Download Mary Jaeger Dr. McKool Writing Workshop Lesson Plan Grade: 5th

Mary Jaeger
Dr. McKool
Writing Workshop Lesson Plan
Grade: 5th
Common Core Standards:
W.5.1- Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons or
information
W.5.3- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences
W.5.4- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are
appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
Materials: Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Lesson Introduction/Objective and Purpose
• The objective of this lesson is that students will use action verbs within writing to a specific
prompt
• Students will also identify strong verbs
• “Good morning children! We have been reading the book Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg. As
we all know this book is filled with such excitement! Does anyone know how authors write to
make books exciting? We have gone over how to be descriptive in our sentences but today we
are going to be talking about verbs. Has anyone heard of a verb before? What is it? Your
objective today is to be able to understand the meaning of a verb and use it efficiently while
writing in your writers notebooks.”
Teach and Model
• “Okay students, first I am going to go over the definition of a verb. I will write it on the board
for you and I would like for you to copy this definition in your writers notebook.Verbs are
“doing” words they can express a physical action, mental action or a state of being. A verb is a
word that is used to describe or indicate action”
• “For example students, if I say I skipped to school. The verb here would be skipped, because
that is the action I am doing.”
• “There are many kinds of verbs, but today we will be focussing on the action verbs”
• “Right now, I am going to turn to the second page and I am going to read you a sentence out of
the Jumanji book”
Judy tried to stuff some leaves down Peters sweater and he jumped up and ran behind a
tree.
• “Students, the verb in this sentence would be jumped, because it is the physical action that
Peter is doing”
• “Remember an action verb is what you or someone else physically is doing.”
Guided Practice (Extensive Teacher Help)
• “Before we get into the book again, I want you to write down one sentence that has a verb in it.
I will then call on two of you to speak out loud to the class. An example could be “I drove my
brother to the super market today” The verb here would be drove.”
• “I am going to then go to the book on page 5 and write down some of the words on the board
that are verbs”
• “I would like for you to all follow along with me while I do this”
• “Students, the words I see that are some verbs are spread, shake, play, selects, reach, yell.”
• If you notice, all of these things you can physically do. You can spread butter, shake the salt
and pepper, play with your friend, select an object, reach to the sky, and yell to a friend.” Do
you see how verbs are all acts of doing?”
• “I will leave these sentence examples on the board for you for a reference”
Example 2: Less Teacher Help
• “Students, now that you understand the meaning of a verb I would like for you to go through
the book by yourself and pick out a few sentences that you see that have strong verbs in them.
Strong verbs would be something like charged, gasping, and shreaking. An example from the
book is out of page 18, “The snake was wriggling his way to the floor” Wriggling is another
word for moving, but wriggling makes it sound a lot more stronger, and puts a more of a vivid
image in your head. I want you to then pick out a verb that you think you could make stronger
out of the book. For example, if you see the word “ran” you could change it to “sprinted”
• “Students, when using action verbs it makes the text much more exciting and readers want to
keep reading. For example, if I said “I ran to work today” that does not sound so interesting
does it? Instead I could say, “I sprinted to work today and ran wildly into my office to make it
on time” That sounds much more interesting!”
• “Students, I would then like you to write on the board what verb you found and what you
changed it to, and how you would put it into a more interesting and vivid sentence”
• “Please then sit at your desk and write down a list of action verbs that you see, and make one
column for “special” verbs that you think are strong”
Independent Practice
• “Students, now that you are understand how to use a verb. I would like you to write one
paragraph about what you would do if your board game came to life just like in the book. I
would like you to write it in a story structure. Please be descriptive and specific and use at
least 5 action verbs. Underline all of the verbs you used! Please use at least two strong verbs.”
• Students will then write in their journals and hand them in at the end of class
Assessment
• I will assess my students by checking their journals and making sure they understand the
concept of using verbs and how to make a sentence more descriptive by using strong verbs. I
will see if they used strong verbs or weaker verbs and if they understand how to use action
verbs. I will also see how they expand a weak sentence to a strong descriptive sentence.