Focus Lesson Planning Sheet



Focus Lesson Planning Sheet

|Focus Lesson Topic |Revising Endings | |

| |(adapted from Calkins and Martinelli, 2006) | |

|Materials |Chart paper | |

| |Previously created anchor chart listing Qualities of Good Personal Narrative | |

|Choose texts, ending techniques |Previously created anchor chart listing Strategies for Revising Leads | |

|and/or the number of endings to |Prepared sample of personal narrative writing and alternate endings demonstrating attempts to use| |

|discuss based on your grade level|techniques being discussed in lesson, written large on chart paper | |

|and class |Mentor texts to model some strategies for writing good endings (for example Peter’s Chair by Ezra| |

| |Jack Keats for ending with important action; Cone On, Rain by Karen Hesse for ending with | |

| |important dialogue; Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran for ending with an image; and The Relatives Came | |

| |by Cynthia Rylant for ending with a reminder of the whole story. | |

| |Note: It is beneficial to use stories with which the students are already familiar. Otherwise the| |

| |teacher should summarize the story quickly before discussing the ending so students can see how | |

| |the ending fits with what has come before in the story. | |

|Connection |For the past few days we have been talking about how good writers go back into their writing time| |

| |and time again to make it better and better. Remember, this is called revising. We also talked | |

| |about how the leads, the beginnings, are one of the most important parts of stories to revise. | |

| |Leads are important because they lead or pull the readers into the story and make them want to | |

| |keep reading. Finally, we have also talked about how we can look at the work of writers we admire| |

| |and enjoy, and learn from what they do to make our writing better. We looked at some strategies | |

| |that famous writers use to craft their leads and saw how we could use some of those same | |

| |strategies. Today we are going to look closely at another really important part of a story. | |

|Explicit Instruction |Another really important part of a story is the ending, the last sentence or last few sentences. | |

| |Your ending is the last thing that a reader has in her mind after she reads your story. The way | |

|Add to previously created anchor |the story ends can make the reader have certain thoughts and feelings so authors want to create | |

|chart Qualities of Good Personal |powerful endings. Authors want to write endings that stick with the reader long after she | |

|Narrative |finishes the story. A writer wants a reader to keep thinking about the story and a powerful | |

|-Write a little seed story; don’t|ending helps this happen. | |

|write all about a giant | | |

|watermelon topic |Read the ending in each mentor text you selected and briefly discuss technique author used. Add | |

|-Zoom in so you tell the most |to anchor chart as you discuss each. You might notice that some endings can actually combine | |

|important parts of the story |strategies. | |

|-Include true, exact details from| | |

|the movie you have in your mind |Now that we have looked at some possible strategies that writers use to revise their endings, | |

|-Build the story step-by-step; |watch me try using some of these techniques. I wrote this personal narrative story (quickly | |

|don’t just summarize |summarize the story if it is one you have not already shared with the class) but now as I reread | |

|-Begin with s strong lead to pull|the ending I have and see if I can make it better. (Read ending) I realize that it is not that | |

|your reader into the story |great and that I should try to make it better. So I’m going to rewrite my endings trying out the | |

| |different strategies we just saw these great authors do in their leads. | |

|Add: | | |

|-Make a powerful ending to create|Read through your new endings demonstrating how they use the strategies that you had highlighted | |

|a lasting impression |from the mentor texts. | |

| | | |

| | | |

|Create new | | |

|Anchor Chart: | | |

|Strategies for Revising Endings | | |

|(possibly including) | | |

|-important action | | |

|-important dialogue | | |

|-images | | |

|-reminder of whole story | | |

|Guided Practice |As you watched me, you probably noticed that I tried to use the same strategies that we saw in | |

| |these books. Now turn and talk to a partner about what specifically you see in the different | |

| |endings which make them stick more in the reader’s mind than what I had at first. Also discuss | |

| |what I did as a writer to make that happen. | |

| | | |

| |After a few moments briefly discuss what students noticed. | |

|Send Off [for Independent |Today during Independent Writing go back to the ending of the narrative you are working on. | |

|Practice] |Reread your ending as you have it now and then try rewriting it using some of the strategies we | |

| |learned about today from these authors. (gesture toward mentor texts) If you haven’t gotten to | |

| |your ending yet, that’s fine. Just keep going and when you do get to the ending, consider some | |

| |of the strategies we discussed as you write it. | |

|Group Share |Students can share in partners or small groups the different attempts they made at revising | |

| |endings. | |

Note: There are other strategies and techniques that authors use to craft endings including: a surprise ending, a circular ending, a strong emotion, a question, a lingering hope, an accomplishment or discovery, a lesson learned or decision reached, etc. You could substitute any of these techniques into this first lesson exposing students to revising endings. You may also come back to revising endings as part of the revision work in another unit of narrative (either personal or fictional) or other genre, and highlight those techniques not taught in this unit or any other techniques you wish. You would not have to reteach the concept of endings, merely show some techniques not yet discussed. You may also find powerful endings in some of the books you read aloud. You could then add that technique to your anchor chart without having to teach the whole concept of revising endings again at that point.

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