MINI LESSON

Name: Megan Wyatt and Rachel Stearns

Subject: Language Arts

Grade Level: 8th Grade

Date: 15 September 2015

FOCUS:
Students have completed the first draft of a fantasy narrative. A common factor among all the
drafts is a lack of setting development. In this mini lesson, students will explore the importance
of a sound setting, as well as learn techniques to establish effective settings in their writings.
OBJECTIVES:
The student will be able to:
1. Students will be able to use descriptive details to enhance their narrative writing.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3.b
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop
experiences, events, and/or characters.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3.d
Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the
action and convey experiences and events.
MATERIALS:
1. PowerPoint with pictures
2. Excerpt of The Hobbit
3. Excerpt of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret
CONTENT OUTLINE:
Introduction: To introduce the topic of setting development, we will begin the lesson with
examples of developed settings from popular fantasy novels.
Activities: During the mini lesson students will view two sci-fi setting images. For the first
image, students will compose a list of observations describing the setting. After two minutes of
writing, students will compare the list with a partner to compose a more complete description.
Students will then be shown a second picture and asked to write a short paragraph describing the
setting.
Closure: To conclude the lesson students will share their paragraphs with a partner to discuss
additional changes that could be made to improve their writing. Students will use the knowledge
learned in this lesson to revise their fantasy narratives.
EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT:
It will be known that the mini lesson has been successful after students complete the final drafts
of a fantasy narrative. In their final drafts, students should have a well developed setting.

Students will continue to express their understanding of setting by having effective settings each
writing assignment throughout the semester.
RATIONALE:
The larger unit that encompases this mini lesson is focused on writing 3-5 page fantasy narrative.
It is important in fantasy fiction to have a descriptive base for a setting since it sets the scene for
the rest of the story.
This lesson is intended for eighth grade students. At this age, students are expected to be able to
use narrative techniques in order to develop events and narrative writings. The whole unit
focuses on fantasy narratives.
The research shows that it is important for students to be active while in class. Instead of
lecturing the students on what good writing includes, it is important for them to be involved in
practices that will help improve their writing. (Johannessen, 5). For this reason, the students in
this mini lesson will be shown examples of relevant, descriptive settings, as well as get a chance
to work on it themselves.
A PowerPoint was chosen to help facilitate image projection. This was more conducive to
learning because it allowed for images to be shown in color to a larger audience, which makes
talking as a class easier.

A description of formative and summative assessments for this lesson, as well as related
modifications and extensions.
A formative assessment that would be used with this lesson would be to have students do a free
write in their journals describing fantasy settings.
A summative assessment for this unit would be to have the students write a 3-5 fantasy narrative
on a topic of their choice.
The outline of this mini lesson could be modified to provide examples of other narrative writing.
The pictures could be changed to something else such as a field of flowers, or a classroom. By
changing this, it could be applied to a different category of narrative writing such as personal
narrative, or historical fiction.
An extension for this mini-lesson would be to have students go back and edit one of their
previous drafts to make sure that they are describing setting in an appropriate way.

Works Cited
Johannessen, Larry R. Teaching Descriptive/Narrative Writing: Strategies For Middle And
Secondary Students. n.p.: 1995. ERIC. Web. 13 Sept. 2015.