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Grade: 3-5
Subject: Reading/Writing
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6+1 Traits- Organization
Lesson Plan
Grade: 5th Grade
Overview: Getting students to write with an interesting lead is a hard task to master. This lesson will provide a useful mini-lesson to get students to understand why creating an interesting lead is vital to a good paper. Multiple sources of texts will be used in the lessons to show examples of interesting and “tired” leads. The students will be given examples of different kinds of leads they could use in their own writing.
Objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to write a strong lead with a topic of their choosing.
Standards:
Common Core: W.5.1a: Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
W.5.2a: Introduce a topic clearly, provide a general observation and focus, and group related information logically; include formatting, illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
W.5.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
Materials:
• Write board or smart board to post leads
• Paper
• Pencil
• Mentor Texts
Mentor Texts:
1. Charlotte’s Web By: E.B. White
2. The Lightning Thief By: Rick Riordan
3. Disney’s: A Christmas Carol By: Disney Press
4. Rules By: Cynthia Lord
Procedure:
1. Start off the lesson by saying: Hi, I am (Teachers name) Miss Meier today I will be teaching you about writing. (Be very bland in your talking like a “boring lead”. Act like you are the introduction to a boring overused paper. Use a slow monotone voice.)
2. Show them the following leads in books. Ask them if they would be excited to read them.
• Hi, I’m E.B. White, and I want to tell you the story of Charlotte the spider and her friend Wilbur.
• This book is about Percy Jackson and his trip to save the master bolt.
• Do you like Christmas? I like Christmas. This book the Christmas Carol about Scrooge learning to like Christmas
• In these 189 pages you will read about a young girl named Catherine and an autistic brother David.
3. Why do you think the author did not use these leads to start the book?
• They are boring
• There is no action
• Over used
• Dull
4. Read the real introductions of each of the books, Charlotte’s Web, Lightning Thief, Disney’s a Christmas Carol, and Rules.
5. Discuss what makes the beginning of a book draw you in to want to read more.
• Exciting
• Makes you want to keep reading
• Makes you ask questions
6. Discuss how students can make their writing lead more exciting. Might be a good idea to put these on a poster for students to refer back to
• Startling fact- Giant Panda’s live longer lives in their natural habitat.
• A scene that sets the stage- It was 5:30am and the sun was just about to rise, as we hiked in the forest we were closer to wear the pandas were eating.
• Action, Action, Action!
• A promise to readers "If you believe in this product you will save 100 panda’s every month.
• An intriguing quotations- “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
• An Anecdote- I once went to the zoo to see the giant panda, but the zoo keeper told me that since the Giant Panda is close to extinction they have none in captivity in the zoo anymore.
• A summary of a problem-There are only 1600 pandas left in today world.
7. With the class talk to them about the different type of leads you just introduced to them. Do they tell the reader what the paper will be about? Do they get the reader interested?
8. Have each student find a partner and write 3 new leads for any of the books that we used as an example. Give students at least 20 minutes of in-class time to write the leads. They will have lots of questions, and you want them to be creative and not rushed.
Assessment: Have the students turn in their leads about one topic to see if they got the idea of how to create an exciting lead. These leads should carry into future papers. The teacher will continuously monitor the students writing for evidence of solid leads.
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