Writing Lesson Plan Template
Name: Annabeth Sink
Writing Trait: Word Choice
Grade: 4th
Focus Area: Verbs
Curriculum Standards
SOL(s): 4.7 The student will write cohesively for a variety of purposes.
a) Identify intended audience.
b) Focus on one aspect of a topic.
c) Use a variety of pre-writing strategies.
d) Organize writing to convey a central idea.
e) Recognize different modes of writing have different patterns of organization.
f) Write a clear topic sentence focusing on the main idea.
g) Write two or more related paragraphs on the same topic.
h) Use transition words for sentence variety.
i) Utilize elements of style, including word choice and sentence variation.
j) Revise writing for clarity of content using specific vocabulary and information.
k) Include supporting details that elaborate the main idea.
Essential Question(s): How do verbs affect the sentence?
Lesson Objectives: The students will be able to choose powerful and memorable verbs when writing a poem 90% of
the time.
Assessment of Objectives: I will collect the students’ poems for a grade.
Explicit Explanation/Direct Instruction: To start this lesson, we will refer back to our six traits chart poster posted on
the wall. I will explain that we are talking about word choice today, specifically verbs. As a class we will watch the
School House Rock video on verbs. Then I will ask the student to think about some verbs in their head. Then I will ask
them to think about some more verbs that mean the same thing but are more descriptive and a few students will
share aloud the verbs and as a class we will compare and contrast.
Modeling (Mentor Text, Teacher Writing): We will start a whole-class chart entitled Halloween Word Bank. I will
read the first poem from Horton’s mentor text: Halloween Hoots & Howls. Then I will read the same poem again,
asking the students to tell me to stop reading when they hear "an amazing" Halloween word to put on the class
chart. When the poem has been read through (with interruptions) a second time, we will read the charted words
aloud as a group.
Guided Practice: As a class, we will create a class Halloween poem to display in the classroom making sure we use
memorable verbs.
Rationale: I will teach this lesson this way because it will keep the students attention and they will be learning to use
memorable verbs and they will be learning more about writing poetry.
Writing Lesson Plan Template
References
http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/Halloween_hoots3.htm