Kutztown Lesson Plan

Teacher: Ms. Lisa Rhyner Date:

2/06/17

Group Size: 22 Allotted Time 20 minutes Grade Level: Fourth

Subject or Topic: Narrative Writing Lesson 6 Section

Bold Beginning, Magnificent Middle, Extraordinary Ending

I. Performance Objectives
A. Standards
1) PA State Standard CC.1.4.4.Pa
Organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally,
using a variety of transitional words and phrases to
manage the sequence of events.
B. Learning Objective
1) Students will be able to organize an event or narrative in
a natural chronological sequence containing a clear
beginning, middle and ending.

II. Assessment
1) Formative
Students will be assessed formatively on their ability
to organize an event with a clear beginning, middle,
and ending while utilizing transition words.
2) Summative
Students will be given a summative assessment at
the end of the unit in the form of a personal narrative
essay that they will write.
Students will be given a summative assessment at
the end of the unit in the form of a written test.

III. Instructional Materials

A. Teacher
Model Narrative Writing Notebook
Anchor Chart
3 copies of the topics for writing list cut up and in a cup.
Popsicle sticks with student names on them.
Model flap booklet of popcorn.

B. Students
 22 Narrative writing notebook
22 Pencils
22 story flap booklets to glue into narrative booklets
(instructions to make them are attached.)
Topics for the students to write about written on pieces of
paper

IV. Subject Matter

A. Prerequisite Skills
Students must be familiar with literal and non-literal
meanings.
Students should know how to fill in the blanks in their
interactive notebook during instruction time.
Students must know what behavior is appropriate for small
group work as well as whole class instruction.
B. Key Vocabulary
Bold Beginning:
Catches the readers attention
Makes the reader want to read more (creates
curiosity)
Introduces character and/or setting
Middle: uses transition words to develop the characters
and the situation.
Ending: Uses a clever ending to give a resolution to a story.
Closure: to bring to an ending
C. Big Idea
The students will learn to organize an event in a
chronological way resulting in a clear beginning, middle,
and ending.
D. Content
The students will be taught to create a beginning that
contains a hook, middle that implements transitional words
or phrases, and an ending that leaves a resolution for the
reader.
V. Implementation
A. Introduction
Ask the students to bring their narrative notebook and a
pencil up to the carpet.
Ask students if they have ever picked up a book or some
other piece of writing and read for a few sentences and
then put the book down.
Acknowledge that a lot of readers have done this because
they dont want to waste their time reading something that
doesnt interest them.
 If you want a reader to read your writing, you must make
it interesting! Most readers decide if a piece of writing is
going to be interesting by reading the beginning of it!
Thats why beginnings are so important.
B. Development
Show the anchor chart to the students.
In order to get your readers attention you need to have a
Bold Beginning. In order to keep your readers attention,
you need a Magnificent Middle, and finally in conclusion,
you need an Extraordinary Ending.
How do we create these beginning, middle, and endings?
you may ask. Well I wondered the same thing myself.
Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an ending,
so we need to organize our stories in that order.
How to create a bold beginning:
Create a hook
State a belief.
o I believe that popcorn tastes best with
salt and butter on it.
Use a single word
o Example: Popcorn! Popcorn is yummy!
Share an interesting fact Example: The first
popcorn machine was invented over 100 years
ago.
Capture a moment in time
o I was sitting on the couch eating popcorn
when suddenly
Use an onomatopoeia
o POP! POP! The popcorn was exploding in
the bag.
Ask an interesting question
o Did you know that people have been
eating popcorn for over 5000 years?
Introduce the characters and setting
How to create a magnificent middle using transition words
What is happening to the characters?
Is there a problem the character encounters or
a decision the character makes?
Learn more about the characters
Tell about the event or situation
Develop the situation.
Use transition words
First,
Next
 Then
After that
Finally
In addition
Also
1. For example: First I ran out of
popcorn, then I went to the store to
get some. Finally, I came home and
ate it!
How to create an extraordinary ending
How did the characters solve the problem? Did the
characters change? How are they different from the
beginning?
Provide closure or share a lesson learned
A surprise ending
o The day was finally over. I jumped into
bed and EWWW there was something
slimy there!
Advice
o After being lost for hours, I will never
walk away from my mom again.
A question
o Finally, our adventure was over! Do you
think we should do it again? he asked.
A laugh
o As the sun was setting we curled up by
the fire. It was a beautiful nightand
then Jonah let out a loud burp.
Activity
Explain to the students that they will be creating their own
short story that incorporates a bold beginning, a
magnificent middle, and an extraordinary ending.
Model the teacher created booklet
This is an example story of something that
happened to me.
Read the booklet and show the pictures
Tell the students that they will be creating their own stories
from the booklet they will be given.
Ask students to use the topic they have chosen from their
brainstorming page. If the students have not identified a
specific instance, you may let them choose a topic from
the topic choice sheet.
Call students up one at a time using the Popsicle sticks
with their names on them.
 Give each student an empty flap booklet, and if needed, a
topic from the topic list.
Tell the students that they must create a short story using
the elements they just learned about for creating bold
beginnings, magnificent middles and extraordinary
endings.
Remind the students that the anchor chart and the lesson
poster are at the front of the class ready to be used.
C. Closure
Give students a three-minute warning before the end of
class to finish up their activity.
Use the throw me your eyes attention getting technique
to receive the attention of the students.
Bring the students together and review the correct order of
the short story.

D. Accommodations

Write the sentences for the story on the bottom flap and
then they will draw a picture on the top flap that
corresponds to the section.

E. Closure
o Give students a three-minute warning before the end of
class to finish up their flap booklets.
o Use the throw me your eyes attention getting technique
to receive the attention of the students.
o Bring the students together to discuss their stories.
o Ask for a few volunteers to read their stories.
o Ask the students to hand in their booklets.
o Tell the students to make sure their name and number are
on the booklets before handing them in.
D. Accommodations/Differentiation
1. For Struggling Learners
S.P, A.S., W.S., H.M, and L.S. will be seated in
front of the teacher during carpet time so that
 they can be closely monitored and provided
specific instructions and prompts throughout
the lesson and activity.
H.M will be paired with S.P with be paired with
A.D., W.S. will be paired with P.J, and H.M. will
be paired with C.B. during the partner activity.
o 2. For Accelerated Learners
H.M will be paired with S.P with be paired with
A.D., W.S. will be paired with P.J, and H.M. will
be paired with C.B. during the partner activity.
If any of the accelerated learners finish the
matching game before the rest of the students
will be asked to narrow down what topic they
would like to write about and start journaling
about it.

VI. Reflective Response

A. Report of students performance in terms of stated
objectives
All of the students completed their booklets for this
lesson. Not all of them colored them in, however.
I have scheduled time for the following day as a catch
up time to allow students to complete any work they
may have missed throughout the unit.
B. Personal Reflection
1) How can I improve this lesson?
If I were to teach this lesson again I would show more focus
and attention on the beginning of the lesson or even split it
up into two lessons- one for bold beginnings, and then
another for middle and ending. It took the most time for
the students to create their hook beginning, even though
I gave them six different options and all they really had to
do was cut and paste their own story into it. Some of the
students focused more on the drawing aspect instead of
the writing s I had to make a rule that you had to have your
story completely finished and approved by me before
moving on to the drawing part of the activity.
2) What additional assistance, supports, and/or
resources would have further enhanced this
lesson?
 Extra booklets would have been a good idea to make.
Some of my students messed up on their first booklet and
decided to make new ones because they did not like
having any mess ups on their booklet. More time would
have been helpful as well- I did not foresee the booklets
taking as long as they did and I will have to allow time in
the next couple of days for the students to finish their
booklets.
3) Were the students productively engaged? How do
I know?
The students were definitely productively engaged as they
thoroughly enjoyed making the booklets. A majority of the
students were so excited about their books that they
wanted to read them to the whole class. I am thinking
about having them all read their stories to the class as a
warm-up for another writing lesson to follow.
VII. Resources

1) Tobin, J. (1970, January 01). Story Structure (Exploring ELA).

Retrieved February 25, 2017, from
http://www.firstgradenest.com/2016/09/story-structure-exploring-
ela.html

2) M.B. (2012, November 12. Summarizing Short Stories: Story

Elements and Conflict. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from
https://allaccesspassblog.com/2012/10/03/summarizing-short-
stories-story-elements-and-conflict/

3) B.D. (2017, February 24). Writing Using the Organization Trait.

Retrieved February 25, 2017, from
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/388436155175834669

4) Bowman, D.S. (2013, January 22). Store: Zanah-Mccauley-

TeachersPayTeachers.com. Retrieved February 25, 2017, from
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/128000814381080394/

5) P.S. (2016, March 3). EL Learning Common Core Success.

Retrieved February 25, 2017, from
http://commoncoresuccess.eleducation.org/curriculum/ela/grade-
4/module-2a/unit-3/lesson-11

Topics to write about

 Your first day of school.
A visit to the dentist.
Vacation to the Grand Canyon.
First day on the new playground.
You just got a puppy.
Your Grandma came for a visit.
You got into an argument with your brother.
You are going to the tryouts for a football team.
Today is your birthday.
You are planning a surprise birthday party for your
mom.

Instructions for Flap Booklet: