Mentor

Text Writing Lesson Plan

Kristen Davison

*Taught on October 31, 2017

A. TITLE OF LESSON (Writing Focus): Staying on Topic While Writing

B. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING
4.7 The student will write cohesively for a variety of purposes.
b) Focus on one aspect of a topic.
d) Organize writing to convey a central idea.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND The students will understand how mentor texts can help them as
writers. They will also understand how Because of Thursday models staying on topic.

KNOW The students will know how the author in the mentor text stayed on topic for
the entire story and related all ideas back to the main focal point. They will know what
it means to stay on topic in their own writing and how to remove unrelated sentences
and ideas.

DO The students will refer to a previous piece of writing that they have written,
determine which sentences were on topic and which ones were not, and revise
accordingly to tie all sentences back to the main idea. They will first complete a peer
evaluation of a classmates writing and then make changes to their own.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
I will assess student learning by observing and keying into student responses to questions
asked during the reading of the mentor text, paying attention to the way they fill out the peer
evaluation for their writing buddy, and reading and discussing their writing with them as they
make their own revisions. My observations of these different tasks will help me to assess the
students level of understanding of how Patricia Polacco stayed on topic in the story. The check
sheet will allow me to determine whether or not the student accurately completed the peer
evaluation. The rubric I will use will help me to determine whether each student retained the
lesson and was able to apply it in their own writing. I will assess all students who participated
in the lesson and take pictures of a students writing sample and evaluation for further
assessment. Attached are the observation form, check sheet, rubric, peer evaluation, which is
the stay on topic chart.

PART TWO: LESSON PLAN PROCEDURE

A. CONTEXT OF LESSON
I will be teaching students about how to stay on topic while writing using the mentor text
Because of Thursday. This lesson will be a small group mini lesson incorporated with a mini
writers workshop. They have already practiced writing on a topic of their choice. The result of
this lesson will be the students successfully staying on topic in their final drafts of writing.

I will read sections of the mentor text to the students that very clearly relate to the topic of
Thursday, specifically drawing their attention to those details. Annie Fetlock, who is the main
character in the story, relates all her ideas back to Thursday because everything positive seems
to happen on that day of the week. I will allow time for the students to talk and share what they
understand about staying on topic from the story, as well as determine their own reasoning for
why it is important to do so. I will then model staying on topic by showing a sample of my own
piece of writing, which highlights examples and non-examples, and students will give feedback.
They will then exchange their writings with a buddy and complete a peer evaluation. After they
do this, they will obtain their own writings once again, review the evaluation, and adjust their
writings accordingly. After they have time to write, several students will share out how they
revised their writing to reflect the topic throughout.

The idea came from The Curriculum Corner, which provided a lesson idea about staying on
topic using a piece of writing about a dog sled race:
http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner456/staying-on-topic-writing-
lesson/
I am making this lesson my own by using a mentor text that effectively models staying on topic
while also using a short writing sample that I personally created to show what it looks like to
stray from the topic. This mentor text was previously read to the students as a normal read-
aloud. I am also allowing students to discuss the importance of staying on topic by using the
mentor text rather than just teaching them to put the concept into practice.

B. MATERIALS NEEDED
Because of Thursday, written and illustrated by Patricia Pollaco
Students writing samples from the previous day
Promethean board to display my sample of writing with examples and non-examples
Copies of staying on topic peer evaluation sheet

C. PROCEDURE

CONNECT Have students gather in a small group near the
Students learn why todays Promethean board. Who remembers when Mrs.
instruction is important to Stover read this book, Because of Thursday?
them as writers and how the Holding up the book: Who can remind me what
lesson relates to their prior happens in it? Call on a few students to share
work The teaching point is what they remember. Patricia Polacco wrote this
stated. story; however, we are going to talk about
something that she does in this story that you can
Before also do to improve your own writing. It is called
staying on topic. Before I begin, can anyone tell
me what staying on topic might mean? Call on a
few students to share their ideas. Ask guiding
questions if they do not quite have the right idea,
and confirm if they do.

Who can tell me why it is important to stay on

topic? Call on a few students and gauge their
 thinking. Yes, it is important to stay on topic for
several reasons. All writing that we do has a
purpose. It might be to inform the reader of
something, to persuade them to do something, to
entertain them, etc. If we do not stay on topic, we
may distract the reader from our purpose.

Today we are going to read some samples from

Because of Thursday to see how Patricia Polacco
relates her ideas back to her main topic. I am
going to have you all help me determine what the
topic is and how she refers back to it throughout
her writing.
TEACH Read Pages 1-2. Turn and talk to the person
The teacher shows the beside you. Tell them what you think Patricia
students how writers Polaccos main topic is. While students are
accomplish the teaching talking to each other, make note of who can
point in the mentor text pinpoint the topic on the observation sheet. Once
students have talked amongst themselves, ask a
student to share what they think the topic is.
What do we know so far in her life that has
happened on a Thursday? What do you know
about those things? (Examples of answers should
include, She was born on a Thursday, She won
a cooking contest on a Thursday, She met her
husband on a Thursday, or She opened her
diner on a Thursday. They should know that
these are all positive things.)

During Lets keep reading to see if we are correct that
this is her main idea. Recap the part of the story
that was skipped over, as it is important but does
not directly address the point of the lesson. Then,
read pages 9-12. Is she staying on the same topic
that she did in the beginning? How do you know?
Obtain student answers. Lets skip ahead to the
last page of the story. Read the last page. As you
can see, Patricia Polacco included a lot of details
that werent about Thursday. (Recap the parts of
the story we didnt directly read.) However, she
related them all back to the concept that good
things happen to her on Thursdays. This was her
topic, and she did not stray from it. How do you
think this could help you in your own writing?
Have students share.

 Share my sample of writing on the Promethean
board and call on students to determine which
sentences relate and which ones do not. Cross out
the ones that do not.

Before we look at our own writing, we are going
to do a peer evaluation. Can anyone tell me what
this means? Obtain students background
information about peer evaluations. We are
going to exchange our writing with a neighbor
who will become our writing buddy. Your
writing buddy will use the peer evaluation form
to determine which of your sentences are on
topic. Show the form on the Promethean Board
and explain: They are going to go through each
sentence, write the sentence number, and check
whether they think that sentence is on topic or
not. Once everyone has evaluated, we are going to
return the writing and form back to the original
owner, and that writer can revise their piece
accordingly. You all should know that aspects of
the peer evaluation are suggestions. If you do not
agree with what someone said, you do not have to
implement it in your writing. Model using the
peer evaluation form for my sample writing. Show
that you are to put the sentence number in the
box (rather than writing the entire sentence) and
check the on topic or off topic box accordingly.

Thumbs up if you are clear about what you need
to do. Exchange papers with the person beside
you. I will be around to help if you are stuck on a
sentence. Please be respectful when you evaluate!
We are all working on becoming better writers
together. Im excited to see how you all help each
other! Hand out the peer evaluations.
ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT As students fill out the peer evaluation form, I will
After we teach something, walk around and take notes on whether or not
students are given a chance they understand what staying on topic means and
to practice what has just been if they are evaluating effectively. I will guide
taught with new writing or students accordingly if not.
revising a prior piece. (May
assess during this time) Then, students will return papers to their original
owners and I will make observations as to
whether or not they address the changes (or
respectfully disagree).
 After LINK Have students return to the desks with their
The teacher reiterates what original writings and the peer evaluation form.
has just been taught and Turn to the person next to you and tell them
gives students an opportunity what you learned today. Have a few students
to share (May assess during share.
this time) How did you all feel about evaluating each
others writing? Did you make any changes to
your own based your classmates advice? Get
student feedback and fill out the observation form
accordingly. Have a few students share what they
changed. Who can tell me what our writing focus
was today? Call on a few students. We used a
mentor text today to help our writing. The author
modeled staying on topic, something we should
always do in our own writing. In your future
writing, I hope you will keep this in mind.

D. DIFFERENTIATIONSince the students are working on peer evaluations and correcting
their own writing, it is important for the teacher to monitor and support students who may
need additional assistance staying on task and evaluating effectively. One way this could be
done during peer evaluation is to have the student whom they are evaluating tell them what
their topic is so they can write it at the top, rather than trying to determine it by themselves.
Then, they can evaluate based on that topic. For the students who have limited English
proficiency, I can walk them step by step through the process and remain close by. Students
who finish early can take another piece of writing out of their writers notebook and revise to
stay on topic.

E. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
The students may struggle to determine which sentences are on topic and which ones are not
in their peer evaluations. To combat this, I will ask the individual students who are having
trouble guiding questions without blatantly giving them the answers. Some students may be off
task during the individual part of the lesson. To combat this, I will stand by them and redirect
their behavior by reminding them of the task at hand. If the problem persists, I will have the
student sit in a different part of the classroom and work with me rather than a peer.

PART THREE: REFLECTION

In the actual teaching of my lesson, the first half went almost exactly as planned. I asked
the planned discussion questions and additional guiding questions based on student responses.
The students gave accurate responses when I modeled filling out the peer evaluation form
using my own piece of writing, so I figured they were ready to complete their own peer
evaluations. When I set them free to do so, I found that many of them were not clear on the
instructions, so I had to explain them in a different way. This was especially necessary for the
English Language Learners in the class. An additional change that I had to make in order to
make my lesson accessible to ELLs was to mix up one of the pairings. I paired one of the ELLs
with an English-speaking boy in hope that he could help her to understand the directions and
task. While the pairing was helpful for this purpose, it was not helpful for other reasons. They
were supposed to read each others papers and fill out the peer evaluations accordingly, but the
English-speaking student was not able to read the other students paper because it contained
mostly broken English. In order to adapt on the fly, I had them both work together to complete
the peer evaluation for the English-speaking students paper. This seemed to work more
effectively. Lastly, I had to cut off the last portion of my lesson due to time restraints. They were
not able to revise their papers based on the evaluations; they only had time to fill out the
evaluations.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I could incorporate developmentally appropriate
practice in a more thorough way by making directions clearer and spelled out. Although I
verbally told the students to continue onto the back if there were more than six sentences in
the paper, many of them did not do so. Next time, I would create a larger table so that students
would have well-defined space to continue their evaluations. Furthermore, I would change the
evaluation to better reflect the abilities of the students in the class. In fourth grade, they are
working on sentence structure, punctuation, and capitalization. In many cases, the students
individual sentences were hard to distinguish because the majority of the students did not
correctly punctuate and capitalize; therefore, labeling sentences with sequential numbers was
not helpful for all students. Next time, I would give the students space to write out the entire
sentences. This would also give the authors feedback of where to add punctuation and
capitalization so their sentences are clearer.
Due to the assessment I created for this lesson, I have a hard time determining my
impact on student learning. This is because I was not able to get to the revision part, so my
original assessment could not be used. Based on the new check sheet that I created following
the lesson, I can conclude that students understood how to fill out the evaluation, but the
ambiguity in sentences made it difficult for them to evaluate effectively. The peer evaluations
themselves serve as evidence for this conclusion. I learned more through my informal
observations as the students completed the evaluations. Most of them were working together
and even providing verbal feedback to their peers about how they could change certain
sentences to stay on topic. I could tell that they understood Because of Thursday and its tie to
the lesson of staying on topic. All discussion questions were answered accurately. If I were the
classroom teacher, I would continue teaching how to stay on topic and connect it with working
on main idea sentences and supporting details.
Teaching this lesson on how to stay on topic while writing has taught me a valuable
lesson about giving instructions. I gave the instructions verbally, put them on the Promethean
Board, and modeled filling out the peer evaluation with my own piece of writing. After I
finished giving instructions and set the students free to complete the task, I had five or so
students ask what they were supposed to be doing. I learned that students need instructions
worded in different ways, rather than in just a variety of formats. Next time, I would check for
understanding of instructions before setting students free. One way to do this would be to say,
Turn to your neighbor and tell them what youre supposed to be doing. I would wait for a
minute or so and then ask if anyone has any questions for me. I learned that students will not
always speak up if they do not understand the instructions, so it is my job as the teacher to
provide alternate explanations for understanding.
As I planned and delivered this lesson, I learned a valuable lesson about teaching.
Sometimes a lesson takes more time to carry out than you originally plan for. I thought my
lesson would work well for groups of 30 minutes each, but my students were not able to get to
the most important part of the lesson where they could show what they learned: the revision
section. While it is better to have more than enough planned than not enough, it is essential
that every lesson has a beneficial purpose. In my own classroom, my time constraints would
not be as strict. If I were giving this lesson in my own classroom, I may be able to take the first
part of the next day to have students revise their papers.
Through the experience of giving this lesson, I learned something about myself as a
teacher. I noticed while I was asking discussion questions that I tended to call on the same
student numerous times because he was giving good responses. As I grow in my journey as an
educator, I need to encourage all students to share their thoughts and ideas without fear of
being wrong. I need to work on my guiding questions so that I can help students to reach the
answers by themselves without explicitly giving the answers. Lastly, I need to work on asking
more open-ended questions so there is more than one right answer and students have an
opportunity to learn from each other.




































Observation Form

Student Name Observations of Student Learning

Check sheet:
(This was added because the students did not get to revise their papers. They only filled out
the peer evaluations.)


The student The student The student
accurately somewhat did not

filled out the accurately accurately fill
peer filled out the out the peer
Student Name evaluation. peer evaluation OR Comments
evaluation. did not
complete it.

Rubric: Staying on Topic
1 Area of 2 Developing 3 Meeting 4 Exceeding
Concern
The writer used The writer used The writer used
The writer did the peer the comments the peer
not revise their evaluation to made on their evaluation to
own writing OR adjust sentences own to adjust adjust their own

the revisions in their writing. sentences in writing (directly
Student Name
that they made Some of these their writing. relating to the
& Comments did not address revisions These revised topic) and made
the main topic directly related sentences helpful
of to the topic. directly relate to comments to
their writing. the topic of their their peer to
paragraph. help them
adjust their
writing.

 Good Writers Stay on Topic!
(Just like Patricia Polacco)

Author: _______________________________
Peer Evaluator: ____________________________
Topic: ______________________________

Sentence # Check here if the Check here if the

sentence is on topic. sentence is not on
topic.

Miss Davisons Writing Sample:

Determine which sentences are on topic and which sentences are

not. Lets cross out the ones that are not on topic!

Tennis has always been my favorite sport.

I started playing when I was in high school.

Tennis balls are usually green or yellow.

Now, I like to play tennis in my free time.

My favorite part of the game is the feeling you get when you hit
a good shot across the net.

I also like to watch football.

I hope to continue playing tennis for as long as I can!