Language Arts Lesson Plan: Writer’s Workshop

Mini-Lesson #1- Lives are full of Stories to Tell

Student Name: Danielle Hutchinson School Name: Barclay Brook Elementary

Grade Level: 1st grade Host Teacher’s Name: Mrs. Pilgrim

Guiding and/or Essential Questions:

What is a “Small Moment” story?

How do we plan before we begin writing?

Pre-lesson Assignments and/or Student Prior Knowledge

The students have completed an introductory unit in Writer’s Workshop, thus they
understand the basic routines of this lesson. They have practiced writing simple pieces and editing
them. They have been introduced to concepts such as “stretching out” words and going back to
edit writing. Some students may have written “Small Moments” in kindergarten.

Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.3: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately

sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to
signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.

Learning Objectives and Assessments:

Learning Objectives Assessment

The students will be able to identify everyday
events as “small moments” when planning to
write that prompt.
The students will discuss what a “small moment
is” as a class, and individual students will
discuss their small moment ideas with a
neighbor. The teacher will assess for responses
that detail simple, common, everyday events.

The students will be able to plan out a story
prior to writing.
The students will write a sequence of events in
their story prior to starting the piece. The
teacher will assess that these events show a
beginning, middle, and end, and that all parts
are relevant to the story.
Materials/Resources:
 Night of the Veggie Monster by George McClements
 Leo the Lion stuffed animal
 Each child’s writing folder.

Plan for set-up/distribution/cleanup of materials:

 One student from each table will be asked to retrieve the folder bin for each table.

Lesson Procedure:
1. Lesson beginning:
 The lesson will begin with the students seated on the carpet in their Reader’s
Workshop spots. The teacher will read Night of the Veggie Monster by George
McClements, while holding Leo the Lion. After the story has finished, the teacher
will ask the students if they ever didn’t want to eat dinner, like the boy in the
book. Many students are likely to agree with this. The teacher will explain how
this wasn’t a “big” moment in life, but a “small moment”. The students and
teacher will talk about examples of big and small moments.
 The teacher will announce that the class will be writing small moment stories in
Writer’s Workshop. The teacher will explain that in order to write a small
moment story, the students need to follow a few steps. She will explain each as
she writes, “think of an idea, plan, and write” on the chart paper.
 The teacher will begin to brainstorm ideas of small moments, giving simple
examples from her home life.
2. The teacher will stand up and “accidentally” toss Leo into the crowd of students. Once
the class’ laughter dies down, the teacher will retrieve the stuffed animal. She will say,
“Wow, that was pretty funny! It wasn’t a big event, but it was a cool small moment.
Maybe we can write a story about that”.
3. The teacher and class will begin to plan out the story. The students will be called upon to
think about what came first (“we read Night of the Veggie Monster”), second (“Miss
Hutchinson dropped Leo!”), and last (“we brought Leo back to Miss Hutchinson”) .
4. After the plan is done, the teacher will ask the students to think in their heads about a
small moment in their own lives, and she will give a few more examples. She will ask the
kids to touch their noses when they have an idea. Then, the teacher will ask the students
to turn to their Reader’s Workshop partner sitting next to them. They will be asked to
share their small moment, and then talk about what came first, second, and last. The
teacher will roam around and listen as this is done.
5. The teacher will show the students an example of a completed small moment story.
6. One student from each table will be asked to retrieve their group’s Writer’s Workshop
folders and put them on the table. The class will return to their seats. They will work on
their small moment planning. If they finish planning, they may begin writing.
7. Lesson ending:
 Long closure:
i. The teacher will ask three students to share their work.

Key Questions:
  What is a small moment?
 How can we write using a plan?
 What is the beginning, middle, and end?

Logistics:
Timing:
The lesson will last approximately forty minutes. About twenty minutes will be spent
reading the book, discussing how to plan for small moment stories, and partner sharing. Fifteen
minutes will be left to writing. The last five minutes will be for sharing student work.

Transitions:
To transition from the carpet to the desks, the students will be asked to go to their seat
when a color they are wearing is called.

Classroom Management:

The teacher will be sure to make expectations explicit and clear from the beginning of the
lesson. The teacher will remind students to continue showing respect to their peers, to the materials,
and to me for the entirety of the lesson. To call the students attention, the teacher will yell, “Barclay
Brook”, and the students will respond by saying, “stop and look”. To keep the students attentive
during the video, they will be reminded to keep “marshmallow hands”. If a student misbehaves,
they will be asked to “clip down” on the behavior chart. As well, positive behavior will be
rewarded by having students “clip up” or by offering a point to a whole table.

Differentiation

Students who are in need of extra assistance, such as G, AW, M, S, and V will be given
additional assistance during the lesson. As well, these students will be allowed to sit near the
teacher when she is reading on the carpet. High-level students such as AL will be encouraged to
add more events into their small moment. The students will be reminded of the phrase, “When
you’re done, you’ve just begun” whenever they finish early, and will be asked to go back and
revise.