Introductory Week

Introductory Week; Plan 3 of 3

Summary Plan
Objectives:
Cognitive:
1) Students will understand that writing is a meaning-making
process.
2) Students will know how to interact with their writing when they
are struggling.
3) Students will know what a growth mindset is and why it is
important.
Affective:
4) Students will value the mental processes employed by writers.
5) Students will value hard work and effort as paths to success.
6) Students will feel like a valued part of our classroom community.
Procedural:
7) Students will be able to construct meaning while writing.
8) Students will be able to reflect metacognitively on their
writing processes.
SOL:
6.7 The student will write narration, description, exposition, and
persuasion.
a) Identify audience and purpose.
d) Establish a central idea and organization.
CCS:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Methods of Assessment:
Diagnostic: Students will brainstorm answers to the following
questions in their journals: Yesterday, we mentioned that reading
was a process. What are some ways that reading is a process? What
are some ways writing might be a process?
This will assess students progress towards Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7,
and 8.
Formative: Students will begin a modified group writing workshop
in which they revisit suggestions from other groups during Lesson
One and begin to write our guidelines for class respect.

This will assess students progress towards Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

7, and 8.
Students will use their classmates names while speaking to them.
Students will demonstrate respect as they defined it in class during
Lesson One.
This will assess students progress towards Objective 6.
Beginning Room Arrangement:
Students desks will be arranged in table groups of four.
Procedures and Instructional Strategies:
Bell-Ringer: Sustained Silent Reading (15 minutes)
As students walk into the classroom, I crowd the door and remind
them to take a seat and pull out their library book or a book theyre
reading on their own time. As students do their reading, I might pop
around the room and ask other students what theyre reading and if
theyd recommend it. Ill explain that Im still building by Student
Library and really want to read and have books that students like
available in the classroom.
Bridge: Journal Entry (5 minutes)
Students will brainstorm answers to the following questions in their
journals: Yesterday, we mentioned that reading was a process. What
are some ways that reading is a process? What are some ways writing
might be a process?
Step One: Writing the Rules and the Rules of Writing (25
minutes)
Ill mention the fact that we have already done a great deal of
brainstorming related to respect and what we think that means for us
as a classroom. Im going to pass out the norms that students worked
on in class back to the table that they were at and ask them to appoint
a scribe to write out rules that they come up with that encompass all
these categories.
Step Two: Model a Question Flood (5 minutes)
After students have written their rules in groups and discussed them
together, Im going to ask them to switch with a neighboring table
group. Afterwards, Ill model a question flood on a list of rules (that I
made up, so as not to put too much pressure on students who might

be feeling shy about their drafts) to demonstrate how students need to

be interacting with one anothers work in a respectful but productive
manner.
Step Three: Question Flooding (15 minutes)
Next, Ill invite students to perform question floods on each others
papers so that they can attempt to make revisions.
Step Four: Choosing the Most Important (5 minutes)
First, Ill show students how to choose the most important questions
to respond to when they begin to write the next drafts of their rules
for the classroom. Questions like How do you listen respectfully?
are important and will need to be fleshed out. Questions like What
does active listening look like? are also important. But questions
like, What should you do when the someone says they think all your
ideas are dumb? might be a little too situation-specific and not
worthy of explicit reply in our rules especially because we hope they
wont happen in the classroom!
Step Five: Revisions (15 minutes)
After students have chosen the most important questions, they can
begin to write revised rules for the class.
Closure (5 minutes):
After students have written the rules for the class, we will discuss
briefly the process we used for writing and why we think it might be
helpful in the future. Before the bell rings I will let students know
that I will be using their lists in order to make our classs guidelines
for respect, and that I am excited to work on this over the weekend
and see where we end up!
Differentiation to Meet Student Needs:
This assignment uses a great deal of journaling before discussing,
which gives students like Anji and Brian, who are usually less
enthusiastic speakers in class.
This assignment also uses discussion with peers as motivation to
complete the assignment, which may be helpful for students like
Ashley, who loves talking with her friends. (It may also prove helpful
to Anji, as long as she is paired with her friend Deanna, with whom
she seems quite comfortable talking.)

Materials Needed:
student journals
student respect brainstorms from Lesson One
paper