Unit of Study: Writing Personal Narratives...........................................

Date: Day 2 Title of Mini Lesson: Focus in Narrative Writing

Grade Level/Subject: Writing Grade 5 Prerequisite Knowledge: Students have been working on writing their personal narratives. In looking over their work they could use improvement in their use of description, adjectives, leads/introductions, and titles. This would add more Humanity and warmth as described by Georgia Heard in her book Finding the Heart of Nonfiction. Teaching 7 Essential Craft Tools with Mentor Texts.

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

Students will be able to describe the strategies used to develop a focus in narrative writing and apply these strategies to create a focus in their personal narratives through writing six-word memoirs. Students will be able to identify the focus strategies used in mentor texts.

Content Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.3a Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally . CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.3b Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations .

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Materials/Resources/Technology: * Smartboard powerpoint. Focus in writing * Student writing notebooks * Student handout: Focus in writing * Book to read aloud: The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant (copy in Spanish for E)

Opening of lesson: (Objectives, hook, behavior expectations) Connection:

Yesterday we learned about focus in writing. Today we will be zooming in to learn about the strategies that we can use to write with focus and begin writing ideas for the focus of your writing. Lets do a quick warm-up. Have you been following the Olympics? What are some focus areas you could use to write about the Olympics? What are some different angles you could take on the athletes, their lives, etc?

Procedures: Include critical thinking questions and accommodations for individual needs Teaching:
Pass out Finding Focus handout. Remember we learned yesterday that focus in writing is like the hearth around which all the details and sentences are structured. Read through handout with

students. Have them work in table groups to look of the word focus in the dictionary. Record then definition that best matches what focus means in writing in your notebooks.

focus
noun 1. 2. verb 1. 2. the center of interest or activity the state or quality of producing clear visual definition adapt to the prevailing level of light and be able to see clearly pay particular attention to

We can see that there are many different definitions for the word focus in the dictionary. Which do you think best helps to explain what focus is in writing? Talk about how a postcard focuses writing into a small space, getting the big ideas down. Display strategies slide from smartboard. Have students fill in missing blanks on handout.

Now lets look at an example together of a book that uses this. Read aloud When the Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.

Lead discussion: What is the focus of the story? What do you think Cynthia Rylant wants readers to remember about her story? __________________________________________________________________________

Active Engagement: Have students follow along filling in handout during lesson. Have students write down 3 different focus ideas in their writers notebooks. Direct them to write details that will support the focus. Have them write using the following graphic organizer, making three different main idea details charts.

___________________________________________________________________ Link: Today and every day during writers workshop we learn and practice new strategies to make our writing more alive and exciting. Today we learned about the strategies we can use to write with focus and practiced writing down focus ideas. Tomorrow we will look at how we begin writing in a way that grabs a readers attention using leads. Today and everyday as writers we will practice writing, because practice make perfect. ________________________________________________________________________ Share: Whole class will be given time to share their heart drawings and what they wrote. Summary/Closing: Ask students to place writers notebook folders in their cubbies. Remind them that tomorrow we will begin writers workshop with learning how to write with focus. Direct them to use the remainder of writing time to work on their personal narratives. Student Assessment:
Students will participate in class discussion. Students will fill out focus handout Students will write focus seed ideas and details in writers notebooks