Mini-lesson Planning Sheet

Cover Page
Teacher Name: Breanna DeKam
Part of the Writing Process you will focus on:
Studying-This is the time they will study texts of the type of genre they will be writing.
Grade Level: Third - 3.W.3
Trait of writing you will focus on in your lesson:
Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions
Common Core Writing or Language Standard: 3.W.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or
events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. a. Establish a situation and
introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. b. Use dialogue and
descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of
characters to situations. c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order. d. Provide a sense of closure.
Mentor Text(s): Where the Wild Things Are
Text Feature: Organization
Learning Target: The students will be able to distinguish between the beginning middle and end of an imaginary
story.
(Use the disaggregated standards to help with this: http://www.doe.sd.gov/octe/ccsELA.aspx)

Mini-lesson Planning Sheet

Introduction/Connectio
n (2 or 3 minutes):

Possible Statement
Starters:
Yesterday we talked

Getting Attention: (Play the Hunger games song.

The children will know to sit on the reading carpet
and show me the sign that they are ready and I will

How will you help

students connect to what
you did yesterday or to
the Mentor Text that you
studied?

about
When we read ______ we
noticed

give the sign back when everyone is ready.) Third

graders its time for our writing mini-lesson. Thank
you to everyone who is sitting on the carpet and
ready to go.

Today I will show you..

Relating to past experience or knowledge: Okay so
I have to tell you guys about my morning this
morning. It was quite crazy and kinda awful! First, I
got up late because I set the wrong alarm. So I
woke up twenty minutes late. So that meant that I
could not go for my run. Then I was still sleepy
when I went to make breakfast. I put the toast in
the toaster and went to pick out my clothes. And
that was the second thing that went wrong. I came
back into the kitchen and could smell something
burning. I ran over to the toaster and pulled out my
black toast. I was upset but I didnt have time to
make another so I drank a glass of OJ and ran to get
ready. Once I was all ready to go I rushed to my car
and started it up and pulled out into traffic. I think I
got stopped at every red light on the way here.
Then when I pulled up to the school I was late and I
had to park in the back. Then the last thing that
went wrong was I was walking up to the door and I
slipped on the ice and my bag went flying and all
my stuff was everywhere. So my morning hasnt
started out the greatest, I am tired, hungry, and my
bottom hurts.

Creating a need to know: So as you can see my

morning was crazy but what did it all start with? My

alarm not going off right? Well would it have been

possible for my day to begin with for me to fall in
front of the school first? No, right? That was not the
beginning of my morning that was my end. So can
anyone tell me what we are going to talk about
today? Beginning, middle and ends of stories. Why
is it important to have a beginning before the end?
The beginning comes first and the end comes last.
They have to be in order for the story to make
sense, right? So knowing how to find the beginning
middle and end of a story is important so that you
know how to include them in your own writing.

Sharing learning target in general terms: The goal

today is that you will able to pick out the
beginning, middle, and end of an imaginary story.
Teach/Model (10-15
minutes): How will you
help students understand
what good writers do?

This is where you read a

mentor text, and model
your thinking of Reading
like a Writer).

Watch me as I ..
Did you see how I ..
Did you notice how the
author.
What do you notice about
how.
I will show you what I
notice about _____...

I have this chart here and we are going to fill it

out today about beginning, middle, and ends of
stories. (Fill the chart out as you talk about each of
the parts of the chart) Lets talk about beginnings
first. What do we find in the beginning of the story?
(Wait for responses) We are introduced to the
characters, right. What else are we introduced to?
The setting, good! Is there anything else? No? Lets
go on to the middle. What happens in the middle of
stories? What do the characters do in the middle?
They have a problem, right? Yes, there is usually a
problem or a conflict with the characters. Now what
happens in the end of a story? They solve the
problem! There is a solution to the conflict the
characters had. A happy ending! Great jobs guys
now we have this chart here to help us remember

while we are reading what happens in the

beginning, middle, and end of a story!
Now I am going to read this story, Where the Wild
Things Are. While I read this book I want you to
think about what is happening in the beginning of
the story, the middle of the story, and the end of
the story. Look at the chart we made if you need a
reminder. Also think about what details lead you
from the beginning into the middle and the middle
to the end? Is there any words that show you what
happens next? Just be thinking of these questions
while I read.

While I am reading I will not stop too much because

the book doesnt have a lot of temporal words to
show the transitions. But I will stop a couple times
and ask What characters were we introduced to?
What details have you seen so far? Where do those
details take place? What has changed in the story?
Is there a problem or conflict? Turn and tell your
neighbor.
Active Engagement (35) minutes): How will
students internalize what
you told them?

Turn and talk to your

partner about.

After the story is read, Did you like the story?

Lets turn and tell our neighbor our favorite part of
the story, but make sure you tell them where in the
story it was included, beginning, middle, or end.
Okay great I heard a lot of different details of the
story that you guys liked, thats awesome! Now
lets talk about the specific sections of the story
and write one sentence about each. Look at the
chart if we need help too. Okay the beginning who
were we introduced to? Talk to your neighbors

about we can put the characters and settings into a

summary sentence. Can anyone give me their
sentence? (Write the sentence.) Good that is a
great sentence. Okay what was the problem or
middle of the story? Talk to your partner. Okay lets
have another example sentence. (write that
sentence and adjust it if needed.) Great, now lastly
talk about how those characters we meet in the
beginning solved the problem that was introduced
in the middle. Okay who can tell me their sentence?
(Write it down.) Great job guys, we just found and
wrote about the beginning middle and end! We
should be doing this in our own writing and
thinking this as we read every book.
Link (1 minute): Review
Expectations and send
students off to work.
Once again restate the
learning target in general
terms.
Work-time (30 minutes):
Sample or Description of
What students will be
working on.

Conferring Questions

Today I want you to

practice.
Who will try _____
strategy today.
Remember good
writers.so.

So today in our lesson we talked about beginning,

middle, and end. I want you guys to practice
writing and drawing what you saw in each of those
sections of the story, like we did together as a
class. Remember our goal for today was that you
would be able to pick out the beginning, middle,
and end of an imaginary story.

During this time students

are independently writing
or studying mentor text.
Have a sample or
description of what
success will look like for
your students. This will
help you determine if the
students get it or need
more support.

Now is your guys turn to practice! I want you all to

read the short stories I put at your desks. You will
read the stories and fill out the worksheet after.
The worksheet I want you all to complete has three
sections and in each section I want you to draw
what happened in the beginning, middle, and end
of the story. Along with your drawings you need to
write two to three sentences that explains your
drawings and/or what happened in the story.

As students are writing,

How can you summarize yours thoughts into a

(during work-time): What

will you ask of individual
students who you work
with to help them
improve their writing?

Share (5 minutes): What

will students share? How
will you decide who
shares?

you should plan to

conference with 3-5
students each day. Based
on what your students
are trying to do, what will
you ask students about
their writing to help them
grow as writers?
Remember, you will
probably not have time to
read everything they
have writtenthese
questions should be very
purposeful.

couple sentences? What was the main points?

Today ____ practiced the

strategyThey are going
to share____with you.

All right be finishing up your thoughts in 3..2..1.

Great! Now I saw that all of you were
understanding what was happening in the
beginning middle and ends of your stories. Good
job everyone! I saw some great pictures and I
asked a few of you to share what you wrote about.
, can you tell us what you read and what the three
sections you drew and wrote? Awesome! Great job
today guys, I will hang up our anchor chart on the
wall for a reminder to everyone while we are
reading and writing.

When I conferenced with

___they showed me _____.
Today I
noticed______....who will
share an example of this?
Did anyone try
_____today?

In the beginning who were the characters or what

was the setting?
Okay can you tell me what the problem was in the
story?
Was there an ending? How did the characters solve
the problem?