Name: Haley Kunze

Coordinating Teacher: Heather Fitzwater

School: Hugh K. Cassell Elementary School
Date of lesson: Thursday, November 2nd, 2017

PART ONE: THE LESSON

A. TITLE OF LESSON (Writing Focus): The Day the Crayons Quit mentor text with a
focus on the characteristics of a letter.

B. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

Strand: Writing

3.9 The student will write for a variety of purposes.

a) Identify the intended audience.
d) Write a paragraph on the same topic.
e) Use strategies for organization of information and elaboration according to the
type of writing.
letters date, greeting, body, closing, and signature

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND
Students will understand the importance of the five features of a letter.
Students will understand that the five features are used to organize the letter.

KNOW
Students will know the five elements and features that should be included in a
letter.

DO
Students will discuss what is included in the letters found in the book and
what it is used for.
Students will write a letter that includes a date, greeting, body, closing, and
signature.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
For this lesson, I will assess my students by collecting their letters at the end of
the lesson and using a checklist that is found below. I will ask my students to write their
own letter to Duncan, the owner of the crayons in the book, from the perspective of any
color crayon they would like. I will put an emphasis on them including a header, date,
body, closing, and signature in their letter. (The letter template that I will be giving the
students is found at the end of this document) The checklist will allow me to assess
every student individually. Along with this formal assessment, during the discussion
about the book and letters in general, I will be pinpointing what the student knows
beforehand and what they bring to the conversation. I also will have the chance to move
around and conference with the individual students while they are writing their letters to
understand what each one of them knows.

I got my letter template from:

http://boymamateachermama.com/2015/07/29/book-mama-the-day-the-crayons-quit-
review-and-activity/

PART TWO: LESSON PLAN PROCEDURE

A. CONTEXT OF LESSON
For this lesson, I am focusing on the important elements that a letter should
include. In second grade, the curriculum discusses that students should learn about
different narrative writing styles, however this is the first time formally learning the
specific components. My coordinating teacher will read the book, The Day the Crayons
Quit, the week before or the week I complete my lesson. I will be completing this lesson
during the literacy block, over the course of an hour, with 4 separate small groups. The
students will come to me on the carpet with their reading groups during their writing
station. So I will have about 20 minutes with each group. For this lesson I will be going
over one of the letters in the story, talking about the aspects a letter should include, and
then giving them a chance to write their own letter to the character in the story.
When I asked my coordinating teacher what she hoped the focus would be for
this mentor text, she said writing letters. I had previously read The Day the Crayons
Quit, and really enjoyed it as a book, in general. I thought that this would be a fun book
to use to guide students through the elements of a letter. For the rest of the lesson, I
just thought through it myself and believed it would be cool and fun for the students to
be able to write their own letter to Duncan, the main character, from the perspective of a
crayon of their choice.

B. MATERIALS NEEDED
The Day the Crayons Quit Written by: Drew Daywalt, Illustrated by: Oliver
Jeffers
Chart paper
Markers
Letter outline paper (found below)

C. PROCEDURE

CONNECT I will begin by reintroducing the story The

Students learn why todays Day the Crayons Quit and ask if they
Before
instruction is important to remember reading this story.
them as writers and how
 the lesson relates to their
prior work (if applicable).
The teaching point is
stated.
TEACH
The teacher shows the
students how writers
accomplish the teaching
point in the mentor text
During
I will flip to the blue crayon page and ask
the students if they know what kind of
writing is being used in this book.
Then I will follow up this question by
asking if they have ever written their own
letter or have seen them before to get
them thinking of their personal tie to this
type of writing.
I will then tell the students that we will use
this book to look at the five main elements
that should always be included in a letter.
I will begin by saying to the students,
While I am reading a couple of letters
from this book, I want you all to be
thinking and looking out for some things
you see in common between these
letters, some aspects of the letter that you
think are important.
I will reread the white crayon page and
then the blue crayon page.
Next to me I will have a piece of chart
paper with the blue crayon letter written
on it, to use.
I will ask the students, Now can anyone
tell me one part of the letter that you
noticed both of these letters had.
If students dont pick out some of the
elements I will point to them and ask them
if they know what this is or know what this
part of the letter is called. The students
and I will hopefully work together to get
the signature, closing, header, and body.
o Signature: The writer signs his
name at the bottom.
o Closing: A phrase or word that
comes right before the signature to
end the letter. Some examples are
sincerely, love, and the what is
used for the blue crayon.
o Header: Begins the letter, Dear
_____ and is followed by a
comma, you address it to who you
are writing the letter to. In this
case, Duncan.

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
After we teach something,
students are given a
chance to practice what
has just been taught with
new writing or revising a
prior piece. (May assess
during this time)
After LINK
The teacher reiterates what
has just been taught and
gives students an
opportunity to share (May
assess during this time)
D. DIFFERENTIATION
For this lesson, I think the main differentiation will come with the different reading level
o Body: The main part of the letter,
where you tell whoever this letter is
going to, why you are writing this.
I will use the chart paper next to me to
circle and label those parts of the letter
Finally, I will ask the students if they
notice one think that is missing in these
letters, I will point to where it should be
and tell them that its important for a letter
to have this so the reader knows when it
was written to them.
Before I send students to their seats I will
have them turn to a partner on the carpet
and have them tell each other their ideas
for their letter.
I will ask the students to remember all the
important aspects of a letter that we just
talked about and tell them that its
important that they include all of them.
I will ask the students if they can list the
five aspects of a letter before I send them
to their seats.
I will give the students the letter outline
paper and send them back to their seats
to write a letter of their very own to
Duncan, the owner of the crayons.
Students will be able to pick any color
crayon they want to me.
I will also remind them that the body of
their letter should tell Duncan why they
are a happy crayon or a sad crayon.
I will walk around and help students as
they are working on their letters, asking
them what they have included already
and what their letters may still be missing.
After giving the students ten minutes to
work on their letters I will bring them back
to the carpet and give one student the
opportunity to share his or her writing.
I will close the lesson by asking the
students what important parts need to be
included when writing a letter.
groups in the class. However, since I will be meeting with the group separately it allows
for me to base the conversation and expectations on each group. One group is on a
very low reading and therefore writing level so I would focus more on the specific
elements than the content of the letter. Since this group only has two kids, I will have
them stay on the carpet with me and I can work with them to write their letters and even
allow them to bounce ideas off each other. I also can have the chart paper up for them
and the whole class to reference while they are writing. In the case that students who
are back at their table finish their letter before everyone else I can have a one-on-one
mini conference with them about what they included and what they wrote in their letter.
For the students who are struggling in the other three groups I have the ability to be
walking around and helping them out, especially since I will only be working with no
more than 7 students at a time.

E. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?

I think one of the main concerns about this lesson is that there will not be enough
time for the students to finish their letters and still have time for a student to
share. For those students that do not finish I will allow them to put them in their
work folders to finish during power up or another time during the day. Also, when
I send the students back to their seats to write their letters I will ask them to write
four sentences in the letter, because the main focus is not the content of the
letter but instead the 5 features they should remember to include.
Another concern would be that the students have limited prior knowledge about
the parts of a letter before our discussion. In this case I think it will be very
important that I bring in their prior knowledge of letters in general and what they
would include if they were going to write a letter to someone. This is where the
mentor text is very important and useful to point out what the author included. I
think that it will also be very important to emphasize the definition of each
feature.
Student: _____________

The Day the Crayons Quit letter checklist

The letter has the date in the upper right part ____

The letter has a greeting, followed by a comma ____

There is a body in the letter ____

There is a closing ____

The letter has a signature (the crayon!) ____

The letter tells Duncan how he/she feels being his crayon ____

Comments _______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________