Date: Unit of Study: 5/9/2019

Title of Mini-lesson: Turning the Lights On—Setting

Teaching Point: Students will be able to define and describe setting and how it helps shape the story.

Connect/PURPOSE (What, Why, When) (1-2 minutes)

Connection/ Purpose: Last week, we worked on showing and not telling our readers about character emotions and
thinking with using warhead candies
Why do you think it’s important to show instead of tell by using descriptive language? (students will answer
something like it helps paint a picture better)

Today, we are going to carry on with using our descriptive words to tell a story, this time we are going to be
focusing on our setting of a story.

The setting of a story should usually include the what, the where, the when and the why, we are going to focus a
lot on this today!

First our teachers are going to model the differences between two different introductions to a story, then we will
work together to decode a story to define the setting, and then we will create our own settings and put it together
using green screen and share out together.

Model/Demonstrate/Teach/Provide Information (How) (3-5 minutes) (I do)

I want us all to pay close attention to the what where why and when of each of these prompts

Have two partner teachers, one reading the prompt and the other one drawing what they are hearing.

Sentence #1:
I walked to a waterfall.

Sentence #2:
It was mid day as I walked along the twisty trail, my feet hit the softness of the moss underneath. I could
hear a deep and low rumble of something big, almost colossal. I looked up from the ground to see the
hanging trees pusing me upwards on the path. Finally, I reached a clearing, I could see in front of my eyes,
a crisp blue waterfall pouring into a pool below.

Reflect:
How are these two pictures different?
How were the two sentences different?

Next, we are going to hear another setting, this is from the book Holes by Louis Sachar, I’m going to hand
each of you a paper, and I want you to draw out the scene that you hear when we are reading.

Engage/Guided Practice (2-3 minutes)(we do)

Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use
Now that we have practiced drawing out a setting based on the book Holes, we are going to create our own

settings. I want you to use these descriptive words from last class to help develop your settings and help

show and not tell the reader about your story.

I will have a few different prompts or images that could help you get started on your settings. Remember
these are rough first ideas that we will perfect in a little bit, try to keep your sketches under 5 to 10
minutes so you’ll have time for the green screen.

Use the attached setting planning sheet to engage in group work about settings.
Link to Independent Work (1-2 minutes)

Independent work will include green screens!

Independent work (30-60 minutes) (you do, I watch) Workshop Time – Students Working/Teacher

Conferring

or Working with Small Groups

help prompt descriptive language or ideas to put into setting.

Sharing (2-4 minutes)

Use the students’ green screen creations to think about the setting sequence. Each image will serve as part

of the flow chart of the story they will eventually write.

Recap the parts of setting (who what where and when).

Have students share out about something they learned about setting today. Ask, “why is the setting

important?” also consider “ how did this make you a better writer today?”.

Close (1-2 minutes)

After clean-up, remind student that they will use the setting to help create the stories we will write next

week.

Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use
 Setting Planning

DIRECTIONS: As a group, please answer the following questions:

1. What is the time period? (past, present, future)

2. What are the weather conditions? (cold, snowy, warm, dry, windy)

3. What colors would you use to set the mood? (bright, dark, mix)

4. Please list the ten (5) objects or natural features that you would like to include in your setting.
(rocks, trees, water)

5. Think about the experiences you would like your characters to have. What else would you
include in the setting? List two (2) ideas here.

Appendix B.

Holes by Louis Sachar

Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use
PART ONE YOU ARE ENTERING CAMP GREEN LAKE 1

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas.
That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland. There used to be a town of
Green Lake as well. The town shriveled and dried up along with the lake, and the people who lived
there. During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degrees in the shade—
if you can find any shade. There's not much shade in a big dry lake. The only trees are two old oaks on
the eastern edge of the "lake." A hammock is stretched between the two trees, and a log cabin stands
behind that. The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden
owns the shade. Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions find shade under rocks and in the holes
dug by the campers. Here's a good rule to remember about rattlesnakes and scorpions: If you don't
bother them, they won't bother you. Usually. Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the
worst thing that can happen to you. You won't die. Usually.

Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use
Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use
Nadia Bennett
Lesson Reflection
5/10/2019
a.) What connections did you make as a result of developing this lesson plan?
For this lesson, turing on the lights- setting, we connected right away to our previous lesson “show not
tell” and the use of descriptive language. We reflected as a group about how descriptive language
enhances what you see in your mind with others are reading. We then modeled this in a similar
activity to last week with the simple and complex sentences, but included drawing by a partner
teacher. This way students could get a feel for how including more detail and descriptive language
makes you feel something when someone is reading their piece. similarly, continuously through the
lesson, we kept referring back to describing, showing not telling and how we could enhance our
setting writing and also pictures.

b.) What feedback did you receive from your peers?

The feedback I received from my fellow peer teachers was overall positive for this lesson, in regards to
how successful it was, if students understood their expectations and the overall quality of learning
happening. Students enjoyed writing and developing their own settings and enjoyed implementing
their own creative twist for their where when and who. The planning sheet was successful in starting
the creative process and was enhanced even more when drawing out their setting to write about. It
was helpful for students to draw their setting first, so they could include every detail they wanted to
discuss in their writing. I was happy to see this process was successful for this group of students. The
connection from last lesson also enhanced the students ideas about how to push their creativity even
further. Students were aware of their expectations, and when it was time to move on to the next task
based on the time limiting for each section, specifically letting students know they had 5 more
minutes. The wrap up was a great way to assess whether students understood the goal of the lesson
and why setting creation was important to the creativeness of their stories that they will write next
week. One area we could focus on enhancing is getting every student to share out their ideas when we
are asking questions.

c.) What changes would you make as a result of peer feedback and your own reflection?

Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use
Based on the feedback from my fellow peer teachers, we are going to continue to connect, engage and
reflect at each lesson. One challenge or opportunity our group faces, is trying to share whole group
each students ideas and data for assessing if students are learning. We are going to implement more
turn and talks and accountability for speaking up in groups. This also might be enhanced by rewarding
when someone does share up in group by awarding a picture at the end of group time.

Adapted from Lucy Calkins and Beth Neville, Resources for Primary Writing, Units of Study for Primary
Writing,: A Yearlong Curriculum, Lucy Calkins, Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH
Permission to copy for single classroom use