Lesson Plan

Units of Study For Teaching Writing Grades 3-5

Calkins’ Unit of Study: Launching the Writing Workshop

Lesson Number: 8 Name: “Writing Discovery Drafts”

Materials Needed: Instructions on the board telling students to bring their Writer’s Notebook with a pencil tucked inside along with their partner to the meeting area, a child’s paper copied onto a transparency, overhead projector, chart paper, markers, see CD-ROM for resources

*Lucy uses the term “discovery draft” so students understand that drafting is a time to explore and change or mold the story. She wants students to write fast and long so they can feel that the first draft can be improved and is not the final writing.*

Connection (1min.):

1. Remind students of the work they’ve done so far in the process of drafting (i.e. rehearsed for writing by

storytelling and thinking of leads), and tell them they are ready to go one step further, and write a draft.

2. Teaching Point: “Today I want to teach you that writers fast-write discovery drafts to get their story out

on paper by writing fast and long, without stopping When we are done with our drafts, like all writers, we will reread and revise what we’ve written. After writing a good lead, we just write the story without stopping.”

Teach (4-5 min.):

1. Use a metaphor to tell children that writers sometimes fast-write a discovery draft. Explain how an artist gets

power into her drawing by gazing deeply at the person/thing she is drawing and sketch what she sees without even looking down at their paper. She keeps her eyes on the person and sketches with the goal of drawing the truth of what she sees onto the page

2. Tell how it is done. Writers do something similar. They remember the start of the episode and story tell what

happened first and then, without worrying much about spelling or anything, we keep our minds fixed on everything that happened and write fast and long without stopping.

3. Give an example. Show Felix’s draft on the overhead (see CD-ROM for a copy of this draft) so they can see it

doesn’t need to bespelled well to hear the power of his writing

Active Engagement (3-4 min.):

1. Encourage children to be willing to write discovery drafts and channel them towards being ready to start this work.

Share the following quote, “There are some kinds of writing that you have to do very fast, like riding a bicycle on a tightrope”-Falkner. Explain to stay up on bikes, we need to pedal fast and go full speed ahead! Many writers find that in order to make listeners feel what they want them to feel, it helps to write fast and long. Today we’ll do that, writing the same stories (only better) that we told yesterday.

2. To get started, ask students to reread their lead they wrote yesterday and then just say your story you will write.

Pretend you are storytelling the story to listeners. Writers need to make the readers feel what you want them to feel.

3. Start here and when you are ready to write gives a thumbs up.

4. When the majority of the students give the thumbs up signal, go to your Link.

Link (1 min.):

1. Remind writers of what you’ve taught today, that sometimes we story tell a story to ourselves or aloud before we

write it, as a way to take a story idea and stretch it into a wonderful, long story, the kind that gives us goose bumps. Today they learned that writers often write discovery drafts, writing fast and long in order to get the story down on the page. Try this type of drafting for now – we will learn others as well.

2. Tell them they can use this new strategy for the rest of their lives.

Writing and Conferring (30 min.)

Today’s conferring may be a bit different. Normally, you don’t hesitate to interrupt a child if they are writing. Today,

you want students to push themselves to write fast and long without interruption. However, if you can tell students are

having trouble writing fast and long, you should interrupt them and confer.

  • If a child is taping on the paper and not writing, you might teach the child to write across each page and tell what goes on that page.
  • If a child is taking time to look on the Word Wall for spelling a word correctly, you night teach them to just use a spelling that is close and go back later to spell it correctly.
  • If a child is stopping to erase, you might want to teach the student to put a line through what is wrong and just keep writing.
  • If a child is thinking and rethinking each part, you might teach the child to jot down notes in the margin but keep writing the story.
  • If a child is laboring over every sentence, you might teach the child to just do the best they can and keep going.

Midworkshop Interruption/Teaching Point:

1. Get your writers attention.

2. Let students know that when we feel a lag in our energy, we can reread our writing as if it is a masterpiece, and

let the rereading boost for more writing.

Share (5-6 min.)

1. Remind writers of the strategies they already know for giving themselves more writing stamina (i.e.

rereading their writing like a masterpiece).

2. Lay out a new strategy. Tell students they can take time to reread parts of their writing that they are proud of

because they havefound the right words to express what they want to say. They can read this part out loud like they were on stage. (Model this strategy by using a sentence or two from your own writing.)

3. Ask students to try this strategy. Have them reread what they wrotetoday and choose a phrase or sentence they

love.

4. You can have students “Turn and Talk” or teach a new share strategy called “Quaker Share”. In this sharing each child just speaks out when they are ready to share and no one else is sharing. This allows everyone’s work to be shared and celebrated.

HOMEWORK:

Find a favorite writing place-a place where they can think without being distracted (give a few examples). You

may want to surround yourself with things that are special to you (give a few examples) and your tools. Draw a picture of yourself in your special writing place. Label the picture showing the things that make it a good place to write. Remember, it should be a place they can go to anytime they want or need to write.

Tailoring Your Teaching:

1. If you notice students’ writing fluency is hampered by their worries about correct spelling, teach them a new strategy for getting their words down. This strategy is from Sandra Wilde, called a place holder spelling. “Writers, yesterday I showed you how to write fast and long. Today I want to teach you how to get words down by using the placeholder spelling.

2. (Model this by writing a sentence with a word that is difficult to spell.) Say the word three times. The last time say the word slowly so you can hear the sounds. Then tell the students as you model that you write what you hear and underline it. You will come back to it later and just keep writing.

3. If you notice students that just copy what is written in their notebooks onto their drafting books, explicitly teach them that writers usually add more through elaboration when taking an entry to the draft.

4. You will have to model this with one of your entries.

Mechanics:

Continue to gather your students writing and look for their control of conventions. Devise a plan for supporting your students’ needs. However, don’t let the focus of conventions overrun your Writing Workshop.