Guided Writing Lesson Plan

Description of the population, including grade level

The target population for this lesson plan is second grade general education students or students with IEPs in
ICT settings. These students need help to add more detail to their writing or may need to focus on one topic
when writing narratives and elaborate/add details within that topic.

Essential guided writing strategy

The guided writing strategy will be prewriting. The teacher will use a familiar narrative fiction text with rich
details and work backwards with students to find the central topic(s) of the text and use journalist’s questions to
analyze how the author added details to enrich the story. The text used in this lesson plan is Big Red Lollipop by
Rukhsana Khan. The teacher will then coach in as students use a graphic organizer to prewrite by answering
their own journalist’s questions about their chosen fiction writing topic.

Standards addressed
This lesson plan addresses Common Core Standards for ELA in second grade by highlighting text types and
purposes, encouraging identification of key ideas and details in literature, and facilitating production and
distribution of writing.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key
details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.3
Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to
describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of
closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.5
With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising
and editing.

Aim/Objective
I can elaborate on my writing topic by thinking like a journalist.

Materials
• Small group writing table and chairs
• Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan
• “Author’s Interview” graphic organizer, attached (1 per student)
• Pre-prepared chart paper /large paper with six sections to mimic graphic organizer
• Markers
• Post-its
Step 1: A discussion and model of prewriting using the book Big Red Lollipop to explore how authors put their
ideas together before writing a story.
Common Core Standards: Time Details: 7 minutes
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1
The teacher will tell students that they will doing something called prewriting to help them organize their thoughts.
Introduce the learning target and ask if anyone knows what a journalist is. Allow one or two students to share their
thoughts and acknowledge them. Then pass around a newspaper front page or article and share with students that in the
past, daily newspapers were called journals. Tell students that a journalist is someone who interviews people and uses
the information to write vivid stories. Then the teacher will say “we are going to use their strategy to help us add detail
to our writing.”

Bring students attention to Big Red Lollipop and tell them “we are going to go through the story in our minds and try to
work backwards to figure out what Rukhsana Khan was thinking when she wanted to write her story.” The teacher will
then point to the large graphic organizer and say, “we are going to use our organizer here to figure it out.” Have the
students choral read the words in each square on the chart (what, who, where, etc.). Ask the students to think about the
author’s topic. Ask “what was the author’s topic?” one of the students should say “a lollipop” or “a birthday party.”
Write the students’ responses in the What? box. Push them to think about what kind of lollipop, adding their answers
next to the word lollipop until you get to at least “lollipop – big, red” and then ask students if you could even add
“round.” Remind students that prewriting is before the book is written so the author may have put down that the lollipop
was round and then decided to remove it later in the writing process. After completing the What? box, tell students (for
example) “ok, I am author Khan and I am writing about a big, red, round lollipop and a girl’s birthday party. That is my
what. Now I want to know who.”

Go through this for each question box, getting at least 2 bullet points in each box. If students give a suggestion that does
not go with the journalist question the group is on, acknowledge their answer and ask them if there is anywhere else on
the chart, they think their answer would go better. If they are stuck ask the other students to help or write their answer in
the more appropriate box and explain why. There are questions and prompts to help students understand what goes in
each journalist’s question box attached. When students give an answer that can be extended such as “a lollipop,” be sure
to appear to be thinking hard and have a prompt prepared to get them to be more specific. An example is if a student
replies “at the party” ask “was is just any party?” (it was a birthday party) and “who’s party was it?” (Sally’s birthday
party).

Praise students for successfully adding more and more specific details as they went through the chart together. Ask the
students if they think Rukhsana Khan could have written her book after completing a chart like this. Ask them for a
thumbs up they thought it was easy to add the details. Tell the students it was easy because they know the story and that
they are going to going to do the same thing because they know their topic. Teacher will rub their temples and tell
students to think about their topic and hold their topic in their heads. Tell them they are going to have a sheet just like
the chart that says what, who, where, when, and how.
Questions asked Formative assessment/ Checks for understating
1. Does anyone know what a journalist is? 1. Teacher’s observation of student responses to open and
2. What is the authors topic? closed ended questions.
3. Can I add round as a lollipop detail? 2. Students give a thumbs up if they found it easy to add
4. Is there any other journalist question box that would be detail
a better answer for? 3. Teachers observations of students helping one an other
5. *Questions/prompts for each journalist question place their answers in the right box.
attached at the end of the lesson plan.
6. Do you think Ruhksana Khan could have used a chart
like this to write her book?
7. Thumbs up if you found it easy to add more details.
Step 2: Provide time for students to prewrite using a graphic organizer with strategic teacher guidance.
Common Core Standards: Time Details: 25 minutes
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.3
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.5
The teacher will give out the graphic organizers and tell them they will interviewing themselves about their topic. Say
“remember what your topic is, and think about each of the boxes, then start in whichever box you want.” Tell students
they do not necessarily have to worry about complete sentences or perfect spelling because they are going to share it.
Let the students work on their own for a few minutes.

Begin coaching in to each student, one at a time for about 3 minutes each, or at least through the completion of one
question box. Begin by asking them to tell/show you what they have written so far. Use the same sort of questioning
that was used during the modeling during coaching. Ask students to think about whether the section they wrote things in
make the most sense and then ask them function and attribute questions (such as used in dialogic reading) about what
they write down to get them to add more details. For example, if a student is writing about a horse, ask what color they
see the horse in their mind, if it is large or small, and whether the horse has a name or not.

When all students have been conferenced with, most students should be on the second to last or last box. Inform
students that they will be doing the last box(es) independently, so they should make sure to try their best and be ready to
share their story map.
Questions asked Formative assessment/ Checks for understating
1. What have you written so far? 1. Student shares their writing and explains how it fits
2. *Questions/prompts for each journalist question into their story.
attached at the end of the lesson plan. 2. Teacher’s observation of students’ level of comfort or
frustration with the activity.
3. Students’ response to teacher questions.

Step 3: Sharing and reflecting

Common Core Standards: Time Details: 5 minutes
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.5
Tell students they have one minute to look over their papers with their pencils down and think about what they wrote.
Give each student a post-it and tell them to write down one last thing they found that they would like to add in one box.

Have students write the box question on the post it (who, what etc.), write their change/addition and place it on top of
the corresponding box on their graphic organizer.

Have students turn and talk to a partner about their experience using journalist’s questions to prewrite, share one of the
boxes on their sheet and something they would add. Listen to students’ discussion.

Tell students that they will be using these graphic organizers and their first revision that they did on the post-it to begin
writing their story next time.
Complete an analytic assessment for each student (attached).
Questions asked Formative assessment/ Checks for understating
1. Is there anything you would like to change or add to 1. Student responses on post its.
your graphic organizer? Write it on a post it. 2. Turn and talk/Teacher’s observation of student turn
and talk