Writing Letters

1. T: Good Morning Class! I would like for you to clear off your desk other than a pencil, and place your eyes on me so that I know you are ready.
2. The teacher will wait for students to clear off their desk and place their eyes on her.
3. T: Today we will be learning how to write a proper letter. Can anyone tell me why it might be important for us to know to how to write a letter?
4. Allow a few students to answer.
5. T: Those were all great answers. Now I am going to read you a story and while I am reading here are a few questions I would like for you think about while I am reading. Questions:
   1. How are the crayons feeling?
   2. Are there some similarities in how they are feeling? Differences?
   3. What is similar in the each of the crayons letters? 
6. The teacher will read through the story and stop and ask questions throughout to keep students engaged and thinking. 
7. After the read-aloud, the teacher will briefly review the questions that she asked the students to think about during the read-aloud.
8. Now that the students have an understanding of how the crayons felt, the teacher will explain to the students that they are going to pretend to be Duncan (the crayons owner), and write a letter back to the crayons.
9. The teacher will go over how to properly begin a letter, what needs to be included in the middle, and how to end a letter.
10. The teacher will then pass out the descriptive and transition word banks to the students. The students must choose four transition words and three descriptive words from the word banks to use in their writing.
11. T: Now that I have reviewed everything, does anyone have any questions?
12. Allow students to ask any questions they may have.
13. Allow students 15-20 minutes to work on their letters. If students finish writing before the time runs out have them recheck over their work and draw a picture to go along with their letter.
14. T: I can see that most of you are finished, or finishing up your letters. Would anyone like to share their letters with the class and tell us what transition and descriptive words you chose to include in your letter? 
15. Have a few students share.
16. T: From this mini-lesson, you should have a better idea on how to form a proper letter, and how to take important information from a text and use it to support your own writing. You should also be more comfortable in including transition and descriptive words into your writing.

The students will write a letter back to the crayons pretending to be Duncan (the crayons owner) from the read-aloud. They must have a beginning to their letter, include four transition words and three descriptive words from the word banks given in the middle of their letter, and have an ending to their letter. When using this as the assessment, I will be able to tell if the students understand how to begin and end a letter properly. I will be able to see if they are able to use transition and descriptive words properly in their writing, and I will also be able to see if they are able to take important information from a story and apply it to their own writing. If the students are not able to begin and end a letter properly, implement descriptive and transition words into their writing, and not support their writing with key details from the story, then I know that they do not fully understand the concept and will need more practice on this topic.