#4122. Writing Conventions

, level: Elementary
Posted Fri Jul 27 08:38:13 PDT 2007 by Sarah Dontsow (sdontsow@yahoo.com).
Whitelely Elementary, Hoffman Estates, USA
Materials Required: see below (step 9)
Activity Time: 1-2 class periods
Concepts Taught: Writing Conventions

Lesson Plan

Subject: Writing Date: Thursday January 25, 2007

Behavioral Objective (measurable & observable):
Given a written paragraph that contains six convention errors, a convention checklist and a verbal request, each student will independently identify capitalization, punctuation and spelling errors by marking them correctly on the paragraph with 6 out of 7 mistakes marked.

Illinois Learning Standard:
STATE GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.

3.B.2d Edit documents for clarity, subjectivity, pronoun-antecedent agreement, adverb and adjective agreement and verb tense; proofread for spelling, capitalization and punctuation; and ensure that documents are formatted in final form for submission and/or publication.

Teaching Steps:

1. Anticipatory Set (focus, a hook to grab students' attention):
I would really like to review the process of editing and go over it with you. Specifically, today we are going to be look at writing conventions. That word should sound familiar to you because that word is already on one of your editing checklists. Can either of you tell me what conventions refer to on your other checklist?

2. Purpose (objective):
Usually when you are here the focus is on your own writing and how to make yourself a better writer. I think it will be very helpful to you to have some practice reading someone else's paper. Part of being a good author is being able to read your work and the work of others.

3. Input:
Let's review transition words, they act as a connector. Can you give me some examples of a transition? (Words from the wall poster) What about things I might not choose ("third grade words or others)?
What about capital letters? I know we capitalize the first word in a sentence, but what other kinds of words do we capitalize (Jackie, why did you capitalize the canyon?)
Let's not forget punctuation. What has to go at the end of a sentence?
Finally, we have spelling. If I'm not sure how to spell a word, what should I do?

4. Modeling (show):
The example I have for you today is an essay that someone wrote about teachers. I'm going to make sure I have my checklist and then I know I can begin going through one paragraph at a time. We go through the paper one paragraph at a time and make sure all of the key conventions are correct. These are the specific things I need to look for.
Name. . .
Date. . .
Title. . .
Transition. . . I know when I'm looking for a transition it should be one of the words from our transition list. I also know it should be the first word in the body paragraph.. . .
Capitalization. . .Did I capitalize the first letter of each sentence and all proper nouns?
Punctuation. . .Do all of my sentences have punctuation?
Spelling. . . Did I scan all words that are misspelled?

5. Guided Practice (follow me):
Okay, I got through that paragraph, I think maybe you should help me on this next one. Are you ready for body paragraph number two?
Repeat previous steps with the students.

6. Check for Understanding (verbal):
Okay, I think you both have got this down pretty well. Let's pause for a minute so I can double check. If one of your friends from class asks you to proofread one of their papers and you agree to do so, what are the specific conventions (can look at the worksheet, since they are provided a checklist) you need to look for.

7. Independent Practice:
I think you are ready for the challenge! You are both going to independently read paragraph three. I would like you to use the checklist and make any necessary corrections. There will be six corrections that need to be made. After you think we got them all we can go over it together.

8. Closure:
Give feedback on third paragraph.
Review the key conventions that are on the checklist.
Remind me again, what are some of the conventions we are looking for when we read someone else's paper?
Time to. . . (Either work on writing assignment or go to go back to class. . . depending on time)

9. Materials:
Convention checklist
Peer review checklist
Pens
Sample writing
Spell checker (if needed)
Transition list (on the wall)

Here is one sample I created to model skills:

Sally Somebody
1/20/2007

What are the Qualities of Good Teachers?

There are many things that make a teacher a good teacher. In this essay, I will talk about three qualities of a good teacher.

the first quality of good teachers is that they are very nice. That does not meen that they cant yell at you every so often. if they do yell it should be in a nice way. good teachers do not yell very often

the second thing that makes good teacher is that they don't have too many rules? Good teachers don't worry about the small stuff too much. I mean like hall passes and getin your homework dun exactly on time. good teachers know that students may not always know how to follow rooles, sometimes they need examples

the third thing about being good teachers is that they should be organized. They should know where my stuff is. Sometimes I lose my folder? Good teachers know were to find things. Sometimes teachers will know where my homework is. good teachers keep their work space organized. they should have there papers put into folders

Those are the three best qualities in a teacher.