For each resource/activity in your "Whole Group Instruction" subsection, provide the following:
A detailed description of the resource/activity: What is it, and how does it work?
Target audience: Specify the grade level(s) for which the resource/activity is most appropriate (K-2 or 3-5).
Connection to literacy development: Explain how the resource/activity supports skills in Writing.
Implementation plan: Provide clear steps for using the resource or activity in a whole-class setting. Describe how you will engage the entire class in the learning process.
Provides two high-quality, detailed resources/activities per literacy area
Activity 1- K-2 Narrative Writing Mini Lesson
Mentor text: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (15-20 mins Total)
It’s written for younger children, but this book is a great mentor text for teaching cause-effect relationships, sequencing, and engaging beginnings at the 2-3 grade level.
How to Adapt for Ages 7-8 (Grades 2-3)
● Focus on Narrative Structure: Discuss how the book follows a circular plot (the ending loops back to the beginning). Have students try writing their own “If you give a…” story.
-Mentor text
- Index cards
-Pencils
-Smart Board/ White Board
-Sentence Starters
● Read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and ask: “What do you notice about how the story begins?”
● Discuss how strong beginnings make readers want to continue reading.
● State the learning target: “Today, we will learn how to write an interesting beginning for our stories by establishing a clear situation, introducing characters, and organizing events naturally.”
Example 1: Action Beginning
"I sprinted across the playground as the rain poured down, my backpack flapping wildly behind me."
Example 2: Question Beginning
"Have you ever wondered what happens if you open a mysterious box in your backyard?"
Think-Aloud Explanation:
"An action beginning throws the reader right into excitement, making them feel the urgency or emotion. A question beginning piques curiosity, inviting the reader to keep reading to find out the answer. For this lesson, I’ll use the question beginning because it creates a sense of mystery right away."
● Provide students with short sentences, e.g., "A girl found a mysterious box in her backyard."
● Have them work in pairs to rewrite the beginning using action, dialogue, or a question.
● Encourage students to incorporate thoughts, feelings, or character responses.
● Share a few examples aloud and discuss what makes them engaging.
Choose a Topic: "Now it's your turn! You get to choose your own character and what happens when you give them something. You could use a penguin like I did, or maybe choose a different animal, a character, or even a superhero. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
● What if you gave a dragon a donut?
● What if you gave a rabbit a rake?
● What if you gave a robot a book?"
Write Your Strong Story Beginning: "Think about how you want to start your story. You can choose one of the two techniques we learned today:
● Action Beginning: Start with something exciting that happens right away. What action does your character take when they get what you give them?
● Question Beginning: Start with a question that makes the reader curious. What happens in your story that will make the reader think, 'I want to know more!'"
"Take a few minutes to write your strong opening, using the technique you like best. Here’s an example of what I might write:
● If I chose 'What if you gave a dragon a donut?', I might start like this: 'If you give a dragon a donut, he’ll try to eat it, but it’s way too cold for him! He’ll puff out his cheeks and blow fire to make it warmer!'"
Illustrate the Opening Scene : "Once you’ve written your opening, take a moment to draw the scene you just wrote. It will help you see your story come to life and will help you think about what happens next. For example, if your dragon is trying to eat a donut, you could draw the dragon puffing out his cheeks and looking at the donut with excitement."
Share and Discuss : "After you finish, if you’d like, you can share your story beginning with the class or with a partner. We can talk about what makes each opening interesting and how the action or question pulls readers in!"
Share and Discuss : "After you finish, if you’d like, you can share your story beginning with the class or with a partner. We can talk about what makes each opening interesting and how the action or question pulls readers in!"
Assessment & Checks for Understanding
Informal Check-in Through Peer Sharing:
● What to Observe:
○ After students share their story beginnings with a partner or the class, observe how well they are able to explain their choices. Are they able to describe why they chose a specific technique (action or question) to hook the reader?
Exit Ticket:
"Which beginning strategy did you choose and why?"
"How do you think your beginning will hook your reader?"
Activity 2- K-2 Informational Writing Mini-Lesson
Mentor Text- Bananas! by Jacqueline Farmer (15-20 mins Total)
This book is a great mentor text for teaching sentence fluency to strengthen students' writing.
-Mentor text
- white board/ smart board
● Read Bananas! by Jacqueline Farmer and lead students into the following discussion. Read Example A:
Does this sound like fluent writing? Explain.
What would you do to make it fluent?
● Project Example B and ask students if they think that sounds like fluent writing and lead them in the following discussion.
What type of of sentence is it? Compund? Complex? Compound-complex? Simple?
What type of clause begins the sentence?
What type of clause follows the first clause?
Are there any types of phrases? If so, what are they?
What type of phrase or clause ends the sentence?
● For an example to demonstrate to students how a series in a sentence creates a more fluid sentence than one with many simple sentences, use Examples C and D.
What did you notice about Example C?
Ask a student to read it and to comment on its fluency.
Then project Example D and ask a student to read and comment on its fluency.
Analyze the series in the sentence found in Example D and discuss how using a series can create sentence fluency.
Project Example E and ask students to create a sentence that is fluent.
Have students share their sentences.
Activity 1- Most appropriate for 3-5th grade
Grade Level: 3
Gather 3 informational texts about oceans
This Writing Lesson focuses on teaching students' comprehension, research, and organization skills useful for writing. This activity has students read and analyze multiple texts to use them for writing. The students compare the texts and find details in the texts to support their main idea in their topic sentence of their writing.
Objective:
● Students will understand how to write strong topic sentences for their paragraphs.
● Students will learn how to connect their topic sentence to the main idea of the paragraph.
Materials Needed:
● Smartboard
● Sentence frames
● Index cards
● Colored Pens (for annotating)
Lesson Steps:
1. Introduction
•Engage students with a challenge: Display three short informational paragraphs on the smartboard (each paragraph is giving information about oceans)—two with clear topic sentences and one without. Have students guess the main idea of each paragraph.
•Discuss:
•What made some paragraphs easier to understand?
•Why do strong topic sentences matter in writing?
•Explain that today, they will collaborate, create, and refine topic sentences through interactive activities.
2. Modeling
● Write a vague sentence like:
● “Oceans are important for many reasons”
● Think aloud as you transform it into a strong topic sentence:
● “Oceans play a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate, supporting marine life, and providing resources for humans.”
● Ask students: What makes this sentence stronger? (More specific, clear direction, introduces supporting details)
● Repeat with another example, inviting student input.
3. Guided Practice
● Group students in pairs or small teams.
● Give each group a topic card about oceans and multiple cards with supporting details.
● Match a topic card with the best supporting detail card.
● Work together to write a strong topic sentence.
4. Independent Practice
● Step 1: Students choose a topic and write a draft topic sentence.
● Step 2: Swap with a partner and revise each other’s sentence by making it stronger or clearer.
● Step 3: Pass the revised sentence to another student for final feedback.
● Step 4: Students write their final, best version and share with the class.
5. Closure
Exit Ticket: Each student writes a topic sentence for a creative or informational paragraph about their favorite hobby, place, or event.
•Share a few aloud and discuss strengths.
•Collect as an exit ticket to check understanding.
Activity 2 -Most appropriate for 3-5th grade
Story Title: The Lost Lighthouse
Grade Level: 4th
Target Skill 1: creating questions of varying rigor
This lesson highlights creating questions of varying rigor to improve students' comprehension and critical thinking skills needed for good writing. This lesson also has students practice finding evidence from the story to use in their argument, which will help them develop writing skills for argumentative and informative writing. Students are also hinted to draw inferences from the story to use in creative writing.
Setting the Stage:
The teacher starts by explaining, “Asking questions during readings are important to further your understanding. Throughout this reading pay attention to the questions I ask and questions you may be wondering.”
Pauses (up to 5):
1- End of page 1- Why is the lighthouse abandoned?
2- End of page 2- What do you think Ellie will discover at the Lighthouse?
3- End of page 6- Do you think Ellie should have left the letters or taken them with her? Create an argument and defend it with text evidence.
Closure: Knowing that Ellie left the letters, what do you think the additional letters from the lighthouse keeper contained?
Extension Activity: Write a journal entry as if you were the lighthouse keeper writing to your family. Include details of when you are writing the letter, events you may being seeing, and thoughts and feelings you may be experiencing. When you finish writing the letter, design the paper to look like the letter described in the text (page. 4). Remember you can draw inferences to what you think the letter would appear to look like.
Reflection:
(discuss your teaching strategies and student response modalities)
It was helpful to have a template and a toolbox. We used the toolbox to pull key verbs of different rigor. It also helped having practice from creating a lesson plan last week and receiving feedback.
Teaching Writing to Diverse Student Populations | Reading Rockets
Children’s Authors: On Writing | Reading Rockets
Using Mentor Texts to Teach 6+1 Writing Traits by Beverly A. Devries