Writing assignment

Prerequisite Skills

· Identify the characteristics of an effective retelling/recounting of events from a story.

· Understand the difference between a central idea and key details in a story.

· Understand that the theme is the lesson or moral that the writer wants to get across in his or her story.

Key Terms (vocabulary)

Definition

Student-friendly language

· Central idea

· Theme

· Key details

· The most important or central thought of a paragraph, or larger section of a text, which tells the reader what the text is about.

· The subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person’s thoughts, or exhibition; a topic.

· Important pieces of information that support the main idea of a text

· The author’s purpose for writing the story.

· The big idea of the story.

· The most important words in a story or text.

Key Verbs (skills)

Definition

Student-friendly language

· Recount

· Retell

· Determine

· Summarize

· Tell someone about something; give an account of an event or experience

· Tell (a story) again or differently

· Cause (something) to occur in a particular way; be the decisive factor in

· Give a brief statement of the main points of (something).

· To tell all about the story or text

· Tell the story in your own way.

· To guess what the story is about.

· To tell about the story using a few words.

“I Can” statements in student-friendly language

· I can determine the theme of a story.

· I can understand the difference between the theme and details in story.

· I can identify the characteristics of an effective summary for a story.

· I can summarize the story by including the theme and how it is connected through key details.

Essential Questions

· How are themes and key details related in a story?

· Why are themes and key details important in a story?