Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor

Alexandra Keresztes
Narragansett Elementary School
Grade 4 Tonia Hassell, Cooperating Teacher
Date

April 27, 2015

Title of Lesson

Characteristics of Personal Narrative Writing

Grade Level/
Content Area
Objectives

Grade 4
ELA: Narrative Writing
Students will brainstorm a new list of possible writing topics to develop
as personal narratives.
Students will determine some characteristics of personal narrative writing
by analyzing a model.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3 Write narratives to develop real or
imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive
details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in
which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose,
and audience.
Copies of graphic organizer for brainstorming personal narratives and
screenshot to put on Promethean Board
Copies of student model: Watch Out For Your Little Sister (or
another short model of personal narrative) and screenshot to put on
Promethean Board
Chart: Personal Narrative Elements
Colored pencils or crayons (to make notations about the elements of
personal narratives)

Common Core
State
Standards

Instructional
Materials &
Resources

Instructional
Activities &
Tasks

lesson based on: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/files/curriculum/G4PN2014.pdf

(Portland Public Schools)
Teach (Modeling):
One of the first things you should know about personal narrative
writing is that they are true stories that really happened to the writer.
Personal narratives are always stories from your life. To help you think
of some possible personal narrative stories, I found a great
brainstorming chart for you to use!
(Display on Promethean Board and read through the categories with
students) I want to think of as many possible personal narrative topics
as I can. So, I am going to read each category on this chart, then start
adding my ideas.
I have an idea for a personal narrative about a mistake I made when
my family moved for the first time and I tried to help with cleaning
o I really thought that I was being helpful, but the results were not
good and my parents were not happy when our fish were

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor

floating at the top of the fish tank instead of swimming!

WHOOPS!
o I dont want to write the whole story yet though I just want to
make a note about that in one of the boxes
o But wait where should I put it?
Ask a few students to help you put this into a box (and mention that you
might be able to put some ideas in more than one box but pick which
works best)
Great! Does anyone else have an idea for the mistakes category?
Invite one or two to share.
Ive got a few other ideas for other categories too! Lets see Oh!
Family rituals! Whenever we are home, my parents make it a point to
have family dinner EVERY night oh and places Ive visited! Well, I
visited Boston and Fenway Park about a week ago!(Add those into
chart)
Invite one or two students to add other ideas.
If necessary: use a model of own completed chart

Active Engagement (guided practice):

Now youre going to brainstorm ideas in your own chart! (Pass out
individual charts) Im going to give you about 5 minutes to get down
some ideas in any categories you can. Dont worry about getting
something for every box, though! Just try to get some really good
memories in there!)
At the end of the time, ask students to put their pencils down and share
a couple ideas with their partner.
Teach (Modeling):
Now that we have a list of possible topics for a personal narrative, I
want to share with you the important elements, or pieces, that go into
writing personal narrative pieces. If I want to write me personal
narrative about how I tried to help clean the fish tank before moving, I
do not want to write a how-to for cleaning a fish tank. Writers have
specific elements that they use to create personal narratives.
Display the Personal Narrative Elements chart go through each
element and briefly review what it means.
Lets have a look at how another 4th grade writer used these personal
narrative elements to develop her piece.
Pass out copies of Watch Out for Your Little Sister and display it on
the Promethean Board
Read through the entire piece aloud
Link to Independent Practice:
Did anyone hear some character description in Ashleighs piece?
o Tell students to take one colored pencil or crayon and underline
that sentence. At the bottom of the page, use that colored pencil
2

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor

Assessment

to write the word character at the bottom (as a key!)

What about setting description?
o Tell students to take a new colored pencil or crayon and
underline that sentence. At the bottom of the page, use that
colored pencil to write the word setting at the bottom (as a key!)
Repeat once with each dialogue and interesting details then ask
students find at least one extra piece of evidence for each and put a star
next to the new ones
o Tell students to take a new colored pencil or crayon and
underline EACH piece of evidence. At the bottom of the page,
use EACH colored pencil to write the word dialogue or
interesting detail at the bottom (as a key!)

Closure:
Pass out narrative folders Put all of your materials into your new
narrative folders.
Can anybody remind me what a personal narrative is?
o Allow one student to give a general definition if needed ask
another student to assist and build on the last answer.
Can anyone remind me of one of the four elements of personal
narratives?
o Allow students to go through each of the four elements and, if
necessary, ask them to explain what the element is or a trick to
finding it (ex. quotation marks surround dialogue)
Tomorrow, we are going to begin writing our own personal narratives
from ideas on our brainstorming chart!
Informal:
Students will help me determine which box my own idea can go into
and give me additional ideas for the example chart.
Students will share their ideas on their individual brainstorming chart
verbally with a partner.
Students will help find an example of each of the four narrative
elements in the example, Watch Out for Your Little Sister
Formal:
Students will create their own chart of ideas for narratives with a short
bullet for each idea.
o I will check to make sure that the ideas make sense in the box
that they have been placed and talk to the students who do not
give as complete of ideas or whose ideas are unclear.
o Additionally, students will be sharing with their partners and I
can listen in to those who can articulate their thoughts well but
maybe do not write them as clearly.
In the example narrative, students will be sharing the different pieces of
evidence to demonstrate the four narrative elements. They will
underline and color code the whole class examples (note: every student
3

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor

Learner
Factors

should have the same four examples shown on the Promethean Board
PLUS two additional examples)
o Students will find at least one additional piece of evidence to
show dialogue and interesting details on their own. They will
underline each using the color code that they have set up during
the guided practice to differentiate the two pieces of evidence.
Students will be presented with a graphic organizer to help them categorize
their ideas for potential narrative topics.
Students will be beginning to develop an understanding of the elements that are
important to narrative writing: character description, setting description,
dialogue, and interesting details. To help them develop this, they will be colorcoding each element of personal narratives which creates a more visual key for
some of the students in the classroom.
Students will be sharing ideas with partners and with the whole class which
will strengthen their interpersonal intelligence. They will also strengthen their
intrapersonal intelligence as they recall memories they want to put into their
brainstorming chart. Throughout the lesson, students will be working on their
linguistic intelligence as they will be putting their ideas into writing.
Provide A, D, and B with the chart on their iPads.
Provide M, Z, A and N a copy of the chart with lines to help organize their
writing.
Give E the option of typing his using WordQ, but explain that he must do so in
a timely matter and that he will have to finish in the same amount of time as the
rest of the class.
Create a definition of personal narrative writing to display for the class.
Create a class sized poster of the personal narrative element chart.
Examples of each document that will be handed out will also be shown on the
Promethean Board. With this, step by step verbal and visual (they will watch
me do them) instructions will be essential to students achieving the task at
hand.
Will do the brainstorming chart on the board prior to passing it out to
ensure that students are not putting any of these ideas on their own
chart, but are paying attention to how the ideas are organized. THEN,
individual charts will be passed out for students to complete their own
brainstorming activity.
The story will be posted and passed out simultaneously. I will read the
entire story aloud for the students and THEN we will find each narrative
element in the story as a class. I will show them exactly how I expect
them to color code each type of element and how I would like them to
create a key.

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor
Environmental Students will be at their desks for the entirety of the lesson. They will be asked
to focus on their own work as well as to take part in class discussions and focus
Factors
on the Promethean Board at the front of the room.

Extension/
Enrichment
Activity

The Four Elements of Narrative Writing will be displayed on a chart in the

room.
For the next days Morning Work, provide an example of a narrative to each
student. Have them find each of the four narrative elements in the example and
color code them (like in the modeling/link to independent practice of this
lesson). Ask students to turn this in when they are completed to ensure that
students can differentiate each of the four elements.
Tomorrow, students will begin to write their own short narratives on a topic
from their brainstorming chart. These will be worked on throughout the
narrative unit to build upon the ideas they developed in this lesson.

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor
Lesson Reflection:
1. How effective was the lesson plan? Explain.
When I take into account that the technologies I was intending to use were not
working for the lesson that I had planned, I think that I mostly abandoned the
lesson plan as it was written. I attempted to do what I could with what I had
available to me and it allowed me to attempt new things that I probably would not
have done had the technologies been available to me in the way I anticipated
using them.
While I kept the same ideas, I changed the structures of what I intended to do. I
felt that this lesson plan allowed me to make these changes because I was able to
keep the overarching ideas but work them into what I found was working. For
example rather than pair sharing, which I expected to take longer and get students
telling their entire story rather than just their ideas, I had every student share one
idea and the box that they put it in, in approximately five words. This not only
allowed me to check that they were properly organizing their ideas on their
brainstorming chart, but also made their classmates interested in reading the
stories that would be developed in future lessons. I also let the students do the
majority of the talking in this lesson rather than doing it as a lecture, which I felt
was how the lesson plan outlined the lesson.
As I was having difficulties pulling up the resources that I intended to use for this
lesson, I had to rely on unclear images of the resources which forced me to be
very clear about the things that I put onto the board that I also expected to see on
their sheets. For example, each time a student listed where a narrative element
could be found in the story, I underlined where it was in the text but made sure to
repeat the exact sentence that I was underlining. I also changed my plan to have
the students go element by element (and therefore color by color), which achieved
the same result but kept the students focused on one thing at a time. I found that
this kept the students more focused, and probably more organized, than I
originally planned.
2. Was the pace of the lesson appropriate? Explain.
This is the first lesson where I feel that I was truly well paced in a lesson, even
though all of the students seemed eager to share out their personal narrative ideas
and the stories that accompanied them. I think that I anticipated that this lesson
was going to take more time than it really did and, because of this, I found that I
did not call on every student like I would have previously. Rather, I limited the
amount of information that students shared after their brainstorming session so
that all students could share their ideas out with the entire class. By limiting the
number of words that students could use to explain their ideas and get their
classmates interested in their story, I found that all of the students also became
more engaged and were exceptionally respectful of the fact that I was limiting
what they could say.
Although I do not necessarily think it is appropriate to use this strategy all the
time, I found that it was extremely useful to building suspense in the class and it
made it possible to fit a large lesson into an hour long block of time. This lesson

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor
made me realize that I could use this as a strategy during brainstorming lessons. I
would like to implement this strategy in the future in similar lessons.
3. Did you implement effective classroom management strategies? (Ex: use of
proximity, positive reinforcement, etc.) Explain.
As stated above, I tried out a different strategy for this lesson. I had read in an
article that limiting the number of words that a person can use in a day really
makes them think about the words that are coming out of their mouths and the
effect that this has on what is said. This lesson gave me the ability to try this out
because in the brainstorming charts there was no way for students to write the
entire story. Instead, I asked them to think of keywords that would later help
them remember the story; then, by going around the room and asking every
student to share out their favorite idea using only the words they wrote and the
specific box they wrote their idea in, I found that every student in the class was
extremely aware of when other people were talking and became more interested
in what their classmates were saying. This strategy not only helped to prevent the
talkative students from telling their entire story, but allowed the more shy students
to share very little (which was a huge accomplishment compared to them usually
sharing nothing).
4. Were all the students actively engaged in the learning process? How did you meet
individual needs of students?
The students were actively engaged in the learning process and seemed to want to
know more with every idea I was adding into my own brainstorming chart. They
wanted to know more of what happened in each story idea that I gave which
allowed me to think ahead for future activities that I could contribute to within
this unit. They were all interested in talking about the different ideas that they
had on their brainstorming which enabled me to ask them each to share their idea
with the class. I found it very interesting that they all wanted to ask one another
more about their ideas, almost to the point where they were trying to tell one
another their stories; while I tried to prevent this from happening, I think it helped
me see how interested students were in this type of activity. While I was reading
aloud the sample story, the students were all reading along with me and then were
eager to help point out the different story elements. They did a fantastic job at
identifying the majority of the story details, but I found that interesting details
were a bit more like pulling teeth so I want to work more on this specific narrative
element in future lessons.
Since I was having so much difficulty with the technology, I realized I was not
going to be able to give this to students on their iPads. In order to accommodate
these learners specifically, I provided more time during brainstorming than I
intended to because many students were sharing their ideas and it let the slower
writers get more ideas on their chart. Asking each student to share meant exactly
that: every student had to share one idea with the entire class, even if it was not
something that they would do on their own. By limiting the number of words that
they were able to use in sharing their ideas, it did not put as much pressure on the
students to hear out their entire idea because they were not dictating the full story.
Additionally, I did not ask students to fill in every box and I asked them to try to
get at least three different ideas in the boxes.

Fifth Formal Observation Student Teaching

Observed by: Tonia Hassell, University Supervisor
5. Were the materials of interest to the students? How do you know?
The students were definitely interested in the different topics that they could put
ideas in on the brainstorming chart. This was clear because all of the students
were eager to share their ideas and stories throughout the lesson and they all came
up with more than the three ideas that I asked them to come up with.
The students all found the sample story interesting and this was evident because
during different parts of the story, the kids were laughing and connecting their
own experiences to what the sample writer had in her story.
At the end of the lesson, when I told students that the next day, I would share the
story I had written based on the first example I gave them, they all genuinely
seemed excited to see writing that I had done. Even after I mentioned that I was
going to have them locate in my writing the same four narrative elements that
they found in the sample story in todays lesson, they did not seem to be any less
interested than they were upon hearing that I would be sharing my own narrative.
6. Discuss the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of your teaching. (What worked, what
didnt, how does this inform your instruction?)
I felt that this was a very successful lesson for my first experience in narrative
writing. I believe that there were many successful aspects, but I wish that I were
able to have used the resources available through the site that I adapted this lesson
from. I feel that the students seeing what I intended to do with the materials
would have further enhanced their understandings.
Despite the technical flaws, I feel that I was able to make adjustments during and
throughout my instruction. I found that this was the first test that I have really
had which tested my ability to adapt to the realities of failed technology
immediately before a lesson and how I could adjust my instruction around these
realities.
7. Discuss your assessment. (What was learned?, how do you know?)
From my informal assessment, I learned that some of the students had a lot of
difficulty limiting their grandiose ideas (which bordered on shortened versions of
stories) to just a few words. Additionally, the students were all very interested in
contributing to where the different narrative elements in the sample story.
As I walked around look at their brainstorming charts, I noticed again that the
students were having difficulty shortening their ideas to brief blurbs of just a few
words. Despite that there was all-around difficulty in shortening ideas in writing
and verbally, all of the students were able to color code and accurately locate the
four story elements, including finding examples of dialogue and of interesting
details independently.