Kutztown Lesson Plan

Teacher: Ms. Lisa Rhyner Date: 2/06/17

Group Size: 22 Allotted Time 20 minutes Grade Level: Fourth

Subject or Topic: Narrative Writing Lesson 1: Intro and Brainstorming

Section 935

I. Performance Objectives

A. Standards
CC.1.4.4.B
Identify and introduce the topic clearly

B. Learning Objectives
1) Students will be able to identify a topic for their
narrative writing through the use of a
brainstorming technique, and then will introduce that topic
by writing a small moment about it.

II. Assessment
1) Formative
Students will be assessed formatively on their ability
to identify a topic and write a small moment about
it through their completion of the brainstorming
graphic organizer.
2) Summative
Students will be given a summative assessment at
the end of the unit in the form of a personal narrative
essay that they will write.
Students will be given a summative assessment at
the end of the unit in the form of a test that they will
take.
III. Instructional Materials
A. Teacher
Whiteboard/markers
Model Brainstorming graphic organizer (filled in by
teacher)
Anchor chart for Narrative Writing
My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother book pages 1
B. Students
 22 Teacher created Narrative Writing Interactive
Booklets
Page one of the narrative writing booklet
22 pencils

IV. Subject Matter

A. Prerequisite Skills
Students must be familiar with literal and non-literal
meanings.
Students should know how to fill in the blanks in their
interactive notebook during instruction time.
Students must know what behavior is appropriate for
small group work as well as whole class instruction.
B. Key Vocabulary
Personal Narrative: a true story of something that
happened to you.
C. Big Ideas
Students will learn to detect and use different
examples of authors craft in writing.
D. Content
Students will learn how to use a brainstorming
technique and organizational structure to determine
a topic for their narrative writing essay.
V. Implementation
A. Introduction
o Bring the class to the front and have them sit on the
carpet.
o Tell them that you are going to read them a few pages from
a book.
o Read the first page of My Rotten Redheaded Older
Brother
o Tell the students that you just read them a personal
narrative because the character in the story is telling you
about something that happened to her.
o Explain to the students that they will be learning about
narrative writing over the course of the next couple of
days.
o Tell the students: A narrative is a story about someone
and what happened to them. What we are going to focus
on is a personal narrative, because its easier to write
about something that actually happens to you.
o The teacher will hang the anchor chart for narrative writing
on the whiteboard. The anchor chart will contain the
 definition for narrative writing as well as a personal
narrative definition.
o The teacher will read the definitions to the students.
o Explain to the students how the anchor chart will be used.
This is our Narrative Writing Anchor Chart, and I
have put the first anchor onto it. We are going to
refer to this chart and add to it every day for help.
Every time we learn something new, we are going to
put it on the anchor chart.
B. Development
o Tell the students that at the end of this unit they will be
writing their own personal narrative essay using all of the
components that they will be learning about over the next
few days.
o Tell the students, Its hard to write about something that
you didnt experience yourself. Thats why we need to pick
things that we have experienced ourselves to write about!
We are going to pick our definition apart, piece-by-piece,
and learn everything about it! We are going to learn how to
write with figurative language (using good sensory details),
we will learn to describe our character and the setting (the
place that an event happens at), and we will organize our
writing with a beginning, middle, and an end.
o Today we will work on the first step to writing a personal
narrative. The first step to writing a personal narrative is to
find something to write about. Before we can get into the
details and component of how to write well, we need
something to write about! So today, we are going to
brainstorm about what to write about.
o Tell the class: Brainstorming is a good way to organize our
thoughts!
o A good way to brainstorm for something to write about it
to think about a person who matters to you and a small
moment experience with that person.
o The teacher will model brainstorming by writing on the
board, Topics for writing and circling it.
o The teacher will draw four lines coming out of the topics
for writing circle and create four separate circles, each
labeled person who matters.
o Tell the students, We are going to brainstorm and spend
some time thinking about what experiences we have had
that may be interesting to write about.
o The teacher will demonstrate a think-aloud in front of the
class to explain how to fill in the graphic organizer.
o The teacher will write specific peoples names that matter
to her on the board (As seen on the model graphic
organizer.)
Dad
Mom
Garrett
Noelle
o The teacher model should look like this when finished..

o Tell the class, After you find a person who matters, you
need to find a clear moment about that person. Think
about the person as pizza and the small moment as a slice
of that pizza.
o Tell the students, We will include a clear, small moment
that mattered to you with that person. A small moment
should be something we can remember with crystal
clarity.
o The teacher will draw more lines from the people who
matter on the board and draw more circles and write,
Small Moment inside them.
o The teacher will model the small moments circle by writing
in personal examples of small moments in her own life and
write it on the board.
Under Mom write New York Trip
Under Dad write Took me to work with him when I
was a kid.
 Under Garrett write We went to the zoo for my
birthday
Under Noelle write Princess Birthday Party
o Model teacher thinking with students by telling them about
the events and why you wrote them as small moments
on the board.
o Students will be asked to turn to the first page in their
narrative writing booklet.
o Tell the students, Now remember: when someone
brainstorms they are mind dumping, getting all of their
ideas from their brain to the paper. This graphic organizer
has different sections to help organize your thoughts.
o Divide students into partner groups and give them 10
minutes to fill it out in their brainstorming graphic
organizers.
o The teacher will walk the room and conference with
students about their topics. If a student needs help
completing their graphic organizer, the teacher will provide
prompts
Is there someone in your life that is important to
you?
If you were having trouble or needed help with a
problem you had, whom would you go to?
Do you have a pet that you love? It doesnt have to
just be a person-I love my dog too and I could think
of some stories of things that happened to me and
my dog!
Have you ever gone on vacation with someone?
o After the students have completed their graphic organizer,
they will be asked to look over it and discuss these people
and small moments with their partners.
o Ask the students to think of details that happened during
these small moments and tell their partner about them.
Ask the students to write down any good points or details
about these events so that they dont forget about them.
o Tell the students to turn to the Its my turn to write paper
after their graphic organizer in the narrative writing
booklet.
o Students will be given 15 minutes to write down what they
remember about one of the small moments on their
graphic organizers.
o The teacher will be walking the room, observing each
student and monitoring their work.
C. Closure
 o 3 minutes prior to the ending of class, tell the students to
wrap up their thoughts and finish their writing.
o Bring the students together and ask for some volunteers to
share their people and small moments.
o Tell the students, Now that you have heard what other
students are writing about and have experienced, some of
you who are unsure of what topic to pick can use some of
these ideas for your own writing!
D. Accommodations/Differentiation
1. For Struggling Learners
o S.P, W.S, and H.M will be put in a group near
the front to be closer to the teacher so the
teacher can monitor them more closely
throughout the lesson. These students will
need direct monitoring and prompting when
writing about their people and small
moments.
2. For Accelerated Learners
o A.D., M.M., P.J., C.B., and any other student that
assignment quickly will be asked to start
writing about one or two of the small moments
that they picked. Ask them to write details that
they remember or just to journal about the
events.

VI. Reflective Response

A. Report of Students Performance in Terms of Stated
Objectives
All students but one that was absent completed their
brainstorming graphic organizer.
B. Personal Reflection

1. How can I improve this lesson?

I am pretty happy with how this lesson turned out.
The kids were well behaved and took it seriously. I
had just given them the pre-test before the lesson so
they were a little upset about not understanding
anything that was on the test, but they bounced back
pretty fast.
2. What additional assistance, supports, and/or
resources would have further enhanced this
lesson?
A clipboard for each student. I bring the students to
the front of the class for any kind of instruction so
when I started explaining narrative writing to them I
 had them bring their booklets to the front. This
worked well and the students were better engaged
because of it but I saw most of them putting their
booklets on the ground or on their legs to write.
3. Were the students productively engaged? How do
I know?
The students were productively engaged as they
filled out their graphic organizer completely and
helped each other. They were very excited to tell
their classmates about their people that matter.

VII. Resources