Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Note: I "test-drove" this Focusing Question, and was pleased to see that it worked, so I think it will work for students.

Teacher joey hawkins
Writing genre response to text

Topic / Subject / Text

“A Christmas Truce” by Aaron Shepard (Reader’s Theater)

CENTRAL IDEAS

Content: People’s beliefs can influence their behavior in extraordinary ways.

Reading: Re-reading and paraphrasing help build deep understanding of text.

Writing: To write effectively in response to text, we choose evidence from the text thoughtfully and explain its relationship to the focus of the writing.

Focusing Question

How did the arrival of Christmas Eve affect the fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in December, 1914?

Focus (answer to focusing question)

The arrival of Christmas Eve caused the troops on both sides to treat each other with
friendship and good will.

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft

• use atlases to find Western Front
• background on World War I (brief)
• vocabulary: trench warfare, No Man’s Land
• read twice before focus, small theater groups
• paired reading aloud
• note-taking on Christmas trees, 2-column notes

Structures

• model paragraph, which includes context, paraphrased evidence from notes, explanation relating evidence back to focus
• previous structures already used in writing responses to text (summary intro, focus, body paragraphs with supporting evidence, conclusion)

Model Evidence Paragraph “The Christmas Truce”

The first sign that Christmas Eve might change life for the soldiers, causing them to treat each other with good will, was the sight of tiny lights across the mud of No Man’s Land between the two rows of trenches. The shooting had stopped for the moment, but the British soldiers were in their trenches, afraid the Germans would attack. Suddenly, they saw lights.
The author writes, “Clusters of tiny lights were shining all along the German line, left and right as far as the eye could see” (p. 2)
Those lights turned out to be Christmas trees. Those trees show that the Germans were expressing the spirit of the season. Even though the German soldiers were armed, even though they had been fighting to kill just hours before, they chose to do something different. The Christmas holiday has traditionally been one of peace and good will, and the German soliders cared about Christmas. They were reaching out to their enemy in peace.
N.B. This model is a "chunk" - part of a full piece. Sometimes, probably more often in fact, models are full pieces.

Writing / Revising

• have students write summary introductions in class, share before going on
• continue writing in class, stopping to share and get feedback on body paragraphs with evidence
• stop for discussion again before writing conclusion so all students have a chance to process the “so what” conclusion (“So, what does this event show about the power of belief systems to influence people’s behavior?”)

Lesson Sequence

• use atlases to identify countries involved in WWI
• map Western Front, share photographs of no-man’s-land between trenches
• read script on Christmas Truce aloud to students
• have students partner read script
• introduce focusing question, “How did the arrival of Christmas Eve affect the fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in December, 1914?”
• as group, develop focus in response to question, something like “The arrival of Christmas Eve caused the troops on both sides to treat each other with friendship and good will.”

• in pairs, have students go back to text, paraphrase evidence from text to support focus, put on graphic organizer note templates (visible thinking – first little Christmas trees, then notes sheet)
• each pair of students share evidence on note templates, discuss as we go
• introduce model using one of the pieces of evidence – students read aloud in partners,
underline words in explanation which tie back to focus

• write in chunks, stopping to share as we go
• stop for discussion, new notes before writing “so what” conclusion