p.

EDUC 310 Small Group Writing Lesson

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Subject(s): Reading Date & Time: May 1st ,1PM

Grade: 3rd Group Size: Small group (4-6 students)

Co-Teaching yes Coplannned yes

no no

Instructional Focus

The central focus for this lesson is writing. Students will review a fiction text (Nina, Nina Ballerina) and
identify important ideas. They will use that information to create a plan for a narrative text related to the
reading. I will use direct instruction and modeling to identify important ideas and use a graphic organizer to
plan a narrative text told from the point of view of another character.

This modeling will help students as they work collaboratively in groups to plan their own narrative text told
from a different character’s point of view. This planning process is essential for future writings that they
immerse themselves in, as it gives a way to organize their ideas and have a smoother writing process. This
will also specifically be a beneficial lesson as many students in this class struggle with writing and have not
spent much time organizing what they want to truly say and represent on paper, resulting in them getting
‘stuck’ and often frustrated – this will give them an opportunity to do so, and organize their thoughts better.

Learners

This is a Tier 2 lesson delivered to a small group of students. The group is a homogeneous group of 4-6
students with similar reading levels and/or instructional needs. Two students in the classroom have IEPs and
often need assistance with writing.

Common Core Learning Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive
details, and clear event sequences.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.A
Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that
unfolds naturally.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.B
Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or
show the response of characters to situations.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.C
Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.D
Provide a sense of closure.
 p. 2

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning,
revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to
and including grade 3 here.)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on
sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

.
Lesson Goal(s)/Objective(s):

Students will be able to:

• Review a text and select relevant information (events and ideas)
• Plan a short narrative story collaboratively in groups told from another character’s point of view

Resources/Materials

• O’Connor, J., & DiSalvo, D. A. (2013). Nina, Nina ballerina. New York: Puffin Young Readers, an
imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
• 19 copies of Nina, Nina Ballerina (490L)
o Nina, Nina Ballerina is a fiction text about a girl named Nina who wants to be a ballerina,
despite not being the best in the class. She worries that her mom will not notice her in the
show since there’s nothing that makes her stick out (she isn’t the tallest, she doesn’t have a
solo, etc.) – until she falls and breaks her arm, which allows her mom to spot her in the show
right away, from her cast! It is 29 pages long, and uses a narrative text structure. Each page
includes illustrations to further comprehension of content within the book and emotions shown
by characters.
• Graphic Organizer in order to model the planning process (see attached)
• Graphic Organizer for students to plan collaboratively in groups (18 copies, 1 per person in each
group) (see attached)
• Rubric to evaluate students narrative works (see attached)
• Assessment Plan of what to observe from students (see attached)
• One post-it note packet for each of the 6 groups

Lesson Assessment and Criteria:

• Throughout the lesson, I will collect assessment data in order to ensure that students’ comprehension
and appliance of what I model is in relation to the standards:
1. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,
descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• I will be sure to circulate the room as different groups are collaboratively planning their
narrative and listen to what ideas they are sharing with each other and in relation to where they
 p. 3

are placing those ideas on their graphic organizer. I will be sure to observe and see if students
are correctly utilizing the graphic organizer and share the importance of using it to categorize
ideas. I will observe if students are including main things included within a narrative
(characters, sequence of events, details of actions or dialogue between characters, transition
words, and a closing). I will also take notes of patterns seen between students and reflect how
to better my instruction for next time.
• In addition, I will implement a rubric to assess and evaluate student usage of narrative
elements from their organizational graphic organizer with their final work.

2. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by
planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of
Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 3 here.)
• I will guide students by modeling the process first and listening to any questions brought up
during my modeling. To further support them while they are collaboratively group planning, I
will walk around the room and observe if any groups are struggling or need help using their
graphic organizer to plan out their ideas and thoughts for their narrative work.
• Furthermore, if student groups are not providing sufficient ideas or collaboration, I will step in
and support the group and help guide them, such as if they need help generating ideas (For
example, “How do you think this made the character feel? What would you do if that
happened? What would be something crazy that could happen? What do you think she would
have done, knowing how she has done things in the past? Etc.”) This equally goes for
suggestions for improvement (For example, “Could you think of a better temporal word here
that will help show the order of events?” Or “Is this how you wanted your story to end? What
about this loose end? It is completely fine if you all did, but did you all want to leave this part
unresolved? I noticed it is not in your closing, etc.).
• This support can later pass into when students revise and edit for their final work, however
during this lesson they will work on the planning process only, with their groups, on the
graphic organizer.

3. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take
brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.
• I will look to see if students gathered information from events in the story in order to create
inferences, leading to new sequenced events in their own narrative story. I will observe to see
if things are placed in the correct provided category.
• These notes from things in the story will be found through their sticky note placement and note
taking practice. I will also go around the room to listen to their rationale of them making
inferences and generating new ideas.
 p. 4

*An assessment data table is at the end of this lesson plan in addition to a rubric to assess their future
narratives*

Instructional Procedures
3 min Lesson Introduction

Step 1: Overview of the Planning Process

Today we are going to work with the story that we read called, “Nina, Nina Ballerina”. What we are
going to do is review the text again and plan out our own narrative story about the book in groups!
Before you work in groups, I will go over how we are going to do this with the planning process and
a graphic organizer! First, we are going to think about the prompt which will guide us into a certain
direction of writing. Then, we will look through the story and take notes on important events and
characters with post-it notes to help us think about how they can support our new ideas for the new
narrative we will write. I will then demonstrate how to use the notes to help plan the writing of the
new narrative. After this, you will have the opportunity to do the same thing with a partner, with a
new prompt!

Step 2: Consider the Question

Okay! So the prompt that we are planning to write about is:

Rewrite the narrative, “Nina, Nina Ballerina” through the point of view of Nina’s mom.

To think about how we would rewrite the narrative from the point of view of Nina’s mom, we first
need to make sure we understand what point of view is. Point of view is the way someone views
something, right? So, we could probably agree that the story is told through Nina’s point of view,
right? We see everything through her viewpoint – how she compares herself to Sara and the other
girls in the dance class, how it makes her feel that she is not chosen to be the queen butterfly, how
she wants to be noticed, how she falls downs and hurts herself, right? It’s all about Nina! But that’s
why this prompt is so interesting, right? Because it’s asking us to re-tell the same story from her
mom’s point of view – so we can be pretty creative with this!

I kind of remember her mom coming into the story at some parts, like when she was talking to Nina
about she felt that she was not picked to be the queen butterfly, then again when she brought her to
the doctor’s office after Nina fell; but we don’t really know what her mom was seeing/feeling about
these events going on because the story isn’t written through her point of view – that’s our job now!
So, we can be really creative – think about how certain events may have made her feel, what other
things she may have been doing, etc. In order to do this we may even have to create inferences and
make a guess on what may have been going on with the help of the background knowledge the story
gives us along with our personal experiences.

This kind of writing is called narrative writing since this is a rewriting of a story. I have so many
ideas already about this prompt! Do you guys? Well, today, we will work together to figure out how
we can organize and plan out all of our ideas with a graphic organizer. These are so helpful! Would
anyone like to share as to why they are helpful? Why would we want to take the time to plan out our
ideas now, instead of just going right into writing out rough drafts?
 p. 5

Exactly! By thinking about all the ideas we have and organizing them in special categories it makes
it very clean, neat, and understandable to help as a reference for when we write our rough drafts.
Especially if you forget something or mess up the order of events, right? That is why these are so
helpful and why we really need to pay attention today as I show you guys, okay? Then you are going
to help each other in groups.

Okay, so, here is our graphic organizer which we will use as our planning tool. You will notice there
are different categories, right? Raise your hands if you see the different categories we will put
information in to help us plan our ideas? Wonderful! Okay can I have some volunteers to name
some of the sections they see? *point to section and different students read the types of sections,
with me explaining their usage in between each*

- Great! This is the ‘Title and by’ section, where you will right your new narrative story title and
who it is by (you!)
- This is the ‘Introduction section’, where you will write something to help you introduce your
story events for when you write your rough draft later. What’s next?
- Amazing! Here *point* is where you would actually write the key events that will happen in
your story.
- Then here in a ‘Closing’ section, where you might write a concluding idea after your key events.
- And these two? Great! This section is the ‘Character’ section where you will write the main
characters you are planning to have in your story.
- And this last section is the ‘Helpful temporal words section’ where we will talk about certain
words you can write to help you later in the writing process to help your rough draft flow better.
Words like first, then, next, etc.! These words also help show what sequence the events happen
in!

Of course, I don’t want to write anything down until I review the book and take some notes with my
post-it notes first, so let’s get to it!

20 Essential Teaching Strategies

min
Step 3: Reviewing the Text and Finding Evidence (13 mins)

Since we did read this story already, but it has been some time, we are going to review it again and
to do so I am going to reread chorally. Then, together we are going to find some examples of
information that we can use to help answer the prompt:

Rewrite the narrative, “Nina, Nina Ballerina” through the point of view of Nina’s mom

To mark some of the examples we find, let’s use our post-it notes! How does that sound? Post-it
notes are awesome because we can stick them on the page and go back to them later and use them to
help us fill out our graphic organizer. Let’s give it a try! Everyone ready? Before we start, what
prompt are we trying to master, again?

Rewrite the narrative, “Nina, Nina Ballerina” through the point of view of Nina’s mom
 p. 6

Beautiful! Let’s begin reading, and I’m going to stop every time I think something sticks out to me
and keep thinking as if I were Nina’s mom – because this is all through her point of view, right?
Let’s see.

*Read pg. 4-5 aloud and model thinking aloud for students*
“Hmmm, that’s interesting. Is this information important? And something I could use in my future
narrative? My prompt is: Rewrite the narrative, “Nina, Nina Ballerina” through the point of view of
Nina’s mom. It says “Every week she [Nina] goes to dance class.” I am wondering, how does she get
there every week? I don’t see anyone in her picture who brought her but I know when I go to my
sports practices my parents usually drop me off. Even though she’s not in the picture on this page, I
can probably infer that Nina’s mom brings her every week, since Nina looks young and probably
can’t bring herself. I am going to write this on my sticky note, Mom drives Nina to her to dance
class every week. Now, this may be wrong, right? Her dad could bring her, or her brother. But since
we don’t know we are going to infer, and remember, since this is our narrative we can be as creative
as we would like while re-telling the story the best that we can so this could work!

Awesome! Let’s keep going and see if we can make any more inferences or spot out any other
events or pieces of information in the story that could help us answer the prompt: Rewrite the
narrative, “Nina, Nina Ballerina” through the point of view of Nina’s mom. Everyone keep their
voices with me and we will work together to pick out the best places for our sticky notes – and
remember: while we do this, if anything is repeated, we don’t need to include it again! For example,
on page 9-10 when Nina’s mom feels bad for Nina and she still feels bad for her on page 24-25, we
don’t need to include it again!

Stopping points –
• Pg. 9 and 10 – Nina is very upset telling her mom that Sara is lucky that her mom will know
it is her right away and Nina’s mom answers her saying, “Do not worry. I will know it’s
you” It doesn’t say in the book, but how do you think hearing this from her daughter makes
Nina’s mom feel? What can you infer? Is there something she will do about it?
• On post it-note: Nina’s mom feels sad that Nina feels like she isn’t noticeable in her
dance. She is so proud of Nina for always practicing and wishes she could help her feel
better.
• Pg. 16 – Nina’s doing a lot here. She is at dance class and pretending she has wings like a
butterfly, and is practicing at school… Where do you think her mom could be during this
time? (Sample answers: “at the market or at home- that’s where my mom usually is when
I’m somewhere else”) These are great inferences, but remember this is our narrative so we
can actually be as creative as we want! Maybe I think about how Nina wants to be a
ballerina so much because her mom is a really good dancer, and maybe she is preforming in
a show on Broadway while Nina is at dance class and school!
• On post-it note: Nina’s mom is dancing on Broadway while Nina is at dance class and
school and when she is practicing very hard.
• Pg. 18 – It shows that Nina is in the park the day before the dance show and in the
illustration on this page Nina’s mom is shown on the bench with a man. Who could this be?
What could you infer is going on here?
 p. 7

• On post it-note: Nina’s mom is meeting with a French baker to tell him to bake a cake to
celebrate Nina after her big dance show to show her how she does stand out and to
celebrate all her hard work and practice.
• Pg. 21 – Nina falls down and hurts herself. What does Nina’s mom facial expression tell
about how she feels right now? How to mom’s usually feel when their kids are hurt or are in
danger?
• On post-it note: Nina’s mom is so worried that Nina fell and hurt herself and wants to call
for help. She worries, “Is everything going to be ok?!”
• Pg. 24-25 – Nina is so upset about her cast and cries, telling her mom she can’t be in the
dance show. How does her mom look in the illustration? What can we infer she is feeling?
• On post-it note: Nina’s mom feels so bad that things haven’t been going well with Nina’s
dance class and mad that another bad thing happened.
• On post-it note: Even though she tried making her feel better (and secretly ordering her a
cake) she doesn’t know what to do now, but is trying to think of something.
• Pg. 26 – Nina’s mom is on the phone with Mrs. Dawn. We can’t hear the phone call but her
mom can – is it easy for Mrs. Dawn to let Nina back into the dance or did it need some
convincing from Nina’s mom?
• On post-it note: Nina’s mom needed to do some convincing and tell Mrs. Dawn about the
hard time Nina has been having with this dance class but how badly she wants to be in it.
Mrs. Dawn finally agrees.
• Pg. 32 – “Can Nina’s mom tell which butterfly is Nina? She sure can!” How do we think
Nina’s mom is feeling right now? Where can we infer she is, in the stadium? Did she bring
any guests with her?
• On post-it note: Nina’s mom is so excited to watch Nina in her dance show. She brought
roses for her and is sitting front row with her phone ready to record. (I can infer this
because my mom always records everything I do that she is proud of me for).
• On post-it note: Nina’s mom invited her friends to come see Nina and the French baker
too.
• On post-it note: She is proud of her daughter who is a dancer like her, and that Nina is
happy too!

Step 4: Organizing Evidence & Completing Graphic Organizer (7 min)

Wow! That was fun! Now what we’re going to do boys and girls, is look at all of our sticky notes –
look at all of our information we collected that was important in the story– and try to organize it into
the correct categories on our graphic organizer. Before, I had some lovely volunteers to help read
out the names of each category and we talked about what to put in each – and now we are actually
going to do that! Remember, our prompt was: Rewrite the narrative, “Nina, Nina Ballerina”
through the point of view of Nina’s mom.

So again, we want to share what is occurring in the story through Nina’s mom point of view – the
actions and events she is going through, her feeling towards the things that occur in the story, etc.
 p. 8

So let’s go through our sticky notes and think. Mmm, now that I look at these sticky notes they seem
to be going in a specific order – the same order of events the story told through Nina’s point of view
is. Maybe I’ll put these sticky notes and arrange them to be the sequence of events in my new story.
Yes, I’m going to do that! *Place sticky notes of events in sequence on the GO* And remember,
these do not have to be in complete sentences! This is just a way to put your ideas down!

Now that I’ve completed my sequence of events category, I want to add in some characters. Well,
what characters are in my story? Of course, Nina’s mom (since it is told in her point of view). And I
know from my sticky notes the characters Nina, Mrs. Dawn, Nina’s mom friends (who came to the
dance show), the French baker (who is baking Nina’s cake), and Nina’s dance class all appeared, so
I am going to write all of them into my characters category!

What other part of the GO can I fill up? Yes, exactly! I can write the title of my new story and my
name next to the word ‘By’, since this is my narrative I am planning to write. When you fill out your
own GO, you will write your name here! Mmm well, I know that I inferred that Nina’s mom was
really proud of Nina for everything she was doing to be better at dancing so maybe I will call my
narrative that is told through the Mom’s perspective: A dancer and her proud Mommy.

Now that I have all of that written down, I want to brainstorm some temporal words for when I write
my rough draft in the future in this box here *points to box*. Does anyone have an idea of why?

Exactly! Because when I do combine all my events in a piece of writing I don’t want them to be
chunky, I want it to run smoothly, right? A nice transition into the next idea. So, doing this, as you
all have said and writing done some transition words in this box will be a nice reminder that I just
have to look at while writing, and I can remember! Specific transition words, called temporal words
help especially when looking at the order or timing events. For example, the words first, next, then,
after, before, for a while, tomorrow, yesterday until, etc.

So now, the only thing left for my planning process is the introduction and closing section! How
could I introduce this book that would flow nicely into the first key event that happened?

Amazing! I could say, “There once was a dancer who had a daughter who also loved to dance!” I am
going to write this in the introduction section. I think this will be a good introduction because it
really introduces the readers and lets them know that it is told through the mom’s point of view since
I wrote ‘daughter’ and because the events that come after talk about her daughter’s dance show!

Does anyone have an idea of a way I could give this story a nice closing? Remember, this is just to
plan out or ideas.- we can change anything on this organizer at any time through our writing process
so don’t worry, this is just an idea of how we can give closure/an ending to this story!
Great job! I might say, “And after the curtains closed, Nina’s mom gave her the biggest hug because
she was the proudest mom in the world! ” This could be a good closing because it closes my last
event of the dance show nicely.

Now that we filled in all of our boxes on our graphic organizer and gave it our best effort, we are
ready to writing our rough draft! But, we’re not going to do that today! Instead, we are going to
practice what we just did together is small groups with a different prompt – do you all think you can
handle that? I do! Let’s give it a go!
 p. 9

15 Student Learning Activities

min Step 5: Collaborative Planning

Alrighty my young authors, now it is your turn! You had a minute to get situated with your partner
each pair was given a graphic organizer to organize their ideas, just like we all did together.
However, you will be working on a different prompt than the one we just did – instead you will
going through the same process to answer the prompt - Rewrite the narrative, “Nina, Nina
Ballerina” through the point of view of Sara, the dancer in Nina’s class.

Now, you all know the rules when working in groups – collaborative working and respect to each
other, okay? I will be walking around making sure you are all following these rules and of course be
helpful in answering any questions you and your group may have along the way.

Remember, the first thing you may want to do is go through the story events and think about how
Sara is being involved in the event or if she is in the event. Do the illustrations show how Sara may
feel about something that is going on? Think about inferences you may make from what is shown in
the story to come up with things to mark with your sticky notes – just like we did! Then, like we did,
take all the sticky notes and see which categories the information from each note can fit under on
your graphic organizer.

Don’t be overwhelmed – it may seem like a lot but we all just did it together and you all did
amazing! So, keep it up! Plus, you have your group members which will all contribute and work
together with you – but remember you are EACH responsible for completing your own graphic
organizer.

*Pass out graphic organizers with the new prompt at the top to each student and a packet of post-it
notes to each group*

2 mins Lesson Closing/Summarizing Strategies [2 mins]

Alright class! We’re just about to run out of time, but I saved just enough to time to say as I was
going around, I noticed you were all working very hard and were asking excellent questions! I loved
the creativity and I cannot wait to read each and every one of your narratives! But before we can get
into the writing the rough draft let’s make sure you have some time to reread your graphic organizer
and finish up any loose ends or thoughts. This will make for writing and revising your rough draft
much smoother! So, go ahead and take 2 minutes to reread and make sure everything looks good for
today!

Thank you all for all your hard work today, you guys did a great job!

Notes:

References
Graham, S., Bollinger, A., Booth Olson, C., D’Aoust, C., MacArthur, C., McCutchen, D., & Olinghouse, N. (2012).

Teaching elementary school students to be effective writers: A practice guide (No. NCEE 2012-4058).
 p. 10

Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education

Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications_reviews.aspx#pubs
p. 11
 Rewrite the p. 12
My Story Title:
__________________________
narrative, “Nina,
Nina Ballerina”
By: ___________________ through the point of
view of Nina’s mom!

Introduction: ________________________
_______________________________________
Helpful Temporal
Words:
•
•
• Key Events (In order):
1. ___________________________
•
• ___________________________
2. ___________________________
___________________________

Characters: 3. ___________________________
• ___________________________
• 4. ___________________________
•
___________________________
•
5. ___________________________
•
• ___________________________

Closing: __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
 Rewrite the
narrative, “Nina, p. 13
My Story Title:
__________________________
Nina Ballerina”
through the point of
By: ___________________ view of Sara, the
dancer!

Introduction: ________________________
_______________________________________
Helpful Temporal
Words:
•
•
• Key Events (In order):
1. ___________________________
•
• ___________________________
2. ___________________________
___________________________

Characters: 3. ___________________________
• ___________________________
• 4. ___________________________
•
___________________________
•
5. ___________________________
•
• ___________________________

Closing: __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
 p. 14

Assessment Plan

CCSS.ELA- CCSS.ELA-
LITERACY.W.3.8 LITERACY.W.3.8
CCSS.ELA-
Recall information Recall information
LITERACY.W.3.3 CCSS.ELA- CCSS.ELA-
from experiences or from experiences
Write narratives to LITERACY.W.3.5 LITERACY.W.3.5
gather information or gather
develop real or With guidance and With guidance and
from print and information from
Standard imagined experiences support from peers and support from peers and
digital sources; take print and digital
or events using adults, develop and adults, develop and
brief notes on sources; take brief
effective technique, strengthen writing as strengthen writing as
sources and sort notes on sources
descriptive details, and needed by planning. needed by planning.
evidence into and sort evidence
clear event sequences.
provided categories. into provided
categories.
Gathering of Group placement
information of of sticky notes in
events from the the story as well as
Students are actively
story through categorizing of
Students are listening working and
communication of sticky notes out of
to the planning process collaborating to plan
group members the story (to put in
as modeled by the their new narrative in Final written work
What to thinking and correct sections of
teacher and are groups of 3 – they are will be evaluated with
Observe making inferences their GO).
engaged/ask questions having good rubric.
about the how the
they may have during conversations and
character (of POV
the modeling. asking any questions if
they are writing
they need to.
about) may see,
feel, or act in the
event/situation.

Student 1

Student 2
 p. 15

Student 3

Student 4

Student 5

Student 6

Student 7

Student 8

Student 9

Student 10

Student 11

Student 12

Student 13
 p. 16

Student 14

Student 15

Student 16

Student 17

Student 18
 p. 17

Rubric to Evaluate Students’ Written Narratives

For each domain, rate the student’s summary on a 3-point scale:
0= Not at all
1= Partially
2= Effectively
Establishes a Organizes a Uses temporal Provide a sense Recall
situation and sequence of words to signal of closure information
introduces a events that unfold event order from
narrator naturally experiences or
and/or gather
characters information
from print and
digital sources
Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

Student 5

Student 6

Student 7
 p. 18

Student 8

Student 9

Student 10

Student 11

Student 12

Student 13

Student 14

Student 15

Student 16

Student 17

Student 18