Lesson 2

Writing Mini Lesson

Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of
view with reasons and information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.1.B Provide reasons that are supported by facts and
details.
Rationale: This mini lesson fits into the 4th grade curriculum because students will be able to
write their own opinion pieces on topics while also providing reasons that are supported by facts.
This will further students writing and will allow them write across different content areas.
Objectives:
Students will be able to provide reasons and details for a given topic and support those reasons
with facts and details.
Procedures:
Engagement/Anticipatory Set:
Alright writers, so today we are going to be talking about opinion pieces. Does anyone know
what an opinion piece is?
*pause for student response*
Right, its a piece that is written on a particular topic, where the writer is taking a side on that
topic. So some of the things that opinion pieces have are things such as stating your opinion or
your position on the topic, your reason for why you have this opinion, an example that supports
your reason, and a restatement of your opinion.
*this will all be written in an anchor chart to use during the lesson*
Mentor:
So, now that we understand what the parts of an opinion piece is, I want you to look at an
opinion piece that I wrote myself. I am going to read it with you, and we are going to look at the
different parts. Once we are finished reading we are going to figure out if I have all of the parts
to an opinion piece.
*With the class I will read my opinion piece talking with them and highlighting the parts of an
opinion piece that are essential to this kind of writing*
Guided Practice:

Ok, now I am going to give you a task. I want you to come up with some reasons as to why I
SHOULD, or SHOULDNT be the President of the united states. So, first you must decide if you
think I should or shouldnt be the president, then you must come up with reasons why, supported
by facts!
*Students will be given 5 minutes to come up with reasons, they will then share with the entire
class. This will be my opportunity to talk with students as a group to determine what a good and
valid reason is that supports their opinion*
Independent Application:
Now, your task is going to be as follows. The school principal is thinking about having all
students wear school uniforms. You must write an opinion piece to determine whether you agree
or disagree with the school principal. Your opinion should be supported by strong reasons and
examples that support your reasons.
*Students will then return to their seats to begin working on their opinion pieces*
Materials:
anchor chart already created
my own written opinion piece
Assessments: I plan to have a rubric to assess students on this mini lesson. The four parts of the
opinion piece that I will be looking for are the statement of their opinion or position, reasons as
to why they feel this way, examples or facts that support their reasons, and a restatement of their
opinion.
Differentiation: Students that struggle will be given a graphic organizer that helps them to
organize each piece of the opinion piece, broken down for them to make their thinking clearer.
Future Connections: Students will be able to use this in the future in order to write persuasive
writing. They will be able to back their statements up with good reasons and facts to support
their claim.

Reading Mini Lesson

Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.5 Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology,
comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or
part of a text.
Rationale: This mini lesson fits into the 4th grade reading curriculum because it gives students
the opportunity to recognize the text features of informational text and use this as a way to better
understand the content of the informational text.
Objectives:
Students will be able to use their knowledge of text features of informational text and apply it
to their own informational or nonfiction text.
Procedures:
Engagement/Anticipatory Set:
Okay readers! So last class we worked on creating an anchor chart that we could refer back to
when reading informational of nonfiction text. Now we know that every single one of these
things may not be in all of the nonfiction books that we choose, but all nonfiction texts will have
at least some of these characteristics.
*refer to anchor chart created previously*
So, looking at this anchor chart, can anyone remind me of the characteristics of informational
and nonfiction text and also explain what they mean?
*Responses I will be looking for: headings, captions, timelines, figure captions, index, glossary,
pictures, bibliography*
Mentor:
So now that we have been able to refresh our memory of what we have been looking for within
our informational and nonfiction text, I want to show you what I would do while looking through
my own nonfiction book after reading it over once.
*I will then do a picture walk of my own informational or nonfiction text with students. For this
lesson I will also be using the book Everything You Need to Know About Snakes and Other
Scaly Reptiles as I had previously done in the interactive read aloud. As I am looking through
the book I will have my own post-it notes and when I come across something that I find to be
important or something I want to learn more about I will stop and write it on a post-it and leave it
on that page.*

So what Im doing here is anything that I come across, while looking at the text features, that I
find to be really important or something that I want to know more about Im stopping and
writing it on a post-it note so that I can come back to it later.
Guided Practice:
Now that Ive modeled what it looks like to take a walk through your book, simply looking at
the text features, I would like you all to take a picture walk through your own nonfiction texts.
As you take a picture walk I want you to write down the different text features that you notice in
your own books. Because, like I mentioned before, not all nonfiction or informational texts will
have all of the same features.
*Students will picture walk through their own text and then turn and talk to a partner discussing
what types of text features they found in their own nonfiction texts*
Independent Application:
Alright readers, now you are going to practice what you just saw me do with my nonfiction
text. This strategy is called Stop and Jot. You are going to pick a spot in the room where you can
quietly read your nonfiction text. As you are reading, whenever you find something that is
important or something that you want to learn more about you can choose to write it on a post-it
like I did, or you can write it in your reading journal.
*Students will be given the remainder of the lesson to read through their nonfiction text pulling
out information that they find to be important or information that they would like to learn more
about*
Materials:
book Everything You Need to Know About Snakes and Other Scaly Reptiles
poster paper
post-it notes
Assessments: My assessment for the students will be the work in their reading journals. I will be
looking for students to have written things that they think are important while also giving reasons
as to why this is important to the rest of the book. If students chose not to write in their reading
journals and instead chose to use post-it notes then I will be looking through their nonfiction text.
I will also meet with each student for a conference to talk about the things that they wrote.
Differentiation: For students who may struggle with writing things on their own I will have a
worksheet. This worksheet will break down the information that they are choosing out of their
text. It will have a place for them to write the important information that they are pulling out and
then an area for them to explain why this information is important to the rest of the text.
Future Connections: This lesson will allow students to use their knowledge of different text
features to better understand different types of text across different content areas. By picking out

the important information or information that they would like to learn more about, they will be
able to apply this across all nonfiction texts.

Interactive Read Aloud

Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it
is supported by key details; summarize the text.
Rationale: This mini lesson fits into the 4th grade core curriculum because students should be
able to pull out the most important information in the text in order to explain what the text is
about, while also picking the key details that are used to explain those important parts of the text.
Objectives:
Students will be able to pull out the most important information of the text and be able to
summarize the text with that information.
Procedures:
Engagement/Anticipatory Set:
Going back to what we have already discussed about taking notes while reading and using the
text features to help us, we are now going to talk about how we can summarize a nonfiction text.
Can anyone tell me what a summary is?
*pause for student response*
Yes, a summary is a retelling of the most important parts of the story using your own words.
The purpose of summarizing is to show that you understand the main idea of the text. So today
we are going to talk about some different things we should be thinking about when we are trying
to summarize nonfiction texts.
*I will the create an anchor chart with students that will go over the 4 parts of summarizing
nonfiction*
1. Use questioning strategy: 1) Who?/What? (topic); 2) What about it?; 3) When?; 4) Where?;
5) Why?; 6) How?
2. Retell this information in your own words.
3. Retell in a logical order.
4. Leave out unimportant details.
Mentor:
So now that we have some guidelines of what we should be asking ourselves while reading a
text I am going to model this for you while I read a chapter from my own nonfiction text, The
Story of My Life by Helen Keller.
*I will then read chapter from this story with the students, each of them will have a copy so that
they are able to follow along with me.*

Now, I am going to take our strategies and apply them to what we have just learned (anchor
chart). So, I know that the Who or What of this chapter is Helen Keller.
*I will continue to go through the questioning strategy using the mentor text.*
Guided Practice:
Now that I have done the first step of summarizing, I want you to turn and talk to a partner and
figure out how to put all of this information that we have just figured out using the questioning
strategy, and determine how we can put it into a logical order so that when we write it all out it
makes sense.
*Students will turn and talk to a partner and continue to work through creating a summary for the
particular chapter of the mentor text that we used.*
*Students will share their summaries with the class*
Independent Application:
Alright writers, now that we have had some time to practice using this piece of nonfiction text, I
am now going to send you off to work on summarizing your own nonfiction texts. I want you to
keep in mind the anchor chart with all of the strategies of summarizing a nonfiction text. Once
you have come up with your summary you can write this in your writers notebook.
*Students are expected to have finished reading their nonfiction texts already. At this point they
will be expected to use the strategies discussed with the anchor chart to come up with their own
summary of their nonfiction text.*
Materials:
chart paper
excerpt from Helen Kellers The Story of My Life
Assessments: My assessment of the students for this mini lesson will be their summaries in their
writing journals. I will be looking for students to show an understanding of their nonfiction text,
I will also be looking for the use of all of the strategies based on the information that is included
in the summary. I would also like to see that students have been able to put this information into
a logical order and that they are describing the text in their own words.
Differentiation: I plan to create a worksheet that has all of the strategies on it for students who
may struggle with doing this on their own. It will have each of the questions that are a part of the
questioning strategy so that they can write the answer next to each one. This will help them to
organize their thoughts in an easier way.

Future Connections: This summarization will help students in the future with their
comprehension skills. If a student is able to summarize a text they will be better able to show
their understanding of the text itself.