Focus Lesson Planning Sheet

Focus Lesson Topic / Becoming an Authority: Developing a Topic List

Materials

/ Chart paper to create list
Blank lists (if you intend to use one particular format instead of student-generated lists in their Writer’s Notebooks)
Writer’s Notebooks, student and teacher

Connection

/ We have been exploring nonfiction books for the past few days. We have discussed how the authors of these books wrote them to inform the readers of some information and true, actual facts about something. We have noticed some of the conventions or characteristics that many nonfiction books have in common. Today we are going to begin talking about how we will write our own nonfiction pieces over the next few weeks.
Explicit Instruction
Create your own Authority List on the chart paper:
My Authority List
-ants
-sunsets
-dogs / In order to start a piece of nonfiction writing, you need a topic, something you are going to write about. Writers get the ideas for their topics from many places. Sometimes they notice something going on and jot it down in their Writer’s Notebook. They may have questions about something or wonder about something and write that down in their Writer’s Notebook too. Then they list some of these ideas for topics on a topic list. Sometimes they call this their Authority List because these are the topics they would like someday, after doing some reading and investigating, to become authorities on, so that they can then teach others about these topics through their writing. (You may choose to call the list simply a topic list and not an Authority List if you wish).
I’m going to read through my Writer’s Notebook and see if I can find an entry where I observed something that I think I would like to learn more about and become an authority on. I can then add it to my Authority List. I will also look for entries where I wondered about something or had questions about something. That will go on my list too. Demonstrate paging through WNB. Here is an entry where I observed some ants carrying a big cookie crumb to their nest and thought about how much bigger the crumb was than the ants. I think I’d like to learn more about ants and become an authority on them. I will write that on my list. Here’s an entry where I wondered why the sky turns such pretty shades of pink and purple at sunset. I’d like to learn more about sunsets and why some look the way they do. I will add sunsets to my list. Substitute your own examples.
Sometimes authors also just think about what they like and what interests them to add to their Authority Lists. For example, I really love dogs and would like to know more about them. So I will add dogs to my Authority List. Continue with a few more examples, keeping the topics somewhat broad at this point so they can be narrowed in an upcoming lesson.
Note- if you have a topic you are planning to use for demonstration purposes that ties in to a content area (for example, Massachusetts), add that to your list that you may wish to investigate, so that you can then use the information you “research” in your modeling of that phase of this writing unit. The students are learning that content-based information as well as observing you in the various components of the writing process.
Guided Practice / Let’s try this together. Quickly look in your Writer’s Notebooks for an entry where you observed something or wondered about. Is that something you might want to investigate and learn more about so that you become an authority on that topic. Then turn to your next blank page and create an Authority List just like I have up here and add that topic to your list (or if you intend to give students a pre-made copy of a list, inform them to add to that). Give a few moments for this to take place. Everyone has at least one topic they’ve listed, turn and talk to a partner about what you have.
Send Off [for Independent Practice] / Today when you go to independent writing you will continue to look through your Writer’s Notebooks for entries that might lead you to more topics for your Authority Lists. You should also just think about what you like and are interested in, and add those topics as well. Remember, you can always add to your Authority Lists at any time so it doesn’t have to be complete today.
Group Share / Students could share their Authority Lists.

Name ______Date ______

My Authority List