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Mini Lesson: 10-15 Minutes
The mini-lesson is where I can make a
suggestion to the whole class...raise a concern, explore an issue,
model a technique, reinforce a strategy. First my students are
engaged in their own important work. Then I ask myself, "What is the
one thing I can suggest or demonstrate that might help most?" A
mini-lesson generally lasts 5-10 minutes. I try to choose a teaching
point that I feel would benefit many members of the class.
Examples
of Mini-Lessons
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Content
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Conventions Focus |
- Getting an idea
-making lists
-things you love
-writing from emotion
-experiences
-moments in time
- Adding detail
- Adds responses/telling the
inside story
- Choice of words/ descriptive
language
- Replacing tired words
- Great beginnings
- Wow endings
- One moment in time
- Observations
- "I wonder" writings
- Something ordinary
- Staying on focus
- Working with a seed idea
- Developing a plan for writing
- Finding your voice
- Genre studies:
-poetry
-informational reports
-letters
-autobiographies
-biographies
-picture books
-persuasive
-How-to books
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- Use appropriate spacing
- Spelling phonetically
- Spell "High Frequency" words
correctly
- Spell using analogies
- Capitalize I, names
- Capitalize beginnings of
sentences
- Ending punctuation marks
- Quotation marks
- Commas
- Use of "and"
- Using appropriate grammar
- Using paragraphs
- Recognizing and correcting run-on sentences
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The Art of Teaching Writing,
Calkins
Classroom Homepage |
