Focus Lesson Planning Sheet

Focus Lesson Topic / Focusing on the Most Important Part: Developing the Middle
(Adapted from Fletcher and Portalupi, 2007)

Materials

/ Text with a clear narrative structure (short teacher or student created piece or familiar published text such as Peter’s Chair by Jack Ezra Keats; see also “Emily’s Story” in Appendix 1 of Craft Lessons by Fletcher and Portalupi), chart paper, markers, early drafts of students’ personal narratives

Connection

/ Yesterday we learned….
Explicit Instruction / Ask students to imagine that someone gives them a sandwich (close eyes, picture sandwich, getting ready to take a bite, etc.) Then imagine that when they take a bite there is only a tiny bit of filling (thin film of peanut butter/jelly, tiny piece of cheese, etc.) Talk about how disappointing the sandwich would be.
Explain that a story can be like a sandwich. Even though stories have three parts – beginning, middle, end – the middle should be the thickest and juiciest part, just like the filling of a sandwich.
Share selected text. (Read aloud or review as appropriate.) Explicitly show students how the middle is the biggest part by thinking aloud and creating the following text diagram.



Guided Practice / Have students look at their personal narrative drafts individually or with a partner. Direct students to find or circle the beginning, middle, and end of their stories. Is the middle the biggest and juiciest part?
Send Off [for Independent Practice] / Remind students that good writers know that the middle of the story is the most important part. Tell students that if their middle looks a little skimpy they may want to spend time during independent writing expanding that part of their stories.
Group Share / Invite students who spent time developing the middle of their stories to share their work and strategies.

Sample Anchor Chart

A good personal narrative story will probably look like this:

or this:

but probably not this: