Clip Description
This clip shows the first two steps of a mini-lesson: "Connect" and "Teach." I connect today's lesson with previous lessons, reminding everyone that today's work is part of our ongoing personal narrative unit. Next, I introduce what I want the students to try in today's lesson, which is to use a mentor text.
Commentary
The focus of this mini-lesson is examining effective writing strategies of an author and using some of those strategies in your own writing. This is an example of using a book as a "mentor text." At the time of this mini-lesson, students are at different stages in the writing process. The majority of students has selected a narrative topic and are planning or drafting. Others, however, continue to struggle with topic choice.
In the clip, I point out that while we couldn't be entirely certain of each author's intent when reading pieces such as Whistling by Elizabeth Partridge and Shortcut by Donald Crews, today the students - as the authors of their own pieces - will be able to determine why the piece is important.
Transcript
Okay, so remember yesterday we were talking about significance and we were talking about My Mama's - My Mama Had A Dancing Heart [by Libba Moore Gray] and how this has some significance to it. It's a story that has significance. We also looked at Peg Kehret's Earthquake Terror, Gary Soto's Chato's Kitchen,My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother [by Patricia Polacco]. They all had some kind of significance to them, okay?
But I want to step away from that today and talk a little bit about beautiful language and beautiful writing techniques. Okay? So I don't want you to forget significance in your story but I also want you to think about how you can write a book beautifully to get your message across and to get that lesson across. Okay? And Libba Moore Gray does a wonderful job in this book of using beautiful language to get her point across. Okay? And she does that purposely and writers do that. Writers use strategies to craft their writing. Okay? They use certain strategies to do something. Andrea did that today. Andrea used certain strategies to really get us in her story. Okay? So today we're going to listen to My Mama Had A Dancing Heart one more time but this time you already know the story. I want you to listen to the language and I want you to listen for beautiful things that Libba Moore Gray does to make this a good story. Okay?
