Season

Opinion Writing

Name: Betsy Schutz Grade level: Kindergarten
Date: November 11, 2018 Length of lesson: 30-40 minutes

Title/theme/focus of lesson: Season Opinion Writing

Content standards:
California Common Core Literacy Standard:
W.K.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which
they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion
or preference about the topic or book.
Next Generation Science Standards Kindergarten:
K-ESS2-1. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over
time.

Learning outcomes/objectives: Students will…
• Be able to write an opinion sentence.
• Be able to tell the steps of the writing process.
• Be able to describe attributes of the four seasons.

Assessment: For assessment, I will formally and informally assess the students. I will see which
students understood how to write the sentences by looking at their writing paper. Students will
be graded using a rubric with a score of 1-5. I will informally assess the students by walking
around and noticing which students are struggling. I anticipate that students will mostly
struggle with spelling and sounding out words. For those students I will stop and help. I will also
informally assess groups through our group Kahoot game on seasons. This will be a way that I
can see whether or not students are able to describe attributes of all four seasons.

Materials:
• paper
• Pencils
• Computer for YouTube video & Kahoot Game
• Kindles for students to play Kahoot

Room environment: When the lesson begins, students will be sitting on the floor watching the
YouTube video and then in groups to play the Kahoot game. We then will go to our desk and
students will be at their desks listening to my description of the writing process. Students will
then be writing at their opinion sentence at their desk with the option to ask for help from the
teacher. At the end, students will have the chance to go to a designated spot around the
classroom to talk with their peers about their favorite season.

Modifications for diverse learners:
 • ELLs (English Language Learners): relaxed environment, able to draw pictures, pictures
in a graphic organizer to help, can work and ask for help from teacher and peers.
• ILP Student: able to work with teacher, seated close to the front of the class during
whole group lesson, graphic organizer to organize thoughts, able to stand when working
if desired.



Instructional Procedure

• Anticipatory Set/Orientation: I will capture the students’ attention by telling them that
today we will be writing three sentences about our favorite season. We will have talked
about seasons all week. I will also play a YouTube song about the seasons to get them
excited.

• Teaching/Instructional Process (input and modeling): I will remind students about the
steps of the writing process. I will write these steps on the board and tell them that we
are going to be working on writing a sentence about seasons. I will explain to them that
their writing should be one sentence about their favorite season and then a reason why.
I will get a writing page out and quickly model how to write the sentences (but on a
different topic so students do not just copy my writing). After I model for them how to
do it, I will ask the students if they have any questions. When all questions are
answered, I will give them each their own paper to get started on their writing.

• Guided Practice and Monitoring: Students will then be given a writing paper. They will
be writing an opinion sentence on what their favorite season is. They will write
responses such as “I like _____ because______”. While students are doing this, I’ll be
walking around making sure students are completing it correctly and help students that
struggle with sounding out words.

• Monitoring/Check for understanding: In the beginning of the lesson, I will have the
students play a Kahoot game to test their knowledge of seasons and attributes of
seasons. I will look at groups and answers to the test to see whether or not specific
students understand seasons.
To understand if students understand the writing assignment, I will walk around while
they are working on their writing. I will also collect their writing to see whether or not
students understand. At the end of the lesson, I will have students tell me the steps of
the writing process.

• Closure: To wrap up the lesson, I will have each student put his or her paper in the
finished work pile. As students finish, I will designate areas for each season and students
will go to the season that is their favorite. They will discuss with their peers why that
season was their particular favorite. As an exit ticket, I will say a season and have each
student give me something specific about that season.



Sources: Tara West- KinderScience
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZjpI6fgYSY
Kahoot! game: https://play.kahoot.it/ - /k/3eede207-fff6-48dd-bdc4-07136f15e46e