INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING TEMPLATE

Overview and Context

Your name(s): Sarah Schaefer

Grade level and school: Kindergarten at Wines Elementary
Title of lesson/activity: Writer’s Provide Reasons to Support Their Opinions
Teaching date(s) and time(s): March 8th – Afternoon
Estimated time for 15 minutes
lesson/activity:
Overview of lesson: Students will learn how to add reasoning to their opinion
statements. Students will learn that they can use the word
‘because’ to give their reasoning after their opinion
statement. Students will then practice adding reasoning when
answering a new writing prompt.
Context of lesson: Writing an opinion with reasoning to support it, focusing on
the word ‘because’
Sources: - Curriculum Resources

Alignment of Learning Goals, Assessments, Activities

Connection to Learning Goals Assessment Brief summary of

Standards aligned activities
W
​ .K.1. Use a Students will be able to The writing Students will be
combination of use a combination of worksheet will given various
drawing, dictating, and drawing, dictating, and showcase students writing prompts
writing to compose writing to compose an ability to draw, that have to do
​opinion pieces in which opinion writing piece. (S) dictate, and write an with things they
they tell a reader the opinion statement. like to do at recess.
topic or the name of Students will have
the to give their
​book they are writing opinion using one
about and state an of the sentence
opinion or preference stem structures we
about the learned about as
​topic or book (e.g., My well as give at
favorite book is . . . ). least one reason as
to why their
opinion is what it
is.
W.K.8. With guidance Students will be able to The writing
and support from use prior knowledge to worksheet will tell if
adults, recall develop an opinion and the students uses
information from reasoning behind it. (S) their prior
experiences or gather knowledge of the
information from characters.

University of Michigan, Elementary Teacher Education Program page 1 of 6

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2014 and beyond Rev. August 2018
provided sources to
answer a question.
L.K.1. Demonstrate Students will be able to The writing
command of the print many upper and worksheet will
conventions of standard lower case letters. (S) showcase students
English grammar and ability to print upper
usage when writing or and lower case
speaking. letters.

EEL.K.2. Demonstrate Students will be able use The writing

emerging emergent writing skills worksheet will
understandings of when writing their showcase which of
writing. opinion and reasoning. these skills the
(S) students have and
a. Capitalize the first where there can be
word in a sentence and improvements/more
the pronoun I. instruction.

b. Recognize and name

end punctuation.

c. Write a letter or
letters for most
consonant and
short-vowel sounds

d. Spell simple words

phonetically, drawing
on knowledge of
sound-letter
relationships.

L.K.6. Use words and Students will be able to The writing

phrases acquired use vocabulary such as worksheet will
through conversations, ‘because’ to give showcase students
reading and being read reasoning behind their ability to use the
to, and responding to opinion. (K) word because to
texts. give reasoning
behind their opinion.

Attending to the Learners

Anticipating student ideas: - Students will have an understanding of what an

opinion is and will have practiced writing opinion

University of Michigan, Elementary Teacher Education Program page 2 of 6

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2014 and beyond Rev. August 2018
Explain what you think will be statements using sentence stems for two days prior to
students’ prior knowledge about this lesson. These skills will not be solidified in
the content, including the students but there will be previous knowledge.
alternative ideas or challenges - Students will be responding to the prompt: Who is
you anticipate students might your favorite character? Piggie or Elephant?
face and how you plan to work - Students have a lot of background knowledge
with each of these challenges on these books and should be able to come up
during the discussion. Also with at least one reason as to why their
explain your ideas about how opinion is what it is.
students are likely to respond to - Students are only expected to come up with
the tasks in the discussion and one supporting reason for this writing piece
how you might use these likely but I anticipate there will be some students
responses to focus students on who do more.
the intended content.

Making the content - The prompt for this writing activity is something that
accessible to all students: all the students in the class will have background
Explain what you are doing to knowledge on. We have spent many days in class
consider how to make the task reading Piggie and Elephant books as a whole class
and the work make sense and and individually.
make it possible for different
students to get into the work.
Identify particular
students/groups of students and
what you are paying attention to
in terms of access as you plan
the lesson.

Anticipating issues that could - This lesson contains things that students will most
arise that might serve to likely have background knowledge about or have seen
reproduce patterns that before.
marginalize some groups of - I will continue to work on calling on a variety of
students: Identify things you students who have a wide range of ideas.
are doing specifically in this - Allowing extra support for students who need it so all
lesson to counter particular students are able to complete the activity for the day.
patterns that are prone to
marginalizing with respect to
particular groups of students.

Instructional Sequence

Materials: -Slides
-Writing Sheet

University of Michigan, Elementary Teacher Education Program page 3 of 6

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2014 and beyond Rev. August 2018
Time Steps Describing What the Teacher and Students Notes and Reminders
Will Do (including management
considerations)
Introduct The teacher will: - Students will be seated
ion/Instr - “We have been working on writing opinions in their carpet spots
uction and for the last few days we have practiced - Remind students of
writing with our sentence stems. Can I have rug rules throughout
a few friends help me read our sentence the lesson.
stems? What is one of them? What color is - If necessary, table
that sentence stem?” spots where the board
- I like, I like ____ better, My favorite, is visible can be used if
or ____ is the best! students are having a
hard time focusing on
- “Let’s look at this example: ‘I like dogs the lesson.
because they are cuddly and they can do - Students who have
cool tricks.’ Can anyone tell me what assigned table spots
sentence stem they used for their opinion may sit on their table.
that tells us it’s an opinion?” - Ask students to tell the
- “Another thing that’s great about this class what the
opinion is that it gives us a reason WHY that sentence stems are.
is their opinion and they use the word Make sure to have
‘because’ to do it. The word ‘because’ is them identify the
helpful to use when we want to give the sentence stem and
reason why we feel a certain way about what color it is so that
something. Can everyone say the word you know they are
‘because’?” identifying the words.
- “Do you remember when we learned about
the difference between facts and opinions?
Facts are true statements about a topic. We
can use facts as reasons to support our
opinion statements.”
Guided - “Let’s look at a few examples of how people - Call on variety of
Practice wrote their opinions and then added students
reasons to support it.” - Go through two
- “I like winter. Can anyone tell me how they examples of good
know this is just an opinion?” opinions with
- “What sentence stem did they use?” reasoning as a class.
- “I like winter because I can play in the - call on a variety
snow.” of students in
- “Who can remind me of the order for all to
important word in the middle that get practice.
helps us share our reasons why? - When practicing
Can you underline it?” adding reasons to the
- “Let’s look at another one. Dogs are the opinion statements it
best pet. What part of this tells us it’s an will probably be best
opinion? What word?” to type in student
answers or write them

University of Michigan, Elementary Teacher Education Program page 4 of 6

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2014 and beyond Rev. August 2018
 - “Dogs are the best pets. This is because yourself on the board
they are cuddly and soft.” to model writing.
- “Who can remind me of the
important word in the middle that
helps us share our reasons why?
Can you underline it?”
- “We are going to read some more opinions
together and come up with one reason why
someone might feel the way they do. I will
read some or I may ask some of you to help
me read.”
- “Fruits are better than vegetables.”
- “Think of a reason why someone
might think ice cream is the best
dessert.”
- “What word should we use to add our
reasoning?”
- “because”
- “Fruits are better than vegetables
because…”
- “Who has a reason why this might
be the case?”
- Add students' ideas.
- “Pigeon is the best Mo Willems character.”
- “Think of a reason why someone
might think Pigeon is the best
character.”
- “What word should we use to add our
reasoning?”
- “because”
- “Pigeon is the best Mo Willems character
because…”
- “Who has a reason why this might
be the case?”

The students will:

- Participate in class lesson
- Understand how an opinion statement is
written with reasoning to back it up
- Be able to come up with reasons to support
opinions

Indepen The teacher will: - Reteach students who

dent - “Today you are going to get the chance to need extra help
Time write your own opinion with ONE reason - Use the sentence stem
about some characters that are very familiar chart for a visual for
students.

University of Michigan, Elementary Teacher Education Program page 5 of 6

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2014 and beyond Rev. August 2018
 to our classroom. Can anyone guess who
they are?”
- “You are going to write about who you think
is the best Mo Willems Character and tell us
why using at least one reason.”

The students will:

- Complete writing activity:
- Recess prompts

Post Teaching Reflection:

How students’ learning in this instance of instruction will shape the

planning and enactment of a subsequent lesson

How will the assessment data you - Looking over students writing from today will
gathered from this lesson inform your help see how quickly we can move on to
planning and enactment of a subsequent writing more than one opinion. Many
lesson? students were able to think of reasons why
during the lesson verbally and I saw many
put it into writing. The next step for all
students is to emphasize how adding
reasons makes our opinions more convincing
and continue to work on the vocabulary of
our sentence stems and the word ‘because.’
Based on what you observed about - My goal is to always give my students time
students’ social, emotional, and academic to share and express their ideas and
needs during this instance of instruction, opinions. My students are the most engaged
what is one goal you have for your when they get to express themselves and
emerging practice? come share the pen.

University of Michigan, Elementary Teacher Education Program page 6 of 6

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2014 and beyond Rev. August 2018