Writing with 4 Square Organizer

Engage

I would start the lesson by reading the students a passage from a popular book they might be reading in 5^th grade.  Students would brainstorm what it is that makes the story a good piece of writing.

Modification - I would start this lesson by posting a passage from a popular book on voicethread.com.  Students would be asked to respond with why they think the passage is a good piece of writing.

http://voicethread.com/#home

I have had great success using voicethreads with students.  I think using this as an introduction, rather than simply reading a passage, creates a much better introduction.  The kids are pulled into the lesson with more enthusiasm and their motivation is higher.

After discussing some of the elements of good writing with students thinking would shift a bit to the writing process and what an author must go through to produce good writing. 

Essential Questions: 

When is a graphic organizer helpful? 

When does a graphic organizer lead to confusion?

What is needed in a writing graphic organizer to help me write a 5-paragraph essay?

Explore

In small groups kids will use computers to analyze a variety of graphic organizers.  Each group’s task will be to determine when the graphic organizer they look at would be appropriate to use.

http://www.edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm - just one of many websites available with a variety of graphic organizers

Essential Questions:

Is the graphic organizer I am looking at appropriate for a specific content area?

Are some graphic organizers appropriate for multiple content areas? 

Would this graphic organizer help organizer thoughts into an essay with 5 or more paragraphs?

Explain

Students will synthesize the results of the graphic organizer search and share their findings with each other.  The goal set for students would be to note any pieces from the organizers to looked at worthy of keeping or using to build an organizer for an essay.

Essential questions: 

What did the organizers have in common? 

How were the organizers different from each other?

What common traits to graphic organizers have that are helpful for writers?

Elaborate

This is the part of the lesson that is a bit tricky.  Students have been discussing what they would like in a graphic organizer up to this point.  Here they will be given an organizer called the 4-Square. 

Students are given the 4 square graphic organizer and a choice of 3 sample essays.  The assignment is to work backwards – plug the appropriate material into the organizer using the sample essay chosen by the student.

Evaluate

Students will now pair up with a classmate who has chosen the same sample essay.  The job of each group will be to check the work of each other.

Below is a link to a rubric that can be used assess cooperative skills:

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=CustomizeTemplateDownloadFile&

Examples of questions they can ask each other:

A)    What do you think about the hook the writer used?

B)    What did decide is the main theme of this paper?

C)    Did you find a topic sentence for body paragraph #1?

D)   How many supporting details did you find?

E)    What sensory words did the writer use?

F)    Did the writer include a well-written conclusion?

Following their work together, each group would submit a graphic organizer to the teacher for him/her to look over.

Below is a link to a rubric that can be used to assess how well students work backward from the sample essay they choose:

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=CustomizeTemplateDownloadFile&

Extend

There are a couple of possibilities to extend this lesson.

A natural extension of this lesson is for students to work with the graphic organizer as their starting point, rather than backward from a sample essay. 

Modification - Those students choosing to use the 4 square graphic organizer can write online by using the following website:

http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/cc/4square/writingsquares4.asp

This change to the original lesson plan is worth considering because it likely increases student motivation simply because they can use word processing instead of writing.  A glitch to be considered here is that the writing cannot be saved, only printed.

It is also a possibility to allow kids to create the organizer before using it as a writing tool. 

This free website allows kids to create their own diagrams.  This link takes you to a quick sample diagram.

https://cacoo.com/diagrams/q9Y4umuz7XoeJrlM

This website would take students a bit of time to register for when they use it the first time.

I wish I would have tried this with my 5^th graders a few years ago.  I believe it would have helped them better learn the specific parts of the 4 square model because they would have built it themselves.

Another place for discussion here is to compare and contrast the 4-Square with other writing organizers students liked.  Students should be given the freedom to adapt this 4-Square organizer to one that really works for them.  It is important to note that students should be able to justify reasons for adaptations.