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Mini
Lesson: 10-15 Minutes
The
mini-lesson is where I can make a suggestion to the whole
class...raise a concern, explore an issue, model a
technique, reinforce a strategy. First my students are
engaged in their own important work. Then I ask myself,
"What is the one thing I can suggest or demonstrate that
might help most?" A mini-lesson generally lasts 5-10
minutes. I try to choose a teaching point that I feel
would benefit many members of the class.
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Content
Focus
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Conventions
Focus
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Getting
an idea
-making
lists
-things
you love
-writing
from emotion
-experiences
-moments
in time
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Adding
detail
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Adds
responses/telling the inside story
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Choice
of words/ descriptive language
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Replacing
tired words
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Great
beginnings
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Wow
endings
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One
moment in time
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Observations
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"I
wonder" writings
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Something
ordinary
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Staying
on focus
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Working
with a seed idea
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Developing
a plan for writing
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Finding
your voice
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Genre
studies:
-poetry
-informational
reports
-letters
-autobiographies
-biographies
-picture
books
-persuasive
-How-to
books
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Use
appropriate spacing
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Spelling
phonetically
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Spell
"High Frequency" words correctly
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Spell
using analogies
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Capitalize
I, names
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Capitalize
beginnings of sentences
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Ending
punctuation marks
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Quotation
marks
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Commas
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Use
of "and"
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Using
appropriate grammar
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Using
paragraphs
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Recognizing and
correcting run-on sentences
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The
Art of Teaching Writing, Calkins
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Independent
Writing/Collecting Entries
After
the mini lesson, students work in their Writer's Notebook
to collect entries that may later become published pieces
of writing. The total writing time lasts for about 35-40
minutes, but during that time some students may be
involved in conferences with the teacher or with their
peers.
Students
choose entries in their notebooks to take into "draft
form." It is these carefully selected pieces of writing
that will be taken through the process of editing and
revising so that they can be published and shared with
others. All entries in the Writer's Notebook do not
become published prices of writing. All published writing
is added to each student's Writing Portfolio, and some
pieces will even be put into student created books.
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Fabulous Fourth Graders
