Teacher provides preview/background/purpose for the lesson: to motivate, connect, provoke curiosity (3-5 minutes). Before introducing new material to your students, question them to find out what they know about the subject then help them build the necessary schema through discussion.
Things to think about:
Most mini-lessons involve “direct instruction” exposing the big picture of the lesson. This can be accomplished in many ways including by not limited to:
Conducting an interactive lecture. Interactive lecture Protocol Link
Conducting a “think aloud” with annotation for a specific purpose. Annotations for authentic literacy link
Discussion derived from an open question (not a yes or no answer) .82 effect size
Demonstrating a writing strategy. I.E. writing to learn, to demonstrate learning or to publish. From that, one could choose to demonstrate how to organize thoughts for writing such as an outline. Another option may be a thesis statement. Many avenues with this but regardless you are demonstrating the process and expectations.
Providing students with an exemplar and discussing what makes it strong or needing improvement using a rubric.