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    What Should I Write About?

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    Subject: ELA (English Language Arts)

    Lesson Length: 30 - 45 mins

    Topic: Brainstorming Writing Topics

    Grade Level: 4

    Standards / Framework:

    Brief Description: Students will generate ideas for a personal narrative writing topic.

    Know Before You Start: This lesson is a great way to help students brainstorm topics for a personal narrative writing piece. Students will need to have an understanding of the characteristics of a personal narrative.

    Hook:

    • Read and discuss the sample comic. What are some of your favorite things? 

    • Have students create a list of their favorite things or memories to help select a topic for writing a personal narrative.

    Activity:

    • Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a three-to-four-panel comic to generate topic ideas for a personal narrative. 

    • Encourage students to think about their favorite hobbies, interests, or memories, etc. 

    Closure:

    • Ask students to reflect on the ideas generated and select one topic to begin writing their personal narrative. 

    • You may want to have students share their comics with a partner and discuss the topics generated.

    Differentiation:

    • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
    • Allow students to work in pairs or groups as needed.

    • Create a thinking web of ideas as a whole group.

    • Allow students to work with a peer model to generate ideas.

    • Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.

    Resources:

    Suggested Content Packs:

    Suggested Story Starters:

    Related Ideas

    Passion Project

    Students will create a comic to demonstrate their understanding of a topic of their choice. They will conduct basic research for this project.

    Would You Rather?

    Play a game of Would You Rather to create opinion comics with your students.

    Prove It!

    Students will learn to support a point of view.