Purpose:
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The students will gain an understanding of the writing process through brain
storming and the use of pre-writing strategies before writing. Students will also
gain a better understanding of the importance of focusing on the main idea and
providing details to support their main idea. Students will then edit their writing to
check for clarity, subject verb agreement, capitalization, punctuation, and to
make sure they have complete sentences and their writing make sense.
SOL Writing 4.7 The student will write cohesively for a variety of purposes.
c) Use a variety of pre-writing strategies.
f) Write a clear topic sentence focusing on the main idea.
j) Revise writing for clarity of content using specific vocabulary and information.
k) Include supporting details that elaborate the main idea.
SOL Writing 4.8 The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, spelling,
punctuation, sentence structure, and paragraphing.
a) Use subject-verb agreement.
f) Incorporate adjectives and adverbs.
g) Use correct spelling for frequently used words, including common
homophones.
Objective:
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The students will be able to write a paragraph and will use pre-writing strategies
to brainstorm ideas prior to writing their paragraph.
The students will be able to write a paragraph focusing on the main idea and
provide details to support the main idea.
The students will also be able to edit their writing to check for clarity, subject verb
agreement, capitalization, punctuation, and to make sure they have complete
sentences and their writing makes sense.
Procedure:
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Ask students to raise their hand if they like to write…
o I’m anticipating not that many students will raise their hand.
Ask students to raise their hand if they like to watch movies and play video
games…
o I’m anticipating most if not all of the students will raise their hand.
o Tell students before a video game or movie can be made someone has to
write a script so the video and movie can be made.
Tell students writing is like thinking, you are just putting your thoughts on paper.
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o Today, we are going to be writing about the characteristics of our favorite
teacher…
o We are reading Miss Agnes, and even though we haven’t finished the
book we have all had teachers that we have really liked. You have had
teachers since you were in kindergarten, so what were some of
characteristics/qualities those teachers had that made them your favorite
teacher and made you like them? (Except any answer and write them on
the board so students can refer to them when writing.
When writing you have to have a main idea and details and there are 5 other
requirements you have to have when you are writing.
o What are they?
 Subject
 What is a subject?
o Describes who is doing what in the sentence.
 Predicate
 What is a predicate?
o The part of a sentence or clause containing a verb
and stating something about the subject (i.e. the
teacher is nice).
 Capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and all proper nouns
are capitalized.
 The correct punctuation is at the end of the sentence.
 The sentence is a complete sentence and it makes sense.
Tell students I am going to read a few pages from Look At My Book - How Kids
Can Write & Illustrate Terrific Books so we can learn some good strategies to
use when writing,
o Briefly read from the book the part about brainstorming.
o Discuss with students some good strategies the book mentioned that can
be used when brainstorming in order to come up with ideas to write.
 Brainstorm and make a list of your ideas.
 Try to think of as many ideas as possible.
 Draw pictures to help you describe what is happening in your story.
 Add descriptive words (adjectives) to make your writing interesting.
 Ask students what an adjective is…
o Descriptive words which makes your writing come
alive.
o Ask students if they would want to listen to an exciting
story or a boring story? Whaa...whaa… 
o Show students the brainstorming web.
 Explain to students that brainstorming bubbles are like thinking
bubbles where you fill in your thoughts and ideas.
o Draw a large bubble and explain to students that the main idea goes in the
middle bubble.
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o Ask students, “What is the main idea of our writing?”
 Characteristics of My Favorite Teacher
 Model for students and write it in the middle bubble.
 So if you are writing about your favorite teacher are you
going to write anything about your favorite animal?
 No!  Not unless it has to do with your favorite teacher.
 Therefore, you are going to write only about the main idea
(your favorite teacher) and provide supporting details and
sentences that helps support your main idea.
 When writing you want to focus on the main idea and you
want to include supporting details to help support your
writing.
o Draw another bubble and connect it to the main idea bubble.
 Explain to students that the detail about the main idea goes in the
bubble.
 Tell students we are going to add a detail to our brainstorming
chart.
 Ask students what detail they would like to add to our bubble about
our favorite teacher (except any answer – nice, funny, kind and
refer to list written on the board if necessary).
 When we are writing our details we want to paint a picture for the
reader so they are able to visualize in their mind what we have
written.
 This helps the reader to understand what you have written and
helps them enjoy what you have written.
Draw another bubble and connect it to the detail bubble and explain to students
that the supporting sentence goes in that bubble.
 Ask students why that detail/characteristic made them your favorite
teacher?
 What did that teacher do…
o My 1st grade teacher Ms Smith was always patient.
 How did it make you feel…
o She made me feel happy.
 How did that teacher help you to be successful in school or
make you a better person.
o I feel like I can do anything and be successful
because Ms Smith was always a patient teacher.
Tell students once they are done brainstorming they are going to write a
paragraph in their journal about their favorite teacher and add the details that
they wrote while they were brainstorming.
o When you are writing I want you to write and not worry about editing, and I
will show you how to edit once we are done brainstorming.
o So, there is no reason to get frustrated because we will write a rough draft
and then we can fix everything once we have all our thoughts and ideas
down on paper.
 Briefly read the page from the book on rough draft.
 Use your notes, lists, and plans to get started.
 Write quickly. Don’t try to get everything perfect at this stage.
 Leave plenty of space between each line so you can scribble
in new words as you go.
 Have fun and experiment with your writing. You can always
change any part of it later on.
 Model for students how to skip a line in their journal
notebook. Draw four lines and write two sentences on the
lines purposefully making mistakes.
o Once you are done writing your rough draft you are going to go back and
read your writing to see if it makes sense and revise and edit your paper.
 Briefly read the page from the book on revising and editing.
 Revising
o Add words and take out words.
o Switch words around
o Use lively language.
o Use specific words instead of general words.
o Include interesting details.
o Brainstorm again if you need to.
 Editing
o Check sentences for clarity to make sure sentences
make sense and to make sure that there is a main
idea with supporting sentences.
o Check for subject verb agreement.
o Check for capitalization and punctuation.
o Use the dictionary and thesaurus to check for spelling
and synonyms of words.
o Check for capitalization and punctuation.
o After you are done writing your paragraph and you have brainstormed
your thoughts, written a rough draft, and edited your paper please see me.
 Tell students if they do not finish it is okay, we will have an
opportunity to finish another day.
 Differentiation – Students who understand the assignment and
have completed brainstorming, rough draft, and edited can draw a
picture on the back of their brainstorming of their favorite teacher.
 Differentiation – Students who need additional help go over the
brainstorming chart, reduce the number of details and sentences,
and model for again and ask questions to check for understanding.
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Once students have edited and made all of their changes to their writing, they will
publish their paper by typing on the computer or writing on loose leaf paper.
Summary:
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Discuss with students what writing strategies they used and invite students to
share their writing with the class. 
Materials:
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Book
Pre-writing Sheet – Brainstorming Web
Writing Journal Notebooks/Pencils
Dry Erase Board, Dry Erase Marker, and Eraser
Loose Leaf Paper/Computer to Publish Writing
Evaluation A:
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I will assess the student’s knowledge if they are able to brain storm their ideas
and use pre-writing strategies before they begin to write.
I will also assess the student’s knowledge if they focus on a main idea and
provide supporting sentences to support the main idea while writing.
Lastly, I will assess the student’s knowledge if they are able to edit their writing
for clarity, check for subject verb agreement, punctuation, and their sentences
include prepositional phrases.
Evaluation B:
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Did the students meet your objectives?
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How do you know?
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Did your lesson accommodate/address the needs of all of your learners?
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What were the strengths of your lesson?
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What were the weaknesses?
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How would you change the lesson if you could teach it again?