Daily Lesson Plan

Subject: English Language Arts Time: 40-45 Minutes Date: Week of November 5 9, 2012 Class: Grade 8

The purpose of this activity is to get all students excited about the creative writing process. A collection of words/phrases will be made by each student, and these will be glued/taped to the inside of their personal journals. This activity will show students that they already have many topics ready for their journals and have a place to refer back to when/if theyre experiencing writers block. Materials Needed: Post-It Notes Student Journals/ Writers Notebooks Tape/Glue Markers/Highlighters Engagement Activity/Warm-Up: Students will gather their journals and also receive four Post-It notes. Students will be told that they will be doing a topic-generating activity and will be shown an exemplar of what is to be done. The four topics are: 1. Celebrations, Holidays and Family Gatherings 2. Vivid Memories 3. Objects (be specific!) 4. Your Favorite Places Students will write 1 topic on each Post-It. These Post-Its will be glued/taped to the inside front cover of their journals. Students may colour/decorate the Post-Its if they choose to and have extra time at the end of the Warm-Up activity. Students who are on a modified curriculum may still participate in this lesson. Instead of expecting 510 points on each topic, students on SEPs could aim for 2-3 but should be encouraged to do as much as possible!

A PowerPoint was made to coincide with this lesson. (Titled Post-It Notes). Each topic has a separate Journal entry and slide that was written by the instructor. The entries are put on the SmartBoard so students may follow along while the entry is being read to them by the instructor. After each entry, ask the class if they have any ideas about what they may write in their journals concerning that specific topic (Ex: Objects). The entries get weaker each time (1 being the strongest, 4 being the weakest). For the 3rd and 4th entry, ask students what could be done to improve the journal entries and record their ideas on the SmartBoard (for example: stronger sentences or more descriptive language).

Once all four of the teachers journal entries have been read, students will write as many topics as they can on each Post-It. Give between 5-10 minutes to finish this activity. This is to be done independently. Students should have between 5-10 ideas per Post-It.

After students are finished creating their own lists, they may share their ideas with their table/partner. Ask students to stick their Post-It topics to the inside cover of their journals. Pass tape around to the class if it is needed.

Reflection: Were students actively engaged throughout the activity?