Independent Writing: Feathered Friends Saver, Day 1 | EL Education Curriculum

You are here

Home › Our Curriculum › ELA Grade 1 › ELA G1:M4 › ELA G1:M4:U3 ›

ELA G1:M4:U3:L10

Independent Writing: Feathered Friends Saver, Day 1

In this Lesson

You are here:

These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • W.1.2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
  • W.1.5: 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.
  • W.1.8: With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
  • SL.1.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
  • SL.1.2: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
  • SL.1.3: Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood.
  • SL.1.5: Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
  • L.1.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
  • L.1.1f: Use frequently occurring adjectives.
  • L.1.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Daily Learning Targets

  • I can write a first draft of my informative paragraph for my Feathered Friends Saver using my planning page. (W.1.2, W.1.8, SL.1.1, SL.1.2, SL.1.3, L.1.1, L.1.1f, L.1.2)
  • I can use feedback to draw a second draft scientific drawing of my chosen local bird. (W.1.5, W.1.8, SL.1.5)

Ongoing Assessment

  • During the Bird Adjectives activity in the Opening, continue to use the Language Checklist to track student progress toward L.1.1f (see Assessment Overview and Resources).
  • During Work Time A, use the Informational Writing Checklist to track student progress toward W.1.2, L.1.1, L.1.1f, and L.1.2 (see Assessment Overview and Resources).

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Developing Language: Bird Adjectives (10 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Independent Writing: Feathered Friends Saver (20 minutes)

B. Making Observations: Feathered Friends Saver: Scientific Drawing, Final Draft (20 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Peer Feedback: Feathered Friends Saver: Writing, Draft 1 (10 minutes)

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:

  • The Opening, Work Time B, and the Closing follow routines similar to Lesson 9. Refer to that lesson for more detail, as necessary.
  • During the Opening, students continue to practice using and discussing different adjectives that can be used to describe birds. In this lesson, they use all six adjectives as they continue to discuss examples and facts that show why a bird might be described with a specific adjective. (L.1.1)
  • In Work Time A, students use their Feathered Friends Saver planning sheet in the Caring for Birds notebook and the Feathered Friends Saver Revising and Editing Checklist to write the first draft of an informative paragraph for their Feathered Friends Saver.

How this lesson builds on previous work:

  • In Lesson 9, students completed their Feathered Friends Saver planning sheet in the Caring for Birds notebook. In this lesson, they use it to write the first draft of their informative paragraph.
  • Similar to Lesson 9, during the Closing students continue giving kind, helpful, and specific feedback to their classmates based on the first draft of their informative paragraph. The target of the feedback during this lesson is the informative writing criteria on the Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart.

Areas in which students may need additional support:

  • Students may need additional time to complete the first draft of their informative paragraph, as well as the second draft of their scientific drawing. Reallocate instructional time as necessary.

Down the road:

  • In Lesson 11, students will revise and edit their informative paragraph using feedback from the teacher. Use the Feathered Friends Saver Revising and Editing Checklist to provide feedback in each students' Caring for Birds notebook.
  • Copy the final local bird drawing three times onto cardstock for coloring in Lessons 11 and 13.
  • In Lesson 12, students will copy their final informative paragraph onto a template for their Feathered Friends Saver and add a typed heading.

In Advance

  • Distribute materials for Work Time B at student workspaces.
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

Consider using an interactive white board or document camera to display lesson materials.

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1-3 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 1.II.B.4, I.C.10, and I.C.12

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs through opportunities to practice using adjectives to describe birds and using a writing planner to write their informational paragraph.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to transfer the information from their planner to their writing in Work Time A. Additionally, coming up with a conclusion may be challenging, since it wasn't part of the planning sheet (see levels of support and the Meeting Students' Needs column).

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • Invite students to come up with sentence stems that remind the reader of the big idea for the conclusion of the informational paragraph.

For heavier support:

  • Provide additional time for students to complete their work in Work Times A and B.

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): Continue to provide scaffolds that connect new information to prior knowledge in support of increasing memorability of information.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): Continue to provide formative feedback to support students in monitoring their progress to guide their learning.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Continue to support sustained effort by prompting students to restate the goal for each learning activity in this lesson.

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T); Vocabulary Used in Writing (W)

Review:

  • criteria; kind, helpful, specific feedback (L)

Materials

  • Bird Adjectives anchor chart (begun in Lesson 8)
  • Bird Adjective cards 1-6 (from Lessons 8-9; one set per class)
  • Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face Protocol anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart (begun in Lesson 8)
  • Caring for Birds notebook (begun in Lesson 1; added to during Work Time A; pages 7, 9, 10; one per student and one to display)
  • Caring for Birds notebook (from Lesson 1; example, for teacher reference)
  • Scientific Drawing Criteria card (from Lesson 9; one per student)
  • Local bird photographs (from Lesson 9; one per pair and one to display)
  • Pencils (one per student)
  • Final local bird drawing (one per student; see Performance Task Overview)
  • Pinky Partners Protocol anchor chart (begun in Module 1)

Assessment

Each unit in the K-2 Language Arts Curriculum has one standards-based assessment built in. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Developing Language: Bird Adjectives (10 minutes)

  • Gather students whole group.
  • Remind students of the vocabulary activity that they have been working on during previous lessons.
  • Direct students' attention to the Bird Adjectives anchor chart and review it as needed. Remind them that they will reference this chart as they participate in the activity.
  • Tell students that today they will work with all six adjectives on the chart.
  • Distribute Bird Adjective cards 1-6 and use the same routine from Lesson 7 to guide students through two rounds of the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face protocol. Review the Back-to-Back and Face-to-Face Protocol anchor chart as necessary:
    • Round 1: Find a partner with a different word and share the adjective and an example that shows why a bird might be described with this adjective.
    • Round 2: Find a partner with a different word and share the adjective and an example that shows why a bird might be described with this adjective.
  • When students have finished Round 2, refocus whole group.
  • Tell students that they will continue to use these adjectives as they begin to write the first draft of the informational paragraph for their Feathered Friends Saver.
  • ELLs: (Pronunciation Practice) Invite students to practice pronouncing the adjectives on the Bird Adjective cards.

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Independent Writing: Feathered Friends Saver (20 minutes)

  • Remind students that in a previous lesson they analyzed criteria for the informative writing part of the Feathered Friends Saver.
  • Direct students' attention to the Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart and point to the first category on the chart and read it aloud:
    • "Informative writing includes:"
      • "Focus statement that includes an adjective to describe bird"
      • "Two detail sentences that include evidence and elaboration to support the focus statement"
      • "Conclusion sentence that wraps up your piece and reminds the reader of the big idea"
  • Display page 7 of the Caring for Birds notebook.
  • Remind students that in the previous lesson they worked on completing this planning sheet, which will help them write the informative paragraph for their Feathered Friends Saver.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and read the first one aloud:

"I can write a first draft of my informative paragraph for my Feathered Friends Saver using my planning page."

  • Tell students that today they will write a first draft of their informative paragraph.
  • Display page 10 of the Caring for Birds notebook.Tell students that this is a checklist of criteria for the informative writing component of their Feathered Friends Saver.
  • Read aloud the criteria on page 10 and ask:

"Are any of the criteria on this checklist familiar?" (Yes. They are the same as the criteria on the Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart.)

"What criteria are different?" (There are more criteria. There is a criterion about handwriting, spelling, and capitalization.)

Conversation Cue: "Who can add on to what your classmate said?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Confirm students' thinking and tell them that this checklist contains criteria for informative writing and also has criteria for handwriting, spelling, and capitalization.
  • Tell students that they should think about each of these criteria today as they write the first draft of their informative paragraph.
  • Distribute the Caring for Birds notebooks and transition students to their workspaces. Once students have settled, invite them to open their notebooks to page 7.
  • Invite students to review their planning sheet on page 7 and to think about the adjective that they selected to describe birds. Prompt them to also review the evidence and elaboration that they chose to support the bird adjective.
  • Tell students that they will now use the information on this planning sheet to write a first draft of an informative paragraph on page 9 of their notebook.
  • Briefly model how to use the planning sheet on page 7 to write an informative paragraph on page 9.
  • Refer to pages 7 and 9 of the Caring for Birds notebook (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Display and invite students to turn to page 9 of their Caring for Birds notebook.
  • Think aloud to model writing the focus statement. Say:
    • "The focus statement box is where I should include my adjective to describe birds."
    • "When I look back at my planning sheet, I notice that I selected the adjective endangered."
    • "I will fill in the blank to read: 'Birds are endangered.'"
  • Pause after modeling to give students time to write their focus statement. Prompt them to use their planning sheet as support.
  • Circulate to support students as they write. Continue to refer to the Caring for Birds notebook (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Refocus whole group and think aloud to model writing the detail sentences. Say:
    • "The first detail sentence box is where I should add one piece of evidence with elaboration to support my focus statement."
    • "Evidence #1 on my planning sheet says, 'Birds don't always have a safe place to build their nest.'"
    • "The elaboration for this piece of evidence says, 'which means they can't lay and care for their eggs.'"
    • "If I want to put these two statements into one complex sentence, I could write: 'Birds don't always have a safe place to build their nest, so they can't lay and take care of their eggs.'"
    • "Since I want to connect the evidence and elaboration together in a compound sentence, I can use the conjunction so or because."
  • Pause after modeling to give students time to write their two detail sentences. Prompt them to use their planning sheet as support.
  • Circulate to support students as they write.
  • Refocus whole group and think aloud to model writing the conclusion. Say:
    • "The conclusion box is where I should wrap up my paragraph and remind my reader of the big idea."
    • "I didn't plan my conclusion on my planning sheet. If I think about what the big idea of my paragraph was, it was to say that birds are endangered."
    • "If I want to write this as a sentence, I could write: 'That's why birds are endangered.'"
  • Pause after modeling to give students time to write their conclusion.
  • Circulate to support students as they write.
  • When 1 minute remains, signal students to stop working and refocus whole group. Tell students to quietly place their notebooks beside them.
  • Tell students that in the next lesson they will reread the first draft of their informative paragraph and will use the checklist on page 10 of their notebook to make any necessary revisions or edits to their writing.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support in activating prior knowledge: (Rereading) Invite students to reread parts of the planning sheet on page 7 of their Caring for Birds notebook to get ready as they write their informative paragraph for their Feathered Friends Saver. (MMR)
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support in organizing ideas for written expression: (Using Sentence Frames) Provide sentence frames that students can choose from to wrap up their paragraph. (Examples: "As you can see ______." "For these reasons, ______.") (MMAE)
  • For ELLs: (Recalling Language Dive) Review the Language Dive sentence from Lesson 2 to reinforce the use of when  to tell us a cause or condition that must happen for birds to live and grow as they write the conclusion for the informational piece. (Example: "When _____ [people action or condition], _____ [positive impact on birds].")

B. Making Observations: Feathered Friends Saver: Scientific Drawing, Final Draft (20 minutes)

  • Gather students whole group.
  • Invite students to stand and participate in the Bird Simon Says routine from Module 3. After a few minutes, invite them to take their seats.
  • Tell students that today they will work on the second draft of their scientific drawing for the Feathered Friends Saver.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and read the second one aloud:

"I can use feedback to draw a second draft scientific drawing of my chosen local bird."

  • Tell students that they should use the feedback they received in the previous lesson to draw their second draft.
  • Direct students' attention to the Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart and point to the second category on the chart and read it aloud: "Scientific drawing of a bird includes:"
    • "Attention to:"
      • "size"
      • "shape"
      • "placement"
      • "details"
    • "Coloring should be:"
      • "inside the lines"
      • "covering all the space"
      • "layered"
      • "matching the bird picture"
  • Tell students that today they should continue to focus attention on size, shape, placement, and details when drawing their second draft.
  • Use the same routine from Work Time B of Lesson 9 to guide students through completing their second draft:
    • Direct students' attention to the Scientific Drawing Criteria card, the local bird photographs, pencils, and the final local bird drawing page at their workspaces.
    • Remind students to:
      • Notice shapes, size, placement of body parts, and details in their local bird photograph
      • Incorporate the feedback that they received from a classmate
      • Use the Scientific Drawing criteria card as a guide for remembering the steps of drawing
    • Transition students back to their workspaces and invite them to begin drawing.
    • Circulate to support students as necessary, prompting them with questions such as:

"Where do you notice the placement of the body parts?"

"What details do you see and need to include?"

    • When 1 minute remains, signal students to stop working.
  • Refocus whole group and collect students' Caring for Birds notebooks.
  • Tell students that in the next lesson they will add color to their scientific drawing.
  • For ELLs: (Supporting Revision) To help students incorporate peer feedback from the previous lesson into their second draft, remind them that they can look for the star they added to mark the part(s) of their draft they got feedback on to make their drawing better.
  • For students who may need additional support with information processing: Consider making a list of what students need to do as they complete their second draft. (MMR)

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Peer Feedback: Feathered Friends Saver: Writing, Draft 1 (10 minutes)

  • Gather students whole group and offer specific, positive feedback on their work writing the first draft of their informative paragraph for their Feathered Friends Saver earlier in the lesson.
  • Tell writers that today they will give and receive feedback using the Pinky Partners protocol as they share the first draft of their informative paragraph for the Feathered Friends Saver with a partner. Remind them that they used this protocol in the previous lesson and review as necessary using the Pinky Partners Protocol anchor chart. (See the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol.)
    • Remind students that when a partner shares his or her work, they are going to give kind, helpful, and specific feedback. This feedback should include one thing the writer did a good job of and one thing he or she might want to consider revising.
    • Review how to give kind, helpful, and specific feedback to a classmate as needed.
    • Tell students that their feedback should be focused on the informative writing criteria on the Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart, primarily making sure that the adjective and evidence match.
    • Post and review the following sentence frames:
      • "You did a good job of __________."
      • "I think you should __________ because __________."
    • Invite students to begin the protocol. Circulate to support them, prompting them to use the informative writing criteria on the Feathered Friends Saver Criteria anchor chart when providing feedback.
    • After both partners have shared and offered feedback, invite them to return to the whole group area.
  • Refocus students whole group and ask:

"What is one piece of feedback that you received from a partner to make your writing better?" (My partner told me to make sure my evidence provides an example about why I chose the adjective endangered to describe birds.)

"How will the feedback help you make your writing better?" (It will help me focus on areas to change.)

Conversation Cue: "Who can add on to what your classmate said?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Offer students specific, positive feedback on their work providing feedback to their classmates. Tell students that they will be able to apply this partner feedback during the next lesson when they revise the first draft of their informative paragraph for the Feathered Friends Saver.
  • For ELL: (Supporting Revision) To help students incorporate peer feedback from this lesson into their second draft, remind them that they can add a star to mark the part(s) of their draft they got feedback on to make their writing better.
  • Support sustained effort and persistence and emphasize the benefits of feedback for students by highlighting effort and growth over relative performance. Invite students to recall how peer feedback in previous lessons helped them to revise their writing. (MME)

Copyright © 2013-2024 by EL Education, New York, NY.

Get updates about our new K-5 curriculum as new materials and tools debut.

Sign Up

Help us improve our curriculum.

Tell us what’s going well, share your concerns and feedback.

Terms of use. To learn more about EL Education, visit eleducation.org

Leave feedback