Writing

 Lesson  Plan:  Beauty  in  the  Struggle  

 
Briana  Reid  
 
Readiness  
I.   Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)  
•   Goal(s)-­‐  The  Students  will  be  able  to  identify  the  positive  parts  of  the  struggle  in  
real  life  situations.        
•   Objective(s)-­‐  The  students  will  be  able  to  explain  how  they  find  the  positive  parts  
and  beauty  in  the  hardest  of  struggles  by  writing  a  short  story  that  represents  
their  own  personal  struggle  and  the  beauty  they  found  in  it.    
•   Standard(s)-­‐  6.W.3.3-­‐  Write narrative compositions in a variety of forms that
•   Engage and orient the reader by developing an exposition (e.g., describe
the setting, establish the situation, and introduce the narrator and/or
characters).
•   Organize an event sequence (e.g., conflict, climax, resolution) that unfolds
naturally and logically, using a variety of transition words, phrases, and
clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or
setting to another.
•   Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to
develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
•   Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory
language to convey experiences and events.
•   Provide an ending that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

II.   Materials:  
•   Writing  prompt  
•   Pencil  
•   Paper    
III.   Anticipatory  Set:  
•   I  will  talk  about  a  struggle  that  I  had  with  not  making  the  softball  team  my  Junior  
year  in  high  school  after  playing  my  whole  life.  I  will  tell  them  of  the  struggle  but  
then  point  out  that  because  of  not  being  on  the  team,  I  was  able  to  invest  in  
other  areas  such  as  friends,  family,  school,  and  mentoring  younger  students  in  
my  youth  group.      
IV.   Purpose:  “Today  each  of  you  are  going  to  write  about  a  struggle  in  your  life.  We  are  
writing  about  these  struggles  so  that  we  can  find  the  positive  parts  and  the  beauty  in  
those  situations.  This  will  help  in  future  hard  times  because  you  will  be  able  to  find  
something  positive  that  came  of  it.”    
Plan  for  Instruction  
•   Adaptation  to  Diverse  Students-­‐  
o   In  the  grand  conversation,  discuss  the  definition  of  struggle  and  give  some  
examples.  Students  with  an  IEP  will  be  given  guided  worksheets  to  further  help  
them  with  understanding  the  prompt  and  how  to  write  their  short  story.      
 •   Lesson  Presentation  (Input/Output)  
o   I  will  read  a  short  story  about  my  struggle  that  I  personally  wrote.  
o   I  will  ask  the  students  to  write  down  a  few  ideas  and  give  them  about  two  
minutes  to  do  so.    
o   I  will  direct  the  students  to  pick  one  of  the  ideas  they  wrote  down  and  begin  to  
brainstorm  on  their  paper  what  they  want  to  write  about.    
o   The  students  will  be  at  their  desk.  
o   The  students  will  then  begin  to  write  their  story.  
o   Whatever  the  students  don’t  finish  in  class  will  become  homework.    
•   Check  for  understanding:  
§   The  students  will  have  the  option  to  read  their  story  and  share  it.    
§   If  the  students  do  not  want  to  read  their  story,  I  will  read  it  outside  of  
class.    
§   The  students  must  follow  the  prompt,  find  the  positive  in  the  struggle,  
and  write  a  short  story.    
•   Review  learning  outcomes/closure-­‐    
o   Closure-­‐  Asking  questions  such  as  
§   What  did  you  like  about  writing  your  own  story?  
§   What  was  difficult  about  it?  
§   What  was  easy  to  do?  
§   What  did  you  like/dislike  about  it?  
§   How  will  this  experience  affect  future  struggles?    
o   Assessment-­‐    
§   I  will  assess  the  students  based  on  the  completion  of  the  story,  the  depth  
of  their  thinking  in  the  story,  and  the  understanding  of  the  prompt.      
Reflection  and  Post-­‐Lesson  Analysis  
1.   How  many  students  achieved  the  lesson  objective(s)?  For  those  who  did  not,  why  not?  
2.   What  were  my  strengths  and  weaknesses?  
3.   How  should  I  alter  this  lesson?  
4.   How  would  I  pace  it  differently?  
5.   Were  all  students  actively  participating?  If  not,  why  not?  
6.   What  adjustments  did  I  make  to  reach  varied  learning  styles  and  ability  levels?  
a.   Bloom’s  Taxonomy  
b.   Gardner’s  Multiple  Intelligences