Focus Lesson Planning Sheet

Focus Lesson Topic / Good writers write with sight words.
(Adapted from Calkins)

Materials

/ Wipe boards, dry erase markers

Connection

/ Yesterday we learned….
Explicit Instruction / Sometimes writers say a word slowly and stretch out the sounds. Other times, writers can quickly write a word they already know how to spell. Today I’ll show you how to switch back and forth between slowly stretching a word and writing words we know how to spell in a “snap.”
Reread the picture story you wrote and review the labels you wrote by stretching the sounds as you read them.
Example from Lucy Calkins:
For the first picture, I need to write “We had a show for our families.” Hmm…We had a show for our families. Watch how I write the words.
Quickly write the first three words repeating them as you go “We had a…”
Did you see how quickly I wrote those words? I wrote them in a snap! That’s because I already knew them. I didn’t need to stretch out the sounds.
List some other sight words that students could write in a “snap.”
Now, I want to finish my sentence. We had a show. Hmm…show. I can’t write that one in a snap. I’ll have to stretch the sounds for that word.
Model stretching the sounds, writing, rereading, and adding sounds to record the word.
Guided Practice / Turn to another picture in the story or add a new picture to the story.
Now let’s try it together. I need to write the sentence______. We can write some of the words in a snap. For others, we’ll need to stretch the words and record the sounds.
Choose a sentence with two to three sight words at the beginning of the sentence. Say the sentence aloud and ask students to write the sight words in a snap.
Check for understanding.
Now, look at the next word. It looks like a word we will need to stretch.
Say the word. Ask the students to stretch the sounds and record the word on their wipe boards.
Send Off [for Independent Practice] / Remind students that today and everyday, when they come to a sentence they would like to write, look for the words they can write in a snap. Only stretch the words they don’t know how to spell from memory.
Group Share / Invite students to share words in their writing that they could write in a snap.