Lesson

Title/Focus

LA Grade 1
Christmas Sentence Writing Journal
(20-30 minutes)

Teacher
:
Date:

Sophia Gross
December 11, 2015

GENERAL LEARNING OUTCOMES

General Outcome 2 Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and
respond personally and critically to oral, print and other media texts.
General Outcome 4
Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to enhance the clarity and artistry of
communication.

SPECIFIC LEARNER OUTCOMES

2.4: Create Original Text
Generate ideas
generate and contribute ideas for individual or group oral, print and other media texts
4.1: Enhance and Improve
Expand knowledge of language
o identify and use an increasing number of words and phrases related to personal interests
and topics of study
4.2: Attend to Conventions
Attend to grammar and usage
o write simple statements, demonstrating awareness of capital letters and periods

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
Generate writing ideas for Christmas tree image.
Implement new and/or interesting descriptive words in writing.
Apply knowledge of capital letters and periods in writing journal.

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:

Key Questions:

Products/Performan
ces:

Generating ideas, words

Reading and checking words on smartboard
Writing sentences, checking for understanding with teacher and
classmates
What does the Christmas tree look like? Smell like? Feel like? What else do
they see on the image? What does a Christmas tree make you think of?
What are different ways of starting a sentence?
What do we need at the beginning and at the end of a sentence?
What do we know about the sentence words? What would we like to find
out?
Verbal responses
Written writing journal work product + picture

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Alberta Education Program of Studies

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Writing journals
Pencils

Pencil crayons
PROCEDURE
Attention Grabber

Introduction
Teacher asks for student attention to the Smartboard.
Teacher presents writing prompt image on the Smartboard.

Transition to Body

Teacher asks students what they see, what they think they
could write about. begin conversation

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Time
1 minute
1 minute

Learning Activity
#1

Assessments/
Differentiation

Assessment of
Learning:
Transition:

How does this individual

lesson scaffold learning
opportunities for
students?
What assumptions does
this lesson make about
what students already
know?
In what ways is this
lesson connected to the
next lesson?

Body
Smartboard all students are gathered around
Students brainstorm ideas and teacher writes down possible
words on Smartboard.
Teacher indicates students must include a colour word in their
sentences (brainstorm colour words where can we find how to
spell them in the classroom?)
Teacher asks students what needs to be included in a sentence.
(capital letter, period)
Teacher writes out sample sentence on the Smartboard
Teacher reminds students that they should try to do their best
printing and include finger spaces between their words.
When students are done writing their sentence (or two to
challenge their brain) they may draw a picture on the page.
Passer-outers hand out writing journals and teacher asks
students to turn to their next available page.
Teacher circulates and date stamps the page.
When finished their sentence, students will read it to the
teacher and make any minor adjustments to sentence then add
a sticker.
Assessment:
Student idea generation, identification of writing skills, goals,
printing technique

Time

5
minutes
instructi
on /
brainstor
m
20
minutes
writing

Differentiation:
Length of sentence(s) for students at different levels of learning;
choice in which sentences used provides a sense of ownership for
students and their own learning; variation in sentence starters to
challenge brain.
Picture drawing allows for students to express their ideas in
another form additional form of communication.
Cliffhanger/Closure
Time
Students reading their sentences for the teacher once they are
during
done.
Clean-up.
Teacher asks students to verbally share some examples of what
3
they wrote with their classmates.
minutes
Students will be doing some more Christmas writing and crafts in
next weeks classes.
Rationale
This lesson scaffolds learning by chunking information into manageable
parts.
Students get the chance to brainstorm words and sentences before
independent writing.
Students are encouraged to think of different ways of starting their
sentences and adding descriptive words (colour words) to make their
sentences more interesting.
Students are encouraged, if they feel they are ready, to challenge their
brains by writing an additional sentence.

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe