Writer's Workshop: Adding Details to Writing Using Mentor Authors
1. Purpose (Essential Questions):
· How can we use mentor texts as a guide to help us add details to our writing?
· Why is it important to add details to our writing?
2. Vocabulary:
· Details: words added to a story that help the reader create a picture in their mind about what is
happening.
· Sound Words: words that sound how they are pronounced.
· Tag Words: words that tell the reader how to say the author’s dialogue.
· Dialogue: when a character in a story is talking.
3. Skills:
· Listening
· Identifying
· Applying
· Comparing
· Working collaboratively
· Writing
4. Objectives:
· Students will be able to:
o Identify the details used in Jonathan London’s story.
o Explain why and how details are important in a story.
o Make revisions to their stories by adding details.
5. Common Core Learning Standards:
· Writing Standards K-5
o Grade 1
-Standard 3: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events,
include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and
provide some sense of closure.
- Standard 5: With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and
suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
· Reading Standards K-5
o Grade 1
-Standard 1: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
6. Pre-Assessment:
· Students have been previously assessed on identifying types of details in writing. They have been taught
the different types of details such as sound words, tag words, and adding dialogue. They have been
practicing using them in their own writing but they still need to practice these skills in order to stretch
their writing.
7. Lesson Presentation:
· Set-Induction: (5 minutes)
o Please take out your writing folders. Now take one story, out of your writing folder that you want to
add to and make better.
o I will start by calling all of the “families” to the rug. I will call them one by one by table color to
maintain management.
· Procedure: (30-35 minutes)
o I will then introduce the book Froggy Eats Out by Jonathan London.
- Focus Question: What details does Jonathan London add in his story that we might want to add to
our stories?
· What did you see, hear, feel, and think during the story?
o I will read the first 9 pages of the story. We will focus on the small moment in the story where Froggy
is getting ready to go to the restaurant.
- After reading pages 4 and 5, I will have the students do a turn and talk.
· Turn and Talk: What types of details is Jonathan London adding that helps us picture in our
minds how Froggy is getting dressed? What are these words called?
o Sound words
o After reading the story I will repeat the focus question and we will discuss what details Jonathan
added in his story.
- What did Jonathan London add that you might want to add to your stories?
o I will then model a small moment story and adding details to my story to make it better.
- What details did I add to my story that made you feel like you were there with me?
o Take out your story, now by yourself reread your story and find one place where you want to add
details.
- Turn and Talk: Turn and tell your partner where you want to add details and what details you are
going to add.
- What details are you going to add to your writing?
· Ask partners what each partner is adding to their writing to make it better.
o Okay now quietly, you are going to go back to your seats and you are going to add details to your
writing. Remember you can think back to what Jonathan London did to make us feel like we were in
his story.
o As they are writing I will walk around the room and observe the students. I will pull a small group to
work with and will help these students on the rug.
- I will ask one of the students to give me their writing topic. Together we will add details to that
topic to make the reader feel like they are in the story.
o After giving the students time to write, I will bring the class back together.
- Touch your head, touch your shoulders, clap once.
· Closure: (5 minutes)
o As a class, we will have a grand conversation about the details we added to our writing and why
adding details is important?
- What details did you add to your writing?
- Why is it important, as writers, to add details to our writing?
8. Materials:
· Writing Folders
· One writing piece
· Pencils
· Pens
· Smartboard
· 1st grade writing paper
· Froggy Eats Out by Jonathan London
9. Follow Up Activity:
· The following day the students will be able to ask each other about one another’s writing. They will have
to tell their partner what they wanted to add to their writing and then they will read their partner their
story. Their partner will listen carefully to see if they added what they said they wanted to add. They will
then engage in a conversation about whether or not they added what they wanted to add and their
partner will give them a suggestion to add to their writing to make it even better.
10. Evaluation/Assessment:
· I will informally assess the students as I walk around and observe their writing. For the students who are
struggling, I will pull a small group and work with them on adding details to their writing. Then during the
closure of the lesson I will have the students engage in a grand conversation about what details they
added and also the importance of adding details to their writing.
11. Differentiated:
· For students who are struggling, I will pull a small group during the writing segment of the lesson to help
them add details to their writing.
· The advanced students will be able to add as many details as they want to their writing.
· Visual
o Visual learners will be able to engage in the read aloud and see the sound words that Jonathan
London uses throughout his story.
· Intrapersonal
o Intrapersonal learners will be able to work on their writing pieces individually.
· Interpersonal
o Intrapersonal learners will have the chance to talk to their partner several times during the lesson.
They will also have time at the end to share what details they added to their story during the grand
conversation.
12. Resources:
· London, Jonathan. Froggy Eats Out. New York: Penguin Group, 2001. Print.
Common Core Learning Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf
· How can we use mentor texts as a guide to help us add details to our writing?
· Why is it important to add details to our writing?
2. Vocabulary:
· Details: words added to a story that help the reader create a picture in their mind about what is
happening.
· Sound Words: words that sound how they are pronounced.
· Tag Words: words that tell the reader how to say the author’s dialogue.
· Dialogue: when a character in a story is talking.
3. Skills:
· Listening
· Identifying
· Applying
· Comparing
· Working collaboratively
· Writing
4. Objectives:
· Students will be able to:
o Identify the details used in Jonathan London’s story.
o Explain why and how details are important in a story.
o Make revisions to their stories by adding details.
5. Common Core Learning Standards:
· Writing Standards K-5
o Grade 1
-Standard 3: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events,
include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and
provide some sense of closure.
- Standard 5: With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and
suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
· Reading Standards K-5
o Grade 1
-Standard 1: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
6. Pre-Assessment:
· Students have been previously assessed on identifying types of details in writing. They have been taught
the different types of details such as sound words, tag words, and adding dialogue. They have been
practicing using them in their own writing but they still need to practice these skills in order to stretch
their writing.
7. Lesson Presentation:
· Set-Induction: (5 minutes)
o Please take out your writing folders. Now take one story, out of your writing folder that you want to
add to and make better.
o I will start by calling all of the “families” to the rug. I will call them one by one by table color to
maintain management.
· Procedure: (30-35 minutes)
o I will then introduce the book Froggy Eats Out by Jonathan London.
- Focus Question: What details does Jonathan London add in his story that we might want to add to
our stories?
· What did you see, hear, feel, and think during the story?
o I will read the first 9 pages of the story. We will focus on the small moment in the story where Froggy
is getting ready to go to the restaurant.
- After reading pages 4 and 5, I will have the students do a turn and talk.
· Turn and Talk: What types of details is Jonathan London adding that helps us picture in our
minds how Froggy is getting dressed? What are these words called?
o Sound words
o After reading the story I will repeat the focus question and we will discuss what details Jonathan
added in his story.
- What did Jonathan London add that you might want to add to your stories?
o I will then model a small moment story and adding details to my story to make it better.
- What details did I add to my story that made you feel like you were there with me?
o Take out your story, now by yourself reread your story and find one place where you want to add
details.
- Turn and Talk: Turn and tell your partner where you want to add details and what details you are
going to add.
- What details are you going to add to your writing?
· Ask partners what each partner is adding to their writing to make it better.
o Okay now quietly, you are going to go back to your seats and you are going to add details to your
writing. Remember you can think back to what Jonathan London did to make us feel like we were in
his story.
o As they are writing I will walk around the room and observe the students. I will pull a small group to
work with and will help these students on the rug.
- I will ask one of the students to give me their writing topic. Together we will add details to that
topic to make the reader feel like they are in the story.
o After giving the students time to write, I will bring the class back together.
- Touch your head, touch your shoulders, clap once.
· Closure: (5 minutes)
o As a class, we will have a grand conversation about the details we added to our writing and why
adding details is important?
- What details did you add to your writing?
- Why is it important, as writers, to add details to our writing?
8. Materials:
· Writing Folders
· One writing piece
· Pencils
· Pens
· Smartboard
· 1st grade writing paper
· Froggy Eats Out by Jonathan London
9. Follow Up Activity:
· The following day the students will be able to ask each other about one another’s writing. They will have
to tell their partner what they wanted to add to their writing and then they will read their partner their
story. Their partner will listen carefully to see if they added what they said they wanted to add. They will
then engage in a conversation about whether or not they added what they wanted to add and their
partner will give them a suggestion to add to their writing to make it even better.
10. Evaluation/Assessment:
· I will informally assess the students as I walk around and observe their writing. For the students who are
struggling, I will pull a small group and work with them on adding details to their writing. Then during the
closure of the lesson I will have the students engage in a grand conversation about what details they
added and also the importance of adding details to their writing.
11. Differentiated:
· For students who are struggling, I will pull a small group during the writing segment of the lesson to help
them add details to their writing.
· The advanced students will be able to add as many details as they want to their writing.
· Visual
o Visual learners will be able to engage in the read aloud and see the sound words that Jonathan
London uses throughout his story.
· Intrapersonal
o Intrapersonal learners will be able to work on their writing pieces individually.
· Interpersonal
o Intrapersonal learners will have the chance to talk to their partner several times during the lesson.
They will also have time at the end to share what details they added to their story during the grand
conversation.
12. Resources:
· London, Jonathan. Froggy Eats Out. New York: Penguin Group, 2001. Print.
Common Core Learning Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf