Ideas 1 Show, Don’t Tell Writers Workshop Daily Plan
1. Mini-Lesson Focus: Procedural Process Trait Conventions
ELACC5W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences: b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
Show, Don’t Tell: In this minilesson, students will learn the difference between “showing” and “telling” in their writing. Discuss with the students what their favorite part of “Show and Tell” was when they were little. (Most students will probably say the “showing” part.) Discuss the difference between just telling your classmates about something special and actually showing them that special item. Tell them that it’s the same thing when they write. They need to show the reader through lots of good details instead of telling him/her. Write a non-specific statement on the board—something like “My friends are nice.” Then elicit ideas from the class that show how “my friends are nice”. (My friends share their snacks with me. They play with me at recess. Special friends come over to spend the night. My friends spend time with me.) Write “I am sick.” on the white board then read “Sick” by Shel Silverstein. Ask which writing was telling and which was showing. (They should be able to explain that “I am sick,” is a telling statement and “Sick” is showing.) As a class, write your own version of “Sick.” Or you could use the organizer on page 3 for groups to take a telling sentence and transform it into a showing paragraph.
2. Status of Class
3. Student Writing/Teacher Conferring Pair the students up and give them a generic telling statement. Give them time to revise it so that it is a showing statement instead of a telling statement. They can use the attached template to elaborate the telling sentence into a showing paragraph. Share the revised pieces with the group. Tell them that during Writer’s Workshop they are going to work on finding telling statements in their work and revising them to be showing statements. Suggested telling sentences: Literature Connection I like to play football. I went to the hospital. I was really embarrassed. Show Don’t Tell: Secrets of I went on vacation with my family. Writing by Josephine Nobisso
4. Author Share: Student Teacher Call students back to meeting area. Teacher chooses a few students to share their revised showing sentences with the group. Materials Mini-Lesson: 10 minutes White board or overhead projector Status of Class: 5 minutes “Sick” by Shel Silverstein, attached page Write/Confer: 25 minutes Telling sentence handout, attached Sharing: 5 minutes Troup County Schools 2012 2 Show, Don’t Tell
“Sick” by Shel Silverstein from Where the Sidewalk Ends
“I cannot go to school today,” Said little Peggy Ann McKay. “I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I’m going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I’ve counted sixteen chicken pox And there’s one more—that’s seventeen, And don’t you think my face looks green? My leg is cut, my eyes are blue— It might be instamatic flu. I couch and sneeze and gasp and choke, I’m sure that my left leg is broke— My hip hurts when I move my chin, My belly button’s caving in, My back is wrenched, my ankle’s sprained, My ‘pendix pains each time it rains. My nose is cold, my toes are numb, I have a sliver in my thumb. My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardly whisper when I speak. My tongue is filling up my mouth, I think my hair is falling out. My elbow’s bent, my spine ain’t straight, My temperature is one-o-eight. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, There is a hole inside my ear. I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what? What’s that? What’s that you say? You say today is…Saturday?
Troup County Schools 2012 3 Show, Don’t Tell G’bye, I’m going out to play!”
Group Name ______
Show, Don’t Tell
Telling Sentence:
Showing Paragraph:
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Troup County Schools 2012