Drafting

Topic:

Drafting a story from the graphic organizer

Standards:

ELACC2W3: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Essential Question:

How do authors draft a story

Duration:

About 1 hour, about 2 days

Materials:

finished example graphic organizer, chart paper, marker

Overview or notes pertaining to lesson:

Students will draft their personal narrative using their graphic organizer as a guide.

Mini Lesson/Guided Practice:

Now that we have our graphic organizers complete and we added a lot of details to our ideas, it is time to draft our story. Model transferring the graphic organizer ideas onto notebook paper with complete sentences. It is very important to do this one step at a time, because in my experience students struggle getting the prewrite ideas onto notebook paper as a story. Sometimes I have students who start a whole new story, and I also have students who only write word for word what was on the graphic organizer. Model and discuss taking the ideas from the organizer and turning them into complete sentences that flow like a book. I would probably do each part of the organizer separately. Of course first I would write my story lead that we completed a few days ago. Then I would write the setting of my story using the first box of the organizer. Then I would have students turn and talk about how they would begin their story with the lead and setting. I would allow them to write their lead and setting on notebook paper in complete sentences-either at seats or on the floor. Then I would model drafting the “beginning” of the story on notebook paper in complete sentences. I would also add details or extra ideas to make the story flow, reiterating that our story doesn’t stop with what we have written on the graphic organizer. We should always been thinking about the story and rereading it to see if it makes sense and flows. I also purposely make mistakes that I will fix later when I teach editing. I might leave out a word or punctuation. After modeling, have students turn and talk about the beginning of their story.

Independent Practice:

Send students off to write the beginning of the story with the details we have added. That will probably be all we have time for today.

Closing:

Share what we learned about drafting today.

 

On day 2, review what we did with drafting the beginning of the story and allow students to complete drafting with the middle and end of the story. Guide those struggling.