Lesson 21: Timed writing About this lesson Students engage in a timed writing about “To Build a Fire” by Jack London to determine a theme and analyze how it is developed throughout the text. This timed writing is a good opportunity for teachers to determine students’ strengths and weakness with writing to inform future writing instruction.

We finished reading “To Build a Fire” by Jack London and analyzed how the author developed a theme in the text. Let’s Review! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute Directions: Briefly review the previous learning.

Today we will: Conduct a timed writing in response to a prompt about “To Build a Fire.” Let’s Prepare! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute Directions: Read the slide. Briefly explain how this lesson prepares students for another lesson and/or the end-of-unit assessments. Throughout the lesson, compare students’ responses and work to the student look-fors. Determine the students who need additional support with reading, understanding, or expressing their understanding of complex, grade-level texts. During this lesson or before the next lesson, support those students individually or in a small group using the Additional Supports for Diverse Learners.

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London You will need: “To Build a Fire” by Jack London Your split-page notes for “To Build a Fire” Notebook paper Let’s Prepare! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~ 3 minutes Directions: Distribute the text. Ask students to locate their copy of the text and their split-page notes: “To Build a Fire” handout. Ask students to locate notebook paper or distribute notebook paper using an established classroom routine.

Determine a theme of “To Build a Fire” and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot. Cite textual evidence to support your response. Let’s Discuss! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~3 minutes Directions: Read the prompt on the slide. Explain to students that today they will complete a timed-writing in response to this prompt. They can use the text and their split-page notes: “To Build a Fire” handout to write their essay. Additional Notes: Students have been preparing to write this essay in the lessons leading up to this lesson. As this is the first essay writing task in this unit, use this task as a way to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses in writing and organizing an essay.

How do you organize your essay? Introduction: Brief summary of the story Thesis: Your claim and reasons in a sentence which addresses the prompt Body paragraphs: One paragraph explanation for each reason with supporting evidence Conclusion: Restatement of your claim Let’s Discuss! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~5 minutes Directions: Briefly explain to students how to organize an essay. Share the painted essay structure as one way to help them plan and organize for their essay by talking through each of the colors of the essay. For example: Say: “The first paragraph of your essay is the introduction. This is written in red because, like the color, it should grab your reader’s attention and prepare them for what they will read in your essay.” Say: “The green underneath the red represents the thesis statement, which is made up of your claim and reasons. This will be the last sentence of your introduction. The thesis tells your reader the specific idea you will develop and support in your argument. Your claim should include two reasons, which will become the body paragraphs of your essay. These are represented by the yellow and blue boxes.” Say: “Each body paragraph will include the reason (that comes from the thesis), relevant evidence (at least 2 pieces), and an explanation that shows how this supports the reason and connects to the thesis.” Say: “You can see the first sentence of the second body paragraph has a yellow box around it. This represents that you will need a transition statement that connects ideas between body paragraph #1 and body paragraph #2.” Say: “Finally, an essay will have a conclusion paragraph that should restate the claim, and flow from the essay to leave a lasting impression with the reader in support of your argument.” Additional Notes: As needed, provide a model of an already written essay (using the content from the completed split-page notes for “To Build a Fire”) and color code the sections or have students color code the sections to show how each part is built out.

“To Build a Fire” and analyze its development over the Determine a theme of “To Build a Fire” and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot. Cite textual evidence to support your response. Let’s Express Our Understanding! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~35 minutes Directions: Set a timer for 35 minutes and ask students to write their essay in response to the prompt on the slide. Project a digital timer so that students can monitor their time as they work. Give students warnings of how many minutes they have remaining in increments of 10 minutes or 5 minutes. Periodically circulate throughout the class to make sure that students are on task. If students finish early, they should read over their work and correct mistakes. Ask students to turn in their essay using an established classroom routine. Possible Supports During the Lesson: If students need support developing a thesis, provide them with a thesis frame, such as “In ‘To Build a Fire,’ Jack London develops the theme ______________ through __________________________ and __________________________.” Use this time to work individually with students or pull together small groups of students to conduct a writing or grammar mini-lesson. This can also be done as a whole class if additional writing support is needed for all students. Choose an approach that matches the level of support your students need. Possible approaches for mini-lessons: Engage in shared writing Model using student examples or mentor texts Revise a portion of writing together focused on a specific skill Consult the ELA Guidebook Grammar Guide and the WriteAlong lessons to target a skill or concept Student Look-Fors: Access an analytical writing rubric scoring tool. Use the information from the rubric to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses with writing and organizing an essay to know how better to support students with their writing in the next section and later in the unit.

You also practiced organizing an essay. In this lesson, you wrote an essay analyzing the development of a theme in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. You also practiced organizing an essay. Let’s Close! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute Directions: Read the slide.