Skills Unit 2 Teacher Guide - EngageNY

Making a Draft
• Remind students of the three steps in the writing process—plan, draft, edit.
Tell students because they have already planned, today they will take the next
step in the writing process and write a draft.
• Tell students they will draft their book report in paragraph format.
• Ask students to open to Worksheet 12.1.
• Review and record (on the board or chart paper) the writing steps for their
first draft.
• Tell students the first thing they need to write on the draft is the title. Have
them point to the line where they will write the title for their book reports on
Worksheet 12.1. Tell students a good title for a book report can be the title of
the story, e.g., “The Hare and the Hedgehog.”
• Tell students the first sentences of the book report should introduce the main
character(s) and the setting (specifying where and when it took place). They
should also share the genre of the story (which is done for them on their draft
worksheet).
• Tell students they will next write about the plot of the story, including the
beginning, middle, and end. Tell students they can look back to Worksheet
11.3 to help them write these sentences about the plot.
• Remind students they need to include their opinion or impression of the story.
• Tell students the ending sentence of their book report should summarize what
the report was about and let the reader know the narrative is finished.
• Remind students that when writing:
• A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
• The first sentence of a paragraph is indented, i.e., it starts a bit further to
the right than the other sentences in the paragraph.
• Writing needs to have linking words to describe the sequence of events
(first, next, then, last, etc.). Encourage students to use these words when
writing about the plot.
• Encourage students to look back in their Readers and to use the Individual
Code Chart when writing.
• Divide students into groups so they can begin writing their book reports.
Unit 2 | Lesson 12 111
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