Lesson Plan Developing Writing and Reading Skills for Second Graders

Standards and Objectives: The objectives of this lesson plan include: a) inspiring students to create ideas with light-hearted fun; b) learning to write creatively; c) learning to speak in front of the class with poise and clarity

Length of Lesson: Two full days of classroom work

Required Materials for Students: Paper, pencils

Required Materials for Teachers: A tricky story to read; scratch paper to pass out to students

Instructional Plan:

What will you do?

The teacher reads a humorous story to the class, using great emphasis and stopping at key points to ask the class what will happen next. The story is about a young boy who got confused on his way from school. He met a girl while coming home from school who asked if he had an apple in his backpack. "Yes I do," he said. "Well, I haven't had an apple in so many weeks," she said. So she offered to trade an orange for an apple. Jimmy had not eaten his apple during lunch -- he had a bag of potato chips instead of the apple his mother game him. He liked oranges so he made the trade. He took the orange home and when he tried to peel the orange he realized it wasn't really an orange. It was an orange-colored ball that came apart in his hands. Inside the hollow part was a note:

"You are going to go to the window now and look out to the sidewalk." Jimmy went to the window and looked out to the sidewalk and there was the girl he traded with. She was holding a big sign that read: "Get down on your knees and say APPLE, APPLE,

APPLE, while your eyes are closed." Jimmy did that and when he opened his eyes the girl was gone. He was tricked. He laughed out loud and planned his own next trick.

What will you all do?

The teacher instructs the class (now with paper and pencil in hand) to think of the time when an older brother or sister, or cousin or friend, played a trick on you. It can't be a mean trick, but a fun trick where no one was hurt. Alternatively, dream up a trick you can play on a friend or a...

When they are' completed they don't write their names on the paper but hand them in. The teacher hands out another blank sheet of scratch paper. She reads each paragraph that students have created and students number from one to 20 (there are 20 students in the class). After
each trick the teacher reads out loud, students judge how interesting or humorous each trick was, evaluating from 1-10 (ten being very interesting, 1 being very boring). At the end of the day the teacher has read all twenty of the tricks and the students have judged all twenty. The teacher assigns students homework to re-write what they recalled from the highest scoring trick read. Which one did they like? How could they improve it?

Plan for re-teaching / accommodation: The second day of this lesson play the teacher has twenty slips of paper in a hat and she walks around the room, with each student picking a slip with a number on it. That number indicates in what order the student will go in front of the class to read the re-written trick they thought was most interesting. Again, students are to evaluate the quality of the readings and the quality of the trick stories, using students' names and judging the quality from a scale of 1 to 10.

Assessment Plan: After all students have read their re-written drafts of the trick they thought was most effective, the teacher (who has taken notes on each student's presentation) points out the strengths from each one, and where there can be improvement. There is no criticism, only suggestions for how to make a better presentation and how to write effectively.

Lesson Plan

Developing Writing and Public Speaking Skills for Fifth Graders

Standards and Objectives: The objectives of this lesson plan include: a) finding and portraying happy ending incidents; b) learning "quick write" skills; c) learning how to stand, speak, and emphasize in front…