1. Topic-
"Rules to Live By" Essay
 
2. Content-
Mentor Text:
from "Sam Walton, Made in America:My Story", 1992
from Bill Gates' "Message on Life"
 
3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
1.Model writing after the mentor text.
2.Thoughtfully consider choices and development of rules.
 
4. Objectives-
1.Students will be able to defend their "rules".
2.Students will show measurable growth in the areas of voice and word choice through writing.
 
5. Materials and Aids-
Copies of both mentor texts, paper, pens, pencils, highlighters, laptop computers and printer.
 
6. Procedures/Methods-

A. Introduction-

1.Reflect on the short story "Of Dry Goods and Black Bow Ties" and Mr. Shimada and his rules to live by.
2.Introduce the writing task and focus on ideas (brainstorming rules in general)
 

B. Development-

1.Once the brainstorming for ideas is complete, students will evaluate what they have and pick the top 7 (top 4 for students with accommodations)
2.Listen to mentor text as it is read aloud for examples on how to develop the rules into paragraphs.
3. Peer editing.
4. How to create a thesis paragraph to introduce your "rules".
5. How to create a conclusion to "wrap up the rules".
 

C. Practice-

1.Write the seven (or four) rules in order of importance, check order, eliminate redundancy.
2.Referring to mentor text, write a paragraph for each rule that explains exactly what you mean by the rule.
3.Edit paragraphs with the help of peers and teacher.
4. Edit thesis and conclusion with peers/teacher.
 

D. Independent Practice-

1.Write rules in command form with capitalization and punctuation.
2.Write expansion paragraphs for greater explanation.
3.Fix errors from editing exercise.
4. Create a thesis paragraph to introduce "rules".
5. Create a conclusion to "wrap up the rules".
 

E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-

Shown above
 

F. Checking for understanding-

1.Peer edit and Teacher edit throughout process.
2. Review and remind of previous skills throughout the development process.
 

G. Closure-

Keyboard and print final copy.
 
7. Evaluation-
1.Draft assessed via rubric and suggestions for improvement shared with individual students. Workshop set up to address common issues that need to be "fixed".
2. Final copy assessed against the same rubric and results shared with individual students
 

This Lesson Plan is available at (www.teacherjet.com)