Context: What Kind of Teaching Situation/School Setting Is the Lesson Based On?

Background on Lesson

Context: What kind of teaching situation/school setting is the lesson based on?

Class profile: Group of 15 women, mostly Au Pairs, adult ESL studentsAge: 20s

Needs: They are seeking to improve their social and professional language abilities.

Level: Intermediate to High intermediate

Learner Needs: What do the learners need/want to learn?

They are seeking to improve their social and professional language abilities in both writing and speaking. They would also like to be able to improve their communications skills.

Objectives/Aims: What will your students know or be able to do as a result of this lesson?

By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to write a paragraph.They will be able to identify the parts of a paragraph:a topic sentence, supporting sentences with detail, a conclusion sentence.

a.Learners will be able to write a paragraph exemplifying a particular rhetorical structure (narrative, etc.).

b.Learners will be able to employ signal words and rhetorical patterns consistent with their rhetorical choice.

Assumptions: What are you assuming in terms of student background knowledge?

I assume learners are familiar with the form of aparagraph and writing paragraphs. However, I will also assume each of the learners’ respective language and culture paragraph order is unique and different.Teaching it from scratch for L2 learners is critical to improve and master writing skills.

Note: Background and supporting research that I found fascinating and important for teaching writing and writing of paragraphs to L2.

Language Analysis: What new grammar and vocabulary will this lesson target?

New Vocabulary: paragraph, topic sentence, main idea, journal, audience, conclusion

Anticipated Problems and Solutions: What could go wrong? What backup plans do you have?

If the concept of writing an entire paragraph is too advancedto cover in 60 minute lesson, I will scaffold the lesson and cover less. Instead of accomplishing all parts a paragraph, I will only focus onthe topic sentence. I would only have them begin to craft ideas, thoughts and brainstorm about what they would write for topic sentences.

Approach: The lesson utilizes a communicative, learner-centered approach to promote real-world language application. The lesson plan incorporates and use of technology.

Materials: PowerPoint, video clips, two handouts, worksheets, and paragraph organizer.

Assessment: How will you measure what your students can do?

For product I will assess how well learners met the objective to write a paragraph that exemplifies a narrative rhetorical structure.The lesson focuses on process and product. To assess process, I will have learners hand in their paragraph organizer.

Did they meet the objective? Did they meet the criteria to craft a narrative paragraph? –

Was there a topic sentence expressing the main idea?

Did the topic sentence begin to tell a story?

Were there supporting sentences that provided descriptive details?

WRITING LESSON PLAN NOVEMBER 8 2014

Objective:

By the end of the lesson, you will be able to write a narrative paragraph. You will be able to identify the parts of a paragraph and write the specific sentence forms that compose a paragraph.

You will write a paragraph with:

A TOPIC SENTENCE

SUPPORTING SENTENCES WITH DETAIL

A CONCLUSION SENTENCE

New vocabulary:

paragraph: noun

a part of a piece of writing that usually deals with one subject, that begins on a new line, and that is made up of one or more sentences.

topic sentence: noun

a sentence that states the main thought of a paragraph or of a larger unit of discourse and is usually placed at or near the beginning.

main idea: noun

themostimportantorcentralthoughtofaparagraphorlargersectionoftext,whichtellsthereader

what the text is about.

journal: noun

a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations: She kept a journal of her trip to Europe.

audience:noun

in writing,audienceis who you are writing for. If you know who you are writing for, you can make good decisions about what information to include, as well as your tone and language in conveying it.

conclusion: noun

the last part of something

Warm-up: Brainstorm to activate prior knowledge about the process of writing. What do they do when they begin to write? How do they start?Discuss the idea of generating ideas, organizing thoughts to write.

BEGIN POWERPOINT (Turn to HANDOUT)

Activity 1: Guided practice - in pair, learners have the handout of two paragraphs and together they select the topic sentence, supporting sentences and conclusion sentence in each paragraph. We reviewtogether as the paragraphs are projected from the PowerPoint (able to highlight and work on the paragraph slide as learners identify the parts of the paragraphs).

Activity 2: In their groups, using the Handout Paragraph Organizer, learners draft a topic sentence from suggested topics – the first step before writing a full paragraph on the topic they choose from the following list:

TOPICS to write about:

What is your most special, or favorite, memory?

What is the best place you have ever visited?

What do you like most about living in the Washington, D.C. area?

Activity 3: After drafting the topic sentence GO ON to write a full paragraphon chosen topic.

Activity 3: As a class we discuss the activity. We discuss the process. What did they think, and/or discover as they prepared to write? What did they do as you prepared to write? A few will share their idea for topic sentence with the class.

Activity 4: PEER EDITING: In their groups, learners trade their papers with each other for a peer review and edit.

Learners will write their edits/responses on the paper. with a checklist to guide them

The paper is back to given back to the author.

After receiving this written feedback, learners are given time to read it and ask any questions or seek clarification about what their peers wrote.

This feedback is used to write the final draft of the paragraph.

Paragraph Revision Checklist

√ Does the paragraph have a clear TOPIC SENTENCE with the main idea?

√ Does the paragraph have good supporting sentences, details, facts, examples, and quotes that support

the TOPIC SENTENCE, the main idea

√ Does each sentence begin with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation mark?

√ Is there a good conclusion sentence summing everything up? Good wrap up?

Assessment:

The lesson focuses on process and product. To assess process, I will have learners hand in their paragraph organizer handout. To assess the product, I will review their final paragraph.

I would consider these points:

- Well organized - Unity, coherence, progression- Uses appropriate details

- Addresses task - word choice

PROCESS CHECK LISTAs you write, check off each step you complete.

Debbi Morello Writing Lesson Plan 1