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Lesson Plan

Why Transition? by ECSDM

Subject

English Language Arts (2005), English Language Arts (NYS P-12 Common Core)

Grade Levels

Intermediate, 7th Grade

Description

In our fast-paced and always rushed world, we often don't clarify as well as we could. People are often confused by conversations, and conflicts occur as a result of miscommunication. As teachers, we transition our students from one activity to another so they are engaged and understand their learning activities. Transitions are necessary in our everyday conversations, our daily activities, but especially in our writing. During this lesson, students will become familiar with transitions and why we use them so they can be implemented in their future writing activities.

Objectives

1. Individually, students will initially create a descriptive paragraph and later revise the paragraph with transitions to increase sentence fluency and organization.

2. As a whole group, students will take notes and explore a SMART Board presentation by highlighting noteworthy clauses and by completing an interactive transition activity.

3. Independently, students will practice improving a piece of writing by filling in the blank with appropriate transitions.

Duration

This lesson will take one forty-five minute period. Although reviewing the homework assignment could be used as a lead in for class the next day. Students may wish to share their paragraph before and after transitions with partners or to the whole class. The teacher could instruct the students to listen for transitions and ask what transitions they heard used successfully.

Materials

The students will need their notebooks, a copy of the two transition worksheets, and the transition rubric. The teacher will need the following materials: SMART Board, LCD Projector, Laptop, Internet Explorer, SMART Board software, and Transition presentation.

Transition Worksheet (whole group)

Transition Worksheet (fill-in-the-blank)

Transition Presentation

Web Resources

Transition Resource

Scholastic mini-lesson on transitions

Procedure

When the students enter the classroom, they will complete the Do Now, which is always located on the chalkboard.
The Do Now reads “Please clear off your desk except for your notebook and a writing utensil. Then copy down your homework into your passport.”
The homework reads “Add at least 6 transitions to your writing-a-paper paragraph.”
As each student completes the Do Now, the teacher should place the transition worksheets face down on their desks.
The teacher should then instruct the students to write a descriptive paragraph on the process of writing a paper.
Since each writer works at their own pace, the teacher should remind students that when they finish to attempt the questions on the front.
Next, as a class, students will expand their understanding through a SMART Board presentation.
Students will highlight important and key information on the SMART Board and will write down the highlighted information in their notebooks (Slides 2, 3 and 5).
The teacher should read aloud Slide Four to illustrate how a missing transition can cause confusion, and discuss with students other possible transitions.
Students should also copy down the list of commonly used transitions, and identify the appropriate transition using context clues (Slides 5 and 6).
As a whole group, students will practice transition selection and location with an interactive learning activity, and record their answers on the front of their worksheet (Slide7).
Independently, students will add transitions from a word box to their second worksheet, which is a fill-in-the-blank paragraph about writing a paper.
As a class, volunteer students will read the paragraph with the correct transitions in place.
Finally, the teacher will ask the class to revisit their writing-a-paper paragraph and find 6 transitions to implement in their writing. The teacher should also remind students that work not completed in class is already assigned for homework.