William Paterson University

College of Education
LESSON PLANNING TEMPLATE
*Blooms Taxonomy
Teacher Candidate Name: Katelyn Sheridan
2

School: Marie V. Duffy Elementary School

Grade:

Topic: Language Arts, Narrative Writing

Concept: Writing with detail, magnifying a small moment
Essential Question: How can we write descriptively?
Date of Lesson: 04/9/2015
Standard/s):
CCS W.2.3 Write narratives
in which they recount a
well-elaborated event or
short sequence of events,
include details to describe
actions, thoughts, and
feelings. Develop real or
imagined experiences or
events using effective
technique, well-chosen
details, and wellstructured event
sequences.
CCS W.2.5 With Guidance
and support from adults
and peers, focus on a
topic and strengthen
writing as needed by
revising and editing.
Planning:

Learning objective(s):

Assessment(s): (attach assessment tools & rubrics)

Students will be able to recognize

and identify descriptive writing in
a story or text.

Final product will be complete next week and will be assessed using a
rubric that I will attach.

They will be able describe and

illustrate an event using a
minimum of two details (using
senses, adjectives, Who, What,
When, Where, Why?).

This lesson focuses on detail and descriptive writing so that is what is

being assessed.

I will observe and record responses of students during the guided

practice.
I will also circulate the room and review some of the writing
students have already started. What I am going to be looking for
here is if they have focused on one moment and have provided
two details for this event. Students will be writing these details
on a graphic organizer that I will collect and review at the end of
class. If they were able to write two details to describe the event
in their story they will receive full credit.

Teacher Resources (Internet Sites, Technology / Visuals): Easel Board to display my small moment story, carpet for students to sit on,
Pre made small moment story that I will type up and print 18X24 to use during guided practice. Paper magnifying glasses to use as a
multiple response strategy. Graphic organizer that I created (I will attach)
Academic Vocabulary: details, small moments, magnify, illustrate
Materials (e.g. Props/Manipulatives/Picture Book or Information Text): Pre made small moment story that I will type up and print
18X24 to use during guided practice. Paper magnifying glasses to use as a multiple response strategy. Thunder Cake by Patricia
Polacco to read excerpts from during the teach portion. Pictures of places and things for the guessing game.
Groupings: Will work in groups of 4 or 5 during the engage. Full class instruction on the carpet for the explore and explain section.
Partners during the extend and individually for the evaluate.

Family Engagement: Once all the students have completed a final copy of their small moment (next week) parents will be invited to a
Writers Celebration where the students will share their small moments with the class and whoever wishes to attend. Students are
also encouraged to share and discuss their small moments with their parent/guardian.
Cite Sources (e.g. textbook page # or pinterest website) Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco, Common Core Standards, Improving
Narrative Writing by Amanda Hartman
Student prior knowledge needed: On Wednesday the students will have already picked their events for their small moment story. The
focus for Wednesdays lesson will be on the parts of a story (beginning, middle and end) and planning for writing a story. Students will
write key words at the top of their page before writing to remind them of what they want to write about on that page. I will also have
already read a book called Owl Moon by Jane Olen to the class. This story uses the type of detail and elaboration that I want my
students to use in their writing. It will also be referenced in future lessons on writing small moment stories.
Co-Teaching Strategy: One teach one assist. I will be leading full class discussion. Mrs. Glazer and I both will circulate the classroom
and meet with partners during the extend portion.

Teaching and Learning

Process:

ENGAGE

Teacher
What questions will you ask?
What will you do, say, and/or
write? What tools will you use?
Have students stay in their
seats to complete the motivate
portion of the lesson in their
groups.
Good morning class, today we
are going to do things a little
differently. Have students take
out their writing folders
because they will need to
access their writing from the
day before later in the lesson.
MOTIVATE: Today we are
going to play a little guessing
game. I am going to give each
group a picture of a place or
thing. I want each group
member to examine and
analyze the picture and then
describe what you see without
telling us what it is. I will
model one and then have each
group describe theirs. Once the
group describes using details I
will have the class guess.
ASK QUESTIONS: In order to

Students
What will students do? What tools will students use? Where in the classroom
are the students? How will students be grouped?
Students are seated in their normal seats. Each group has 4-5 students in
them. Group members will be asked to work collaboratively during this
section.

Possible student responses: We need to use descriptive words or

adjectives, We need to use details Teacher: Right! We need to use words
that will help illustrate what we see to the rest of the class. What does
illustrate mean? What are we doing when we illustrate? Students: They may

EXPLORE

describe our pictures what

kinds of details do we need to
use?
From the information given
can you predict or guess what
the object your classmates
described is?
TEACH: Ask the students to
come sit on the carpet.
Students will sit in rows next to
the people in their groups.
Boys and Girls today we are
going to continue working on
our small moments. I am going
to go over some important
things to remember when you
begin writing. Our focus today
is going to be on details. Do
you remember another
instance when we looked for
details?
Read any page from Thunder
Cake and discuss with
students the details Patricia
Polacco used on that page.
While reading, do not show the
students the illustrations on the
page so you can later ask them
to picture what she wrote. Can
you visualize in your head the
event Patricia Palacco just
described in her story?
The way Patricia Polacco has
written this, its as if she held
up a magnifying glass to this
moment, just like you
pretended to do during our
guessing game.
In this portion of the lesson I
am modeling for the children
how to envision a moment. We
will discuss how the author of

connect the word illustrate to illustrator and drawing. Teacher: Good, just
like an artist illustrates and draws detailed pictures for a story, we need to
use details and descriptions to help others visualize what we are writing or
talking about.

Students will be sitting on the carpet in rows facing the easel board. During
this portion of the lesson the students will listen to parts of the story
Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco and we will discuss using details in writing.

Student response: We have looked for details in our reading. (More

specifically their non-fiction reading groups)

Pause for student responses

EXPLAIN

Thunder Cake uses details to

draw the reader in. The goal
here is to make the students
comfortable picking out and
using descriptive writing and
how descriptive writing can put
the reader into the story.
Guided practice: I will already
have part of my own small
moment written out on the
Easel board. What my students
will help me do is add detail to
my story and get rid of
information that is not needed.
When we write with detail we
want to make sure what we are
writing is clear and is
important. Small moments are
stories that focus on a specific
event so we want to make sure
we are focusing on that event.
We will read through each
sentence I have written and I
will ask the students Does this
have enough detail? Should I
add something or should I take
it out? Can you distinguish
between the details that are
useful and descriptive and
details that we dont need in
my story?
Before entering the extend
portion of the lesson give
students instructions on what
they will be doing at their
seats. Then ask them to return
to their seats to work with their
partner on planning the details
they will use in their story.
I am challenging you to

Students will remain on the carpet and we will go over the beginning of a
small moment that I wrote.

Instead of raising their hands to answer, each student will have pre made
paper magnifying glasses with Keep, Take Out, or Add detail written on
them. Without talking they can raise their response and I can record specific
responses and prompt students with different questions based on their
responses. I like this multiple response strategy because each student
receives the opportunity to share their idea and I can ask certain students to
explain their response to benefit the lesson.

EXTEND

EVALUATE

magnify your stories so that

those who read them will feel
like they are right there next to
you. Do you think you can
apply the ideas we just
discussed in your own writing?
Challenge the students to zoom
in on their own small moment
story and write with detail.
Some students have already
begun writing yesterday and
they will be choosing a specific
part of their story to magnify or
improve upon. Other students
have only decided on their
topics, planned or
brainstormed and they will
choose one part of their story
to discuss with their partner.
After giving students a moment
to gather the writing they have
already done or review their
planning, ask them to turn to
their partner with the part of
the story they want to discuss
and have them verbally
describe that part to their
partner. After they describe,
their partner will help them
write down the details they
heard on a post it note. These
details are what the students
will later go back and use when
writing their story.
The final project will be the
small moment story and this
will be assessed based on a
rubric that I will attach.
For this lesson my focus was on
details and descriptive writing
so my assessments will be

Students will return to their seats. They will be working with their partner
next to them. Groups with 5 in them will have 1 pair and 1 group of 3.

Students will pick a part of their story they want to verbally describe to their
partner. Partners will help each other write down the details they will use in
their story. The details will be written on post- its or some type of graphic
organizer.

I will observe and record responses of students during the guided practice.
I will also circulate the room and review some of the writing students have
already started. What I am going to be looking for here is if they have
focused on one moment and have provided two-four details for this event.

based on that.

Students will be writing these details on a graphic organizer that I will collect
and review at the end of class. If they were able to write two details to
describe the event in their story they will receive full credit.

Differentiated Instruction:
ELL (Student K) will be allowed to illustrate their small moment and will work one on one with Mrs. Glazer or myself to write 2
details about their story.