MINI LESSON: Slice of Life

Slice of Life

Overview: Students will practice descriptive writing by focusing on a slice from their everyday lives.

Objectives:

• I can choose a small moment or detail (slice) from my everyday life.
• I can use details to bring my writing to life and engage an audience.

Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.3

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.4 

Materials:

• One to one devices
• An experience to write about

Lesson Outline: 

• Part One: Explain and Model the Activity

• Explain to students that they will be focusing in on a small moment (slice) from an experience in their everyday lives. Students can choose any experience they want. The experience can be big or small, but should be interesting with memorable details that the student is motivated to share.
• Once students have decided on the experience or detail they want to focus on, they should begin to focus on even smaller, important details within that experience.
• If you’d like to show students an example, share how this student wrote about someone who has made a difference in her life, this example of how a student got her name, or how this ELL student shared what her hijab means to her.
• If you’d like to reference a mentor text written by a teacher, this is a great example about a smell related to a happy memory.
• Consider writing a whole-group mentor Post in front of/with the class to model the thinking and writing strategies. Share the Post to your Class Group and use the ‘Feature’ pin button to pin it to the top of the feed as a reference for students.

• Part Two: Write! 

• Provide idea generation time where students write down a list of possible topics or they browse Ideas on Write About. It may be helpful to brainstorm ideas together as a class, as well as checking out this gallery full of Slice of Life Ideas!
• If you want to narrow down their choices, share specific Ideas to their Home page and/or to your Class Group in the “Featured” area. Set a time limit where students need to make a selection by.
• Allow students to write about their slice of life in detail for an allotted period of time.
• Monitor progress, provide encouragement and conference with students as needed.
  
  
• Part Three: Share and Comment
  
  
• Students Publish completed writing to the desired privacy level and select an audience to share with. By sharing to the “Classmates” level and selecting a Class or School Group, their local peers can read and comment.
• If they are proud of their writing and want to share to the global Write About community, they might consider the Storytellers Group to share to.
• Students can leave Comments on Posts from their classmates, offering positive feedback and/or suggestions

Enrichment/Extensions:

• Students can use the audio feature to record their dialogue and even dramatize it! Read/Listen to a student mentor post with dialogue recorded- press the ‘play’ button at the bottom of the Post.

Accommodations:

• Create a custom Idea which uses the Description area to provide step-by-step instructions or links to instructional references (ie skill videos, visual aids, etc) specific to your class needs.
• Use the audio tool to record instructions when creating the Idea. You can read the Idea and Idea Description text out loud so students can listen and replay them as needed.
• Modify the lesson to include small groups and be sure to follow provided personalized accommodations based upon any student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).