Education Technology with Emily

Emily Roth

Writing Lesson Plan

With Online components

Brainstorming

 

Lesson Objective: When given a graphic organizer or prompt to a graphic organizer online, students will brainstorm 5-10 ideas related to a given topic.

 

Common Core Standard:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

 

 

Pre-Skills Needed:

• Can respond to a prompt
• The ability to write-established hand-eye coordination
• Listening attentively to the teacher
• Vocabulary-knowing the names of certain things
• Composition of clear sentences
• Can express themselves
• Demonstrates prewriting techniques (Lists key thoughts, drafts ideas)
• Draw’s on their Schema
• Utilizes memory, imagination, and applies it to learning.

Materials Needed:

• Pencil
• Paper
• Provided with graphic organizer hand out
• Given resources to utilize for online graphic organizers and brainstorming information at the following links:

1. This is a website for brainstorming in elementary school. It explains what brainstorming is and why it is important in the writing process.  This tool aligns with the online lesson I’m designing because it is a reading activity that helps students learn to brainstorm properly.

https://www.learningliftoff.com/3rd-grade-reading-activity-brainstorming/

2. This is a video is called how to writing for kids and is about brainstorming and shows students how to complete a graphic organizer. The graphic organizer is filled out to brainstorm ideas for writing. https://youtu.be/QXuH6TUMwlg
3. This is a pre writing activity that is similar to an educational game to use before starting the writing process. This could be easily utilized for my online lesson because it is a game and the students would love to engage with something that is rewarding for them.

https://www.weareteachers.com/clever-pre-writing-activity/

4. Text to Mind Map: https://www.mindmup.com/#storage

Basic tool to help kids see how different concepts relate. Which is very important in the brainstorming process because students can branch ideas off of their main ideas.

 

Introduction:

First give a brief review on brainstorming and why it is important in writing. Brainstorming is an essential element of the writing process and it is truly beneficial to introduce it at an early age to students. Developing the process of brainstorming before writing helps the child to focus their attention on the topic as well as generate a number of ideas. Brainstorming also gives children the opportunity to share their ideas on paper or computer without being criticized, as well as providing them with generated thoughts that will help make the actual writing of the assignment flow that much smoother. Brainstorming can be fun, children enjoy sharing their ideas for writing and as a teacher you can let the children talk out their ideas with you as they are jotting them down. Games can also be played online with the different resources provided for teacher to use. Whether it be the students favorite toy, a make believe car that flies, or about their visit to the zoo; brainstorming brings about all of the different ideas, observations, prior knowledge, and even things the students imagine and puts it all in one place. Brainstorming can be gathered on a web, list, note cards, or any type of graphic organizer online or on paper. This lesson can be modified to whatever is easiest for the teacher and students. Teacher can use the online resources provided to enhance the learning experience in this lesson.

 

 

45 minute long lesson total

 

Students are seated at their desks

 

 

Step by Step:

1. Put everything away except for a pencil, you will be listening with your eyes and ears. I give a brief review on brainstorming/writing- “ Remember I told you that brainstorming helps authors organize all of their ideas on paper?”

 

2. I am going to think about a topic that I can brainstorm some ideas about. Before we brainstorm we always want to pick a topic. I am thinking of a couple of topics I could write about, my favorite animal, a vacation I went on, or what I want to be when I grow up.

 

3.Well I know I haven’t gone on any vacations lately, and I am already a grown up and I am your teacher, so I will choose to write about my favorite animal because I know a lot about that…my favorite animal is a Horse.

 

4. So I will write horse in the middle bubble. “Can someone tell me why I wrote “Horse” In the biggest middle bubble?

• Waits for response- “Because it is the main topic!”

Correct, now I need to fill in my other bubbles.

 

5. Now I am going to think about what I know about horses. I want to describe the things that I know about them. So I am going to brainstorm ideas relating to what kind of animal the horse is.

 

6. Well I know that horses live outside, so I am going to write that down in one of the smaller bubbles. I also know that horses eat hay and grass, so this can stem off of my bubble that says that horses live outside, because these two topics relate.

 

7. I know that there are many different breeds of horses, so this could be another bubble that stems off of my main idea “horse”.

 

8. Then I would stem off of that bubble with what horses do and in my head this gets me thinking of all of the different things horses do. Horses are used for many different events, people use them on farms for work, police officers use them, and people also use them for fun, and even for competition.

 

9. I will write these down in little bubbles that stem off of my bigger subtopic bubble “What horses do”

 

10. Now that I have filled out 8 ideas on my graphic organizer I am ready to start thinking about writing my story.

 

11. You are going to be filling out your graphic organizers with the ideas you can brainstorm about one of these three topics:

 

12. 12. I write the topics on the board so the students can choose their topic.

 

Topic Choices:

1. Everything you know about your favorite animal
2. A vacation that you have been on
3. What you want to be when you grow up

 

13. “Some questions you can think of in your brain to generate ideas for your bubbles could be…”

 

14. I will list the following questions on the board under each topic prompt.

 

1. Favorite Animal:

-What kind of physical traits does my animal have? Big eyes? How many legs?

-What are some of my animals’ strengths/weaknesses?

– Is my animal friendly or mean?

-Does my animal run fast? Fly? Live in water or on land?

 

1. Vacation:

– Where did you go?

-How old were you?

-What was the weather like?

-How did you get there?

 

1. When you grow up:

-What do you want to be?

-Why do you want to be ______?

– Do you know someone who is a ____?

-What kind of uniform/outfit does a _______ wear?

 

15. “Okay; now you think of which topic YOU want to write about.”

 

16. “ I am going to pass out a note card to each of you and you are going to write your main topic on the card.”

 

Students then move into guided and independent activities that expand on mastering the task of brainstorming.

 

 

Guided Practice:

10 minutes

Aloud to Class

1. I will now be passing out a white note card to each of you, and you are to write your main topic on the card.
2. Once you write your topic on the card, I want you to place the card in the center of your desk.
3. Now I am going to pass out 3 more cards. These cards are yellow. You will write three subtopics individually on each of the cards.
4. Place these three cards around the Main topic card.
5. Now I am going to pass out six more blue note cards.
6. You are to write ideas on each notecard, the white one is your main topic idea and you can look at the board for help, the yellow ones are your subtopic ideas, and the blue ones that stem off of that are going to be supporting details.
7. I want you to stem two blue cards off of each yellow subtopic card.
8. Once you have them all placed correctly jot down ideas you are thinking of
9. I will walk around and answer questions
10. Once you have your notecard organizer completed, you will receive your paper hand out or be able to go on your assigned computer to complete your own graphic organizer, and will be expected to expand on the ideas you have written on the cards a little more thoroughly.

 

While completing this hands on brainstorming activity I am walking around the room and adjust students cards if needed, assist students if they are stuck, or provide positive feedback if they are completing the task correctly. I am very accessible and approachable. I check their work and if it is correct I give them the worksheet or opportunity to get on a computer, which they will be using to do their independent practice.

 

 

Lesson Summary:

After completing this lesson the student will be able to understand and demonstrate how to make connections to what they know, and apply and brainstorm their ideas onto paper or online on a computer website accordingly. Students can distinguish the difference between the main topic and subtopics, and how to organize their information by using the graphic organizer as a tool for the writing process. Succeeding this lesson, I will go over with the class what was learned in the lesson. I will say; “you all have shown me how to organize information through brainstorming and have shown me what great brainstormers you are!” I boast on the importance of always utilizing brainstorming when beginning the writing process. Students are at their desks at this time and finishing up their independent practice. I am in front of the class. I then count down to grab their attention, and wrap up with “In writing tomorrow, we will work on the first paragraph of your story!” Then I dismiss students by table for recess.

 

 

Independent Practice

15 minutes

After they successfully complete the guided practice activity, I hand them their blank graphic organizer or give them the option to do the graphic organizer on the computer and instruct them to work silently as they fill it out. I let the students know that they are able to use books from our classroom library to help them with ideas on their topics. The student independently chooses their topic and draws from their Schema to compose ideas on the graphic organizer handout/ computer website resource graphic organizer they are given. The student is asked to independently complete the graphic organizer while using the knowledge they have gained through the instruction and guided practice. The classroom is silent and students are working independently at their desks or computers. Students are able to use their note cards to refer back to, and have access to use books from the classroom library.

 

 

Assessment

After completing the graphic organizer, the students will turn them in to the teacher for the teacher to go over them and grade them. The teacher will assess them by making sure they have their information organized in the correct categories and provide me with 5-10 ideas relating to their topic. I will suggest for the students to think about their topic when they go home after school, watch a show, read a book, or ask mom and dad to help generate more ideas on their topic for their paper they will be writing soon.

 

 

 

Accommodations

For students who have difficulty paying attention, separate their desk or move them to the front of the classroom. Announce that the students are able to utilize the books in the classroom library to find information on their animals. Allow more time for students who are processing their auditory information slower than others. Students with special needs are to work individually, if struggling and need assistance teacher will assist during the allowed time of the guided or independent practice.

 

Google Product

Teacher can create a Google slides presentation to cover materials about brainstorming and how to complete a graphic organizer with examples and images to engage the students prior to the independent and guided practice.

 

Use of 2 tools

The smart board can be used for the students to draw bubbles and give examples in front of the class for ideas they may have for their brainstorming graphic organizer.

Students to discuss what they have learned from the lesson and expand on what they will come up with next to work on their upcoming writing piece could use a reflection of the learning in a blog post.