Focus Lesson Planning Sheet
Focus Lesson Topic / Zooming In On A Small Moment: Focusing A Writing Topic (using the inverted triangle organizer)Adapted from Dorfman and Cappelli, 2007
Materials
/ Inverted triangle organizer (copy for each student)Story ideas from teacher’s life (broad to narrow focus)
Chart paper
Connection
/ We have spoken about how good personal narratives tell about one small moment and the author zooms in and focuses on that small moment when he/she tells the story. Today we are going to see a way of helping us do just that.Explicit Instruction
An alternate plan would be to use a piece children’s literature with which the students are already familiar and create the inverted triangle that the author may have utilized to narrow the focus. / I know from talking to you that you all have really great things to tell about. However, sometimes we are still thinking of big watermelon topics and we’re having trouble figuring out how to zoom in on one seed idea within that big watermelon. One strategy that writers use to help them focus is to create an organizer that narrows and focuses their thinking to one small moment. It looks like this. Draw the inverted triangle organizer. It’s like starting with a big block or wood or marble and gradually whittling it down until what’s left is the work that only you can see and make. The triangle shape reminds you to whittle down smaller and smaller, narrowing your focus more and more.
Watch me use this tool.
Relate idea from your own life that starts as a big topic (for example, my trip to DisneyWorld). Then with each successive level of the triangle as you progress toward the more focused point at the bottom, narrow the focus of your big topic (for example, the rides at Disney, the roller coasters, Space Mountain, and finally, the time the kid in the car behind threw up on Space Mountain). Point out that the bottom level is not really stated as part of the list but more as “the time….” This shows that the writer has arrived at a small moment seed idea. Also explain how different triangles may or may not need more or less levels in order to zoom in to the final focused small moment.
This final part of my triangle is a small moment story that only I could tell because it is a story which I was in and a part of. Lots of people could describe Disneyworld (or other big watermelon you are using in your demonstration), but only I have zoomed in on this one small moment.
Guided Practice / .Let’s try creating one together. Let’s start with a big topic you all know about. Choose something like “recess.” Guide children’s responses in such a way that a narrowing will occur. So now what do we want to zoom in on about that (so for recess, maybe “the playground equipment”). So now what about the playground equipment? Again, elicit a response that will demonstrate focusing the topic (going across the monkey bars). Can we zoom in even more? Try and bring to an eventual “point” or small moment with someone’s response (for example, the time I fell off the monkey bars and got a bloody nose). Demonstrate that this is the small moment from which to build a personal narrative story.
Send Off [for Independent Practice] / Today take a look at your heart map or other ways you have been coming up with ideas. Think about if these ideas are more like watermelons. If they are, use the triangle organizer tool to try to focus your big idea and whittle it narrower and narrower until you find a small moment seed idea within that big watermelon topic.
Group Share / Share triangle organizers students have used to narrow focus.