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Guided Reading Manual Sampler
17
Day
49
5
Week 4
What a Tree Has Seen
Week 4
Culminating Activity
Writer’sWorkshop
Explain:
Writing is a process that is made up of steps. Each step helps us
to organize our writing and to present our ideas in a way that everyone can
understand. When we follow the steps of the writing process, we become great
writers.
Tell students that they are going to write their life story from the point of
view of an object. Write the writing prompt on the board. Say:
Think of an object
that you have always had. What would that object say about your life? What has
that object seen?
Then read the prompt aloud:
Write your life story
from the point of view
of an object.
The Writing Process
Pre-writing
Explain:
Writing is a process that is
made up of steps. The first step is
pre-writing.
In this step, we gather ideas about what we
are going to write.
Have students draw a
picture of the object that witnessed their life.
Ask them to include details in their drawing
that will help them to write about it. Draw a
sequence graphic organizer on the board with
four vertically stacked horizontal rectangles.
Label the boxes
First, Next, Then,
and
Last,
respectively, from top to bottom
.
Allow time
for students to copy the graphic organizer
from the board onto a sheet of paper, and ask
them to complete it with their ideas.
Organizing Ideas
Explain:
The next step in the
writing process is
organizing ideas
. In this step,
we decide what information we want to use and
in what order we want to use it. First, we make
connections between ideas. Then, we decide
what ideas we don’t want to use. Finally, we
decide in what order we will write the ideas that
we decided to keep.
Have students discuss the
writing prompt with a partner. Have students
show their graphic organizer to their partner.
Encourage students to make suggestions to
add to their partner’s writing.
Drafting
Explain:
The next step in the
writing process is
drafting
. In this step, we write
our ideas down.
Have students write their life
story from the point of view of an object on
a separate sheet of paper. Remind students
to use all of the key words in their writing,
encouraging them to use regular and irregular
verbs, and to refer back to the ideas they
discussed with their partners.
Revising
Explain:
The next step in the writing process
is
revising.
In this step, we check our work to make
sure there are no errors.
Have students revise
their drafts to check for correct spelling, correct
adjectives and verb forms, and to make sure that
their sentences begin with a capital letter and
end with a period. Have students refer to the
list of key words at the end of
What a Tree Has
Seen
to check their spelling of the key words. Tell
students to make any corrections necessary.
Publishing
Explain:
The last step of the writing
process is
publishing.
In this last step, we make
a neat copy of our drawing and of our writing
.
Distribute papers to students with a blank space
for their drawing and with lines below that
space where students can copy their writing. Tell
students that once they have produced a neat
copy of their work, they will share it with the class.
Writing Prompt