Instructor: Laura Beth Jackson Grade Level: 3rd Lesson Title: RAFT Unit Day 5 Date: March 2015Curriculum Area: ELA Estimated Time: 120 minutes Standards Connection:[RL.3.6] Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.

[RI.3.6] Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.

[W.3.1] Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.

Provide reasons that support the opinion.

[W.3.2] Write informative or explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.

[W.3.3] Write narratives to develop real or imagine experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

[W.3.4] With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

[W.3.10] Write routinely over extended time frames, including time for research, reflection, and revision, and shorter time frames such as a single sitting or a day or two for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

[L.3.1] Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Form and use regular and irregular plural nous Form and use regular and irregular verbs Form and use the simple verb tenses Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement

[L.3.2] Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization

Capitalize appropriate words in titles Use commas in addresses Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue Form and use possessives Use spelling patterns and generalizations in writing words Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and

correct spellings

Learning Objective:

When given the “Topic and Task Response” sheet, students will identify the topic and writing task from a prompt and construct an appropriate response according to a teacher-made rubric.

Kid Friendly Objective:At the end of today’s lesson, you will know all the components of the RAFT acronym, be able to identify topic and task in writing prompts, and have the chance to make some choices as a writer to respond to a real writing prompt.

Evaluation of Learning Objective: The “Topic and Task Response” assessment is designed to begin combining the skills students have learned over previous lesson with appropriate scaffolding. After identifying the task and topics of given prompts as a class, students will choose one of the prompts to complete a RAFT writing assignment. While students are not expected to choose an entire set of RAFT components (topic/task/format were group work) students will be allowed to choose an appropriate role and audience for the task/topic portion of the RAFT. In order to successfully complete the assessment, students must understand the topic and task they are choosing to write on; therefore, the assignment directly assesses students’ ability to apply their learning on the day’s lesson. Teacher will use the “Topic and Task Response” rubric to grade the assessment. The rubric is divided into five sections: role, audience, format, topic/task, and conventions. Students can receive between one and three points in each category for a total of fifteen points. Students must earn 12/15 points to be considered proficient. Students who do not receive this score will meet with the teacher in small group to edit their work.

Engagement:For the lesson engagement, teacher will show the following YouTube video (a rant from a self-proclaimed “essay hater”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__0uH0CiLWM After watching the video, teacher will lead class discussion regarding students’ reactions. Teacher will guide conversation to idea that this writer does not know what choices to make for her paper. Teacher and students will review RAFT acronym, then transition into teaching portion. This is it… today we are finally going to complete our RAFT acronym. After today, you guys will be fully prepared to make the best choices for any type of writing you ever come across. Before we begin however, I think you might find this video a funny warm-up activity. This is a college student who has a writing assignment due, and she has some pretty funny things to say. Let’s watch it together, and then discuss this girl’s dilemma. Teacher shows video to class using the SMART board. That girl’s got some issues doesn’t she!? What’s her problem in the video? Wait for student response. Exactly! She’s got this paper to write, but she has nothing but her name typed into the computer. Also, this girl is pretty idle and does all sorts of crazy things to avoid getting started! Unfortunately, that video is like a lot of my friends at college. They have writing assignments to do, but they do not know what choices they need to make as writers to create a good paper. Class, what acronym could we teach the girl in the video and all my friends at college to become better writers? Wait for student response. Right! If they would just learn the RAFT, they’d be able to write whatever they wanted! I know you guys already know, but just for grins, can you repeat to me what the RAFT stands for? Wait for student responses. Oh, I knew you guys were so smart! R does stand for role, A stands for audience, and F stands for format. It’s all well and good that you can tell me what each stands for, but I also need three people to share a definition of what role, audience, and format mean. __________, _____________, and

___________ would you please stand up and help the class out with some definitions? Wait for student response. Clearly, you have all been listening very carefully the past couple of days, because that is exactly right! You guys already know more than a bunch of college kids about writing! Now that we have done our little warm up activity, let’s dive write into that final letter of our RAFT acronym, T! At the end of today’s lesson, you will know all the components of the RAFT acronym, be able to identify topic and task in writing prompts, and have the chance to make some choices as a writer to respond to a real writing prompt.

Design for Learning:

I. Teaching:Like the other three components of the RAFT acronym, the teacher will guide students through a note sheet in the RAFT portfolios (Guided Note Taking). As they are filling out the note sheet, teacher will lead students in both class and table discussions to establish the importance of topic and task in writing assignment.

Ok my 3rd grade geniuses, any guesses to what the T in our RAFT stands for? Wait for student response. None at all? Well, that was actually a little bit of a trick question. I want you guys to think of two words when you think of T… topic and task! To explore this idea of topic and task as writers, let’s pass out our RAFT writing portfolios and take a look at some notes I’ve made. __________, would you be my helper to pass these out to the class? Teacher and student pass out RAFT portfolios. Turn to page 10 and get your pencils ready to write, and I’ll pull up mine on the SMART board. Teacher pulls up SMART board copy. Yesterday we used a web graphic organizer for our notes, but today I’ve decided to change it up just a little bit. Here we have a chart that we are going to fill out together (Graphic Organizers). Not surprisingly, I’ve put the definition as the first thing we need to define for the T part of our acronym. Since topic is a pretty easy one, let’s tackle that one first. Give me a thumbs up if you think you have a good thought about what “topic” may mean? Wait for student response. Good thinking ___________, but I think you may be a little bit off. You said that writing topic is how long your answer needs to be. I’m more looking for an idea about the content of what you are trying to write. Would you like to phone a friend for some support? Wait for student response. Oh, I think you elaborated on his answer nicely. Instead of just being how long the assignment is, _________ thinks that topic is like the subject you are trying to write about. Now class, thumbs up if you agree with that definition. Wait for student response. Excellent thinking and way to support your classmate! Before we move on, let’s write that definition for topic into our graphic organizer. Teacher and students copy “subject that you are writing about” into the note sheet. Now we are ready to discuss what a “task” is. I’ll warn you, this one is a little bit trickier, but like I said, you guys are already smarter than some college kids out there so I know you can do it! Instead of just giving you the answer, I’m going to give you a minute to discuss with your table group what you guys may think the definition of topic is (Think-Pair-Share). Make sure you are working because I may call on one of you to share. Your time to discuss “topic” begins in three, two, one, go! Teacher roams the room for management, support, and to listen for strong answers as students discuss. Three, two, one, eyes back up here and mouths quiet! Wait for students to respond. I absolutely love hearing you guys work together brainstorming. I really liked what ________’s group had to say about task. __________,

would you mind sharing with the class a little bit of what you talked about? Wait for student response. I like how you used your previous knowledge to come up with an idea of what I mean by writing task. ________ said that his mom makes him finish all his tasks, or jobs, before he is allowed to play his Xbox, so task must be like a job. I told you that this class was already smarter than college kids, because that is exactly right! “Task” is your job as a writer. Teacher writes definition on the SMART board copy. Together, the two T’s in RAFT are possibly the most important of all: it’s the main directions and “meat” of where your writing will go. It is the two T’s that will help you make every other choice you need to make about your writing! This is a big idea to grasp, so let’s keep moving on to deepen our understanding of the T’s!

Teacher continues leading class discussion on topic and task in writing. First, the teacher and students will brainstorm different writing topics they have encountered in the past.

We have a definition for both topic and task, but I want to extend this idea even further. Like we said a minute ago, “topic” is what you are writing about. Here in the column below, lets brainstorm some writing topics we may have seen in the past. Does anything jump out to the class? Wait for student response. I love how you guys are making connections with what we have done in the past! Yes, writing about the Winn-Dixie book could definitely be a topic. In fact, that’s a topic you all have a lot of experience with. Let’s write that on our note sheet. Teacher and students copy response. What about other topics? Wait for student response. Also good ideas! Science or fables are also different topics. Teacher and students copy onto their note sheet. You guys seem to be fairly comfortable with the idea of topic, so let’s move onto task since I think it may be a little bit more difficult. Thumbs up if everyone is ready to move on as well? Wait for student response. Great!

Because students often struggle to identify their task for writing, teacher will explain task in terms of a “strong verb”. To make the point that some verbs are more specific/directive than others, students will use kinesthetic learning pathways as teacher instructs them to physically model different verbs. Class will then discuss why specific verbs are better and connect the activity to writing tasks.

Can someone quickly read the definition for “task” we came up with a minute ago? Wait for student response. Ok, so task is your job as a writer. While that sounds pretty easy, I’ve seen a lot of kids who struggle to figure out exactly how they are supposed to be writing when they have a writing assignment. Before I let you guys in on the secret to finding out what your task as a writer is, I want to do a quick example activity. In order to do it, I need everyone to silently stand up and push your chair in on the count of three. One, two, three! Teacher waits for students to follow directions. Thank you for doing that so quickly. Here are your directions. I’m going to tell you guys some verbs, and I want you to do them. I know you already know this, but can someone raise their hand and tell me what a verb is? Wait for student response. Perfect. Verbs are our action words. I’m going to tell you action words and you are going to do them. When we are finished, we will stop to talk about the different words I gave you. Then, we will figure out how we can find our writing tasks! Any questions before we begin? Wait for student response. Great, let’s start! Teacher uses “RAFT Day 5 Action Verb” list to give students generic and more specific action verb commands. When the class has completed the list, teacher will

direct students to sit and discuss the activity. Great, I had so much fun doing that with you all! As you can see, there are so many different types of verbs out there. Can someone raise their hand and tell me what was different about the boring verb versus the strong verbs? Wait for student response. Oh, I’m so glad you thought the strong verbs were more fun! Any other ideas about the differences between the two types of verbs? Wait for student response. That’s an interesting response _________. You are absolutely right. The strong verbs told you a more specific action to do. You had a better idea of what motion I wanted you to perform. Well, just like those strong verbs told you exactly what motion I wanted you to perform, good writers choose strong verbs as their writing task, or job. Simply saying “write” is not a strong verb, just like the word “walk” is a boring verb. Good writers need a very specific strong verb to guide their writing, so they make sure the choose verbs that are going to exactly describe what they want to communicate with the reader, because that’s the whole purpose of writing anyway! I can see by the looks on your faces that you may be a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of strong verbs in writing, so let’s brainstorm some ideas together to get the concept planted a little bit deeper into your mind.

Teacher will introduce the strong writing verbs concept sort (Closed Concept Sort). Teacher will give directions and remind students of behavior expectations before monitoring table groups as they complete the activity.

Ok, so we have already defined task as the writer’s job, but let’s add the sentence “and has a strong verb” to our note sheet so we will remember it. Teacher and students write together. Now it’s time to do some brainstorming, just like we did with the topic part of T. Do you guys have any examples of “strong writing verbs”? Wait for student response. Hmm, I don’t see any hands. Thankfully, I thought this might be difficult for you, so I’ve come up with a little activity for you guys to do. In these baggies here, I have a bunch of words that good writers often choose for their strong verbs. Instead of just telling you what they mean though, I’m going to make you do the work! Several of these words are synonyms, or kind of mean the same thing, so I’ve put together a little game for you to play as a table group. Teacher passes out bagged games to each table group. In each of these bags, I’ve put a graphic organizer and a bunch of words on slips of paper. Your task, or job, is to sort the words into the appropriate categories. Let’s do the first one as an example together before I let you guys work to finish out the rest of the categories. Teacher uses her electronic copy to lead students in the first category of the game. When you are finished sorting, we will talk about what each strong writing verb means. That way, you will know exactly what verb to choose when you want to start writing. Before I give you guys the time to begin, let’s review some expectations for this activity. Can someone raise their hand to model an appropriate voice level for this activity? Wait for student response. Perfect! I like how you were talking loud enough for me to easily hear you, but you weren’t shouting either. Also, I want to remind you that this is a group activity. That means every member should be participating and helping sort the words. If I see anyone letting other group members do all the work, I have extra bags and will make you play the game all by yourself, which is no fun at all! Are there any questions about any directions I just gave? Wait for student response. Great! You may go ahead and get started! Teacher roams the classroom for management/support as students work.

When students have completed the activity, teacher will call attention back to the front of the room with a flip of the lights.

After the concept word sort activity, teacher will lead a class discussion on every group’s results. The teacher will help the students define each term during this discussion, and the students will fill out the remainder of the T note sheet in their RAFT writing portfolios.

All right, now it’s time to share what your table group came up with during that activity! As I walked around the room, I heard lots of good discussions and debates going on, so I’m eager to see how everyone’s compares. First off though, was this activity like a math problem, where there is only one right answer? Wait for student response. No! It’s much more open to interpretation; if you can share why you put a certain strong verb in a category, it may be that there is more than one way of categorizing that verb. Now that we know about the interpretation, do you guys think it’s appropriate to make fun of or boo other people’s answers? Wait for student response. Absolutely not! We are a classroom family, and this is a safe and fun learning environment. Now that the serious part is over, let’s dive into what you all wrote. Table 1, will you share what strong writing verbs you placed into the second column? Teacher will continue asking various table groups and students to share how they categorized each strong writing verb. As students are sharing, the teacher will thoroughly explain each task as necessary and ask higher-level thinking questions such as: “How do _______ and _________ compare? How are they similar/different? Can you think of a time when you were asked to _________? Why do you think that _______ belongs in this category? Could this strong verb go into another category? Are there any categories that it doesn’t belong in? Why/How do you know?”

Once all the strong writing verbs have been sorted and discussed, the teacher will tie in the idea of “topic” and “task” back to the three essential questions of the unit. During this portion of the lesson, teacher will be sure to mention practical applications for the RAFT acronym in all subject areas.

Thank you all so much for following my directions so well and helping sort out these words. These are all strong writing verbs that you can choose as a writer when you begin a writing assignment. But, I want to ask you a harder question that some college kids won’t even be able to answer. Why do writers need a strong verb for their task in the first place? Why isn’t the word “write” just enough? I want you to come up with an answer as a table group, then I’ll call on one group to share. Teacher gives students time to discuss. Teacher roams room as students talk for management, support, and to listen for strong answers. Three, two, one, time’s up! Eyes on me, quiet mouths. Wait for student responses. I knew I had some deep thinkers in this classroom. _____________, I like how you related your answer back to our activity from earlier in the lesson. Would you mind sharing? Wait for student response. Your answer is exactly right! We cannot just rely on the verb “write” when we are choosing our writing task because it’s too general, just like the word “walk” isn’t very specific. Making a purposeful choice about our strong verb task will help us guide our thoughts as we write. That way, we know exactly what purpose we are trying to achieve as we write. Now, do we always get to choose what we want to write about, or our writing topic and task? Wait for student response. Unfortunately not! Many times in school, you will have a topic and task given to you, and then you have to

write an appropriate response. However, just because you didn’t get to pick what you wanted to write about doesn’t mean you can’t use RAFT! Any ideas on how you can still use the RAFT acronym when you don’t get to make a choice as a writer? Wait for student response. Hmm, no ideas? Well, let me give you a hint: do you think that you may be able to identify the RAFT in the given writing prompt anyway? Wait for student response. Yes, you sure can! Remember the other day when we found the RAFT of your morning writing assignment: you guys were quickly able to find out that the R was you, the A was Mrs. Davis, the F was a four-sentence paragraph, and the T’s were to explain why you thought a certain invention changed people’s lives. In fact, I bet you’ve used the RAFT acronym before without really realizing what you were doing. Now that you know the RAFT however, I want you to start identifying the RAFT in EVERY writing assignment you do from now on! Not only will it help you make purposeful choices in your own writing, but also understand what choices you need to make to succeed when you write from a prompt that someone else gives you. I can’t believe it, but we are finally finished covering the four components of our RAFT acronym: role, audience, format, and topic/task! It’s now time to put all of our good knowledge into practice!

II. Opportunity for Practice:Students will work together in partners to identify the topic and task of several writing prompts listed on page 11 of the RAFT writing portfolio.

It’s easy to find out what out what the topic and task in your writing when you get to pick it! In order to practice finding the topic and task in writing prompts that other people give us, I’ve made this practice sheet on page 11 of your RAFT portfolios. Teacher pulls up her electronic copy while students flip to corresponding page. I’ve listed a bunch of different third grade writing prompts that I’ve seen in the many different schools I’ve visited in the past few years. When I divide you into partners, guys are going to work together to a) identify the topic of what you are writing on, b) find the strong writing verb that tells you specifically what to do in your writing, and c) come up with a sentence or two that you would maybe include in a paragraph about your topic and task (Sentence Generation). Just like in the word sort activity, I expect not super loud voices and equal work by each partner… Remember, you portfolios are partially a completion grade, so write and take notes in them! I’ll be walking around to make sure you guys are working and to answer any questions you may have. Instead of just numbering you all off, I’m going to use an app called Team Shake on my iPhone instead to put you into pairs. Teacher pulls out phone to use app that will randomly partner students. Teacher places students into partner pairs and gets them situated throughout the room. Once all students are seated and ready to begin, teacher will start activity and monitor the room as students work together. When students begin to indicate they are finishing, teacher will call students’ attention back and lead discussion about correct answers. Fist to five, how much more time is needed? Wait for student response. Great! I’ll give you three minutes to finish up, then we will head back to our seats to talk about what you all wrote!

Teacher and students review answers on page 11 together as a class and possible sentences the students may want to include. Teacher will take opportunity to clarify any misconceptions about the various task/strong writing verbs and critique sentences as necessary. When appropriate, teacher should incorporate higher-level thinking questions such as: “What is another word that

strong writing verb is similar to? What would be an antonym for this strong writing verb? What format might you choose if you had to write about this prompt? Why would you choose that? Do you think that you choice for different writing formats may depend on what your task as the writer is? How can you change that sentence to better fit the assigned task? Justify your use of that sentence.” At the end of the activity, teacher will transition students into the assessment portion of the lesson.

III. AssessmentFor the assessment portion of the lesson, students will choose one of the writing prompts from page 11 of the RAFT portfolio and complete a response.

All right class, we did a wonderful job identifying all the T’s in those practice prompts. Now it’s time to put your good work into use and finally write a complete RAFT writing piece! Teacher pulls up electronic copies on the SMART board. Since we have already identified the T’s and brainstormed some sentences, you are going to write a complete piece using one of the prompts from page 11. Take a look at my copy of the assignment on the board. It’s on page 12 in your portfolio. As you can see, I’ve put a complete RAFT graphic organizer at the top to help you complete your writing (Graphic Organizers). Let’s fill out the T first since I have to pick from one of the ones on my sheet. I think I want my topic and strong writing verb to be number two, “convince the class that sushi is the best food ever.” My strong verb is “convince”, and my topic is “sushi is the best food ever.” Teacher points and writes on the board as she talks about each component. As you can see, I gave you the format this time. I want you to write just a basic paragraph with four sentences. However, I will let you choose you audience and role. Remember, we have to make good choices as writers, so make sure you think carefully about what role and audience makes sense for your writing. For example, if you choose writing prompt number two, the audience is already chosen. It’s the class! If you choose writing prompt number five about a new dismissal routine, raise your hand and tell some audiences that may match that prompt? Wait for student response. Great! Mrs. Davis or I may both be interested in a new dismissal routine for our class. On the other hand, would choosing governor Robert Bentley be a good audience choice for that writing task? Wait for student response. No of course not! Sadly, I don’t think the governor has a lot of interest in how we dismiss class at Oliver Elementary School. No matter which prompt you pick to write about, make sure that your audience and role make sense with your task as a writer. Teacher flips to writing rubric on the SMART board and points as she speaks. I’ve also given each of you a copy of the rubric I will be using to grade this work. As you can see, I’ve broken each letter of our RAFT down to help us make good choices as writers and get a perfect score on this assignment! Teacher reviews rubric expectations with students and allows for questions. Ok, you guys know my expectations for what I’m asking you to do, now let’s review behavior before I let you begin to write. Is this a silent or a talking activity? Wait for student response. Yup, this is a silent activity. I’ve given you time to practice with RAFT in a group today, so I need to see that you can write something independently. When you are finished with your Task and Topic Response, first read over it and make sure your writing meets all the requirements on the rubric. Then flip it over at your desk and you may read an AR book until everyone is finished. To be respectful to your classmates, be quiet until everyone is finished. I’ll write these directions on the board so there should be no need for talking during this activity.

Teacher writes directions on the board as a visual reminder for students. Thumbs up if we are good to go? Wait for student response. Ok, choose a topic and task and begin writing! I can’t wait to see what you come up with in your writing tasks! Teacher roams the room for management and support. When students are finished working, teacher will transition students into closing.

IV. Closure:For the closing portion of the activity, teacher will collect assessment. Students will then complete a self-rating on how confident they feel using the RAFT writing strategy.

Now that we are all finished writing, I can collect your writing. I can’t wait to read them this weekend! I’ve spent this whole week teaching you guys the RAFT acronym, and next week I’m going to let you use it to make all your own choices as a writer. Your writing portfolios will have some excellent work in them when we are finished! As we leave for the weekend, I want to know how you guys feel about the RAFT lessons. When you get your sticky note, be sure and write your name on the note. Then, I want you to draw one of three faces. Teacher draws on the board as she speaks. A happy face means you feel really good about using RAFT and feel like you could use it to write. Draw a medium, straight face means you mostly understand, but still have some questions you’d like cleared up. Finally, a sad face means you are totally confused and are unclear about how to use RAFT. There’s no right or wrong answer for this: I just want to make sure I’m doing my job. I promise that I will help you master the material! If you draw a medium or sad face, I’d like you to write what questions you still have. Then I’ll know what to review with you on Monday! When you are finished with your sticky note, go ahead and stick in on the SMART board and line up for lunch. Teacher monitors students as they complete self-assessment and leads students to next activity. Teacher will use data from the lesson closure to address specific concerns before giving the RAFT assignment in the next lesson.

Differentiation Strategies:Topic and task are arguably the most difficult RAFT components for all level students to

learn; therefore, this lesson is deigned to give students ample practice with the concept. Like the other lessons in the unit, the note taking portion of the teaching is designed to focus attention on the learning task and give a visual representation of the content. The movement aspect (acting out the verbs) accommodates both ADHD and kinesthetic learners and provides students an easy “entry point” into the concept of strong writing verbs. Regardless of the learning task, the teacher is constantly roaming the room and checking for understanding to address any misconceptions as they arise during the teaching.

While this class does contain some higher ability students, the teacher foresees them being unfamiliar with the idea of writing task. Specifically, this group of students does not have much exposure to actually writing using strong writing verbs and as a result, will need a lot of practice and teacher support. The concept sort activity is designed with the higher-leveled students particularly in mind. The activity itself is a very demanding cognitive task, requiring students to analyze the writing verb itself, then relate and categorize it with the other verbs. The challenge engages gifted students, while still forcing them to extend their abilities and justify their team’s answers. Additionally, if deemed it appropriate for a gifted child’s ability, the teacher may

choose to modify the final assessment to allow more choices (different format, modified prompts, etc.)

C & D Differentiation: While C & D do not have the skills to independently write, they will be expected to take notes with the rest of the class for the following reasons: 1. Even though neither can read, letter formation and handwriting is not a laborious task

for either. D does struggle with letter formation and handwriting. D will take notes while teacher is teaching, but they will not be graded for completion/correctness.

2. Taking notes will force C and D to be engaged in the flow of instruction during the lesson, which is essential to keep them involved the class discussions.

3. By taking notes, C and D will feel as included in the class as possible.

To make up for their lack of reading and writing skills, the teacher will be sure to include C & D in the lesson by intentionally asking their opinions and providing follow up questions. The group work nature of lesson will also allow C and D to fully participate in the flow of instruction and learn through listening and movement activities. As they are working with their groups, teachers will roam to ensure they are participating by copying down other’s sentences and active in discussion.

C differentiation: During the assessment, C will use the iPad mini’s speech-to-text feature to dictate her answers. The teacher will email the final document to herself. Apart from considerations made for speech-to-text errors, C will be graded on the same rubric as her peers.

D differentiation: During the assessment, D will dictate his answers to the classroom teacher. The classroom teacher may prompt D to use complete sentences or elaborate on his answers if needed. D will then be graded on the same rubric as his peers. This is in line with the recommendations on his IEP. D will dictate his answers to the classroom teacher. The teacher may prompt D to clarify his answers, but they do not have to be in complete sentences. D’ work will be graded on completion.

Materials and Resources:

YouTube Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__0uH0CiLWM SMART board RAFT Writing Portfolios (1/student) (1/electronic teacher copy) (1/ hardback teacher

copy) pgs. 10-12 RAFT Day 5 Action Verb list (1/teacher) Strong Writing Verbs concept sort (words and organizer sheet) (1/table group) iPhone with Team Shake app installed Post-It notes (1/student) iPad mini with speech-to-text feature (differentiation only)

Reflection on Design and Instruction:Unfortunately, an unexpected snow day forced me to combine lessons 4 and 5 of the

RAFT Writing unit. Although I was unable to use my planned assessments to gather empirical

student data, I was able to use observation of my students’ answers and written work to draw some conclusions about my students’ understandings. To open the lesson with some student engagement, I quickly had the students review the four components of the RAFT acronym. Clearly, spending an entire day on learning the acronym alone was worth the time; all my students were able to quote the acronym verbatim! As we proceeded to review definitions for role and audience, I was reminded of the portfolio’s value. When a student would struggle to answer a review question, I could simply give them a page number to refer back to without embarrassing the child. With various amounts of prompting for each question, I determined that the students were ready to dive into the new material for the day.

To teach format (a concrete and fairly concept topic to grasp), I relied on a combination of notes, direct teaching, and group discussion. I have found that the class is really mastering the art of discussion as the lessons go on. As I roamed the room, I heard much more insightful answers from even my typical strugglers. For example, one lower performing student was able to define format as, “what kind of writing or typing I do.” Though seemingly inconsequential to some, he was the only child who independently connected writing format to technology, and his revelation helped other students expand their understanding of format. I will continue to scaffold group discussion and offer positive praise to continue growing students’ discussion skills. Based on the ease the students completed the format web-brainstorming note sheet and class discussion, I determined that the class was ready to move to the harder material: writing topic and task.

As I re-planned a combined lesson 4 and 5 day, I knew that I would need to spend much more time on the topic and task portion. While writing topic is simply what the writer is writing about, task much more abstract. My students have limited experience with academic language such as “convince”, “demand”, or “hypothesize.” Once my students demonstrated a proficient understanding of topic, I started by comparing writing task to strong verbs. After explaining that some verbs are more specific than others, I lead the students in the RAFT Action Verb activity. Not only did the kinesthetic portion help my students understanding the concept of strong writing verbs, but also gave them an opportunity to simply move around and release some mid-morning energy. In retrospect, I realize that I had no discipline issues in this lesson! To extend students understanding of writing task, we brainstormed strong verbs, had table discussions on each of the verbs in the concept sort activity, and had group question time before moving onto the formative assessment portion of the lesson.

Initially, I had planned to use the Topic and Task Response sheet as the assessment for lesson five. In order to fit the lesson into the school day however, I was forced to use the Topic and Task Identifying Practice sheet instead. While I do not have a formal assessment tool for this activity, I included a discussion of four work samples below to highlight common patterns in the class’ work.

K’s work indicates confusion over what a writing “task” is and how to appropriately respond. For example, he mistakenly identifies the writing task for “advertise a new pair of sneakers that can make you run faster” as “compose”. Although the corresponding sentence mentions shoes, it does not address the writing task.

Not only did T not finish his work, but he also demonstrates a lack of vocabulary knowledge. For example, on the prompt “demand to your mom/dad/grandma that you have a later bedtime”, T correctly identifies the task. However, his suggested sentence simply says that he will go to bed

when his grandma tells him (hardly a demand!).

Conversely, M and R’s work (pictured respectively) above shows a clear understanding of topic and task. Both identify the topic and task correctly in each sentence, and adequately respond to each task in the sentence section.

While I read every student’s practice page, I chose to hold a quick review sessions of today’s lesson versus pulling a specific group for re-teaching for several reasons. As I taught this lesson on a Friday, opening with a quick review on Monday is important to engage all students in the coming writing lesson. Because I also had to combine two lessons into one, I’d also prefer to hold a whole group follow-up mini lesson to ensure that all students have had enough exposure

to the content before moving onto the culminating activity. During this time, I will address the misconceptions demonstrated above and provide more practice opportunities. Now that my students have had the opportunity to explore all the four RAFT components, I am so excited to lead them in the application: the final RAFT writing piece.