LESSON TWO:  Deepening our Understanding and Topic Selection

Examining Pancakes For Breakfast, continue to develop the anchor chart.  Idea development for student writing begins and audience is considered.  Examine the idea of  schema and model strategies for topic selection.

GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS

W1A:  Write expository text with assistance, with *main idea *supporting details.

LESSON MATERIALS

§         Sources of Literature

o        Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola

§         Supplies

o        Writers notebooks

o        Writing folder

o        Anchor chart

o        Flip chart

§         Handouts provided

o        None

§         Words to know

o        exposition/expository writing

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Students/teacher cooperatively evaluate topic choices.  Teachers may use anecdotal records.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1.         Review the anchor chart from Lesson One and ideas that evolved from the touchstone text.

2.        Introduce Pancakes For Breakfast  as an interactive writing lesson due to the format being mostly wordless.

3.        Using the flip chart, “read” through the pictures and place text with each one, referring to the anchor chart.  Students take turns at the flip chart completing the next part of the writing.

4.        Teacher introduces the strategy of schema (background knowledge) by focusing on touchstone texts and why authors chose their topics.

·         The author had a lot of knowledge about the topic.

·         The topic is something the author has an interest in.

5.        Teacher models his/her own topic ideas on a flip chart, based on schema.  At this time ask students, “As you think about a possible topic, who will your audience be?”

6.        Ask students why it is important to know who their audience is (ex., writing to a younger student is different from writing to an older student) 

7.        Students brainstorm topics for the expository piece in their writing notebooks.

8.        Teacher confers with students and takes anecdotal records.