Narrative Writing Small Moment Lesson Plan

Unit of Study: Unit 2.1 Understanding a Small Moment Story

Mini-lesson Teaching Point: Writers get their ideas and put them on their paper.

Materials: Three pages of writing paper stapled

Connection: (activate prior knowledge and focus student attention on the lesson)
Writers get a picture of a special time their minds. We think of happy times, upset times, worried times, scared times, and funny times. We pick one time, picture everything that happen, and then we draw it across the pages of our booklets.

Teach: (demonstrate the teaching point as if you were working independently)
Watch me. I am going to think of a special time when I was worried. Model Thinking. I got it! I am going to write about a special time when I was worried about a friend . I’m going to picture that special time in my head now. One day, my friend called me and told me that her car has stopped in the middle of the street. She sounded so upset and sad when she told me what had happen. I told her that I was going to get into my car and come help her. As I was driving, I became worried because I thought I may not be able to help her fix her car. When I found her, we looked at her car together and were able to fix her car. The End. Now I’m ready to draw my small story in my booklet. Point to each page. On the first page, I am going to draw me on the phone with my friend. On my second page, I am going to draw me driving in my car to go help my friend. And then on the last page, I’m going to draw me and my friend fixing her car.

Active Engagement: (coach and assess students during this time)
Now it is your turn. I want all of you to take two minutes to think about a special time you was either worried, happy, upset, scared, or a time that was funny to you. Time students for two minutes. Okay, does everyone have an idea of what they want to write about today? Now, you are going to picture the moment in your head. You have two minutes. Turn and tell the person next to you what you will draw across your pages by pointing to each page like I did.

Link: (review and clarify key points, globalizing their utility from the now to the future)
Call on a few students and have them share their ideas. Eventually have everyone go back to their seats to get started. Keep some friends on the carpet to help them generate their ideas and put it on the paper. Great job everyone. I heard some really cool stories coming from all of my friends. Who has idea of a special time that they would like to write about? Great. So remember writers, when get a picture of a special time in our minds, we pick one time, picture everything that happen, and then we draw it across the pages.

Ways to Support Writing Development

• Encourage children to write as much as possible
• Let them see you writing and encourage them to write with you
• Don't worry about correcting spelling or grammar, those skills will come later
• Keep writing materials handy and in good working order. Also, make sure the materials are accessible for the child to reach
• Use all small moments as an opportunity for teaching writing (i.e. when they are telling you about their dream ask them to write it down)