’s try writing a few sentences
together.”
 “Who has an idea about how we should begin our writing?”
  Be flexible with what the students think of if it will work with the purpose of the
paper, but otherwise, guide toward having the animal introduce him/herself and
describe where they live.”
 “Now that we have given the reader a little bit of information about ourselves and the place
we live, what comes next?”
 Guide students toward writing about why we don’t like/do like the place we live
and want to stay/move.
 “What kinds of words might be good to use to make our writing richer and also more
powerful at convincing our reader to agree with our opinion of the habitat we live in?”
 Guide toward using superlatives along with rich adjectives.
(ACEI 3.3)
Writing
o Include details of what students will do
 “Now that we have written from the Ostrich’s perspective together, you are going to do this
on your own for the animal you researched previously. What should your first step be? And
after that? Then what will you be ready for?”
 Guide toward – re-reading text passage and look over notes, brainstorm ideas that
would use evidence to support their point of view and persuade the reader, begin
writing and think about rich descriptive words that could be used to enhance the
argument of the text.
 “You have ten minutes to re-look over your animal information with the partner you worked
with when learning about your animal. You can discuss your ideas before you begin working
independently. I will let you know when it is time to transition to writing time and begin
working alone.”
 Give students time to work, check-in with students and guide them as necessary
 “Alright, it sounds like you all have a lot of great ideas to share in your writing. Now you are
ready to work on your own and begin writing.”
 Give students sufficient time to write, understanding that it is okay if the students
are not able to finish the assignment today because they will have time to continue
writing tomorrow.
o Describe your plans for conferences
 I will meet with 2-3 students who usually have trouble getting started and will need to talk
one-on-one before they are ready to write on their own.
 I will talk with the student about ideas and get them started on a few sentences.
 Next, I will meet with my strongest writers who will likely be at least half way done with their
writing before the writing time is done.
 I will work with these students on improving word choice and challenging them to
write sentences that are even more persuasive.
o Sharing (Whole Group)
o Describe your plans for sharing
 “Who would like to share with the class your writing or your most persuasive sentence?”
 Intentionally call out students who wrote an excellent sentence or used really
strong adjectives that the teacher noticed in the student conferences.

VI. Check for understanding. How do you know students have learned? What strategies will you implement if all
students have not met lesson outcomes? Employ one or more strategies to determine student learning.

 “Can someone remind me what kind of writing you did today?”

 “What are important types of words to include in a persuasive piece of writing?”

VII. Review learning outcomes / Closure

 “Who decided to stay in your current habitat? Who chose to move? Who thinks they have the most convincing
argument? I’m excited to read them and work with you on them!”
PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT
Develop a plan for assessing the degree to which your students have mastered the learning outcomes from this lesson. Your
plan should include formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and strengthen instruction that will promote
continuous intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of each student.
(ACEI 4.0)
 Formative
o Monitor students as they listen and discussion in whole group and small group instruction.
o Ask questions to see if the students fully understand the concepts and the tasks they are expected to
complete.
o Conference with students to check their understanding and provide support where necessary
 Summative
o Summative assessment will take place when the student’s paper has been submitted and the teacher
reads each student’s writing through the lens of a holistic rubric.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
o Bloom’s Taxonomy
o Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
7. Where the students still interested enough in the animals to be engaged in this writing activity?
8. Was the read-aloud in the anticipatory set an engaging story that was helpful in supporting the idea of the students
writing? Would another book have been better, or would it have been better to read the story at a different time in
the lesson?
9. Would it be beneficial to provide additional instruction on word choice, specifically on adjectives and superlatives,
to support students in their writing?