Teacher Script: Your Words, Your Power

Warm-Up: Brainstorm Blitz! (5 minutes)

"Good morning/afternoon, writers! To get our brains warmed up, we're going to do a 'Brainstorm Blitz.' I'm handing out a sheet for you. On this sheet, you'll see a topic: 'My Favorite Season.' For the next three minutes, I want you to write down every single idea, word, or phrase that comes to mind when you think about your favorite season. Don't worry about spelling or grammar right now; just let your ideas flow! Go!"

(After 3 minutes)

"Time's up! Great job getting all those ideas out. We'll come back to why this was important a little later."

Introduction: Why Writing Needs Power (5 minutes)

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 1)

"Take a look at our first slide: 'Your Words, Your Power!' Today, we're going to talk about something super important for every single one of you, whether you love writing or find it a bit tricky: making your writing powerful!"

"Think about a time you tried to explain something, but the other person didn't quite understand. Maybe your words weren't clear enough, or you forgot an important detail. Has that ever happened to anyone? Show of hands."

(Allow a moment for students to respond and share brief examples if time permits.)

"Exactly! Our words are how we share our thoughts, our stories, and our knowledge with the world. And just like a superhero needs to train to be strong, our writing needs to be strengthened to be truly powerful!"

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 2)

"Every writer, no matter how good they are, wants their message to be clear, exciting, and easy to understand. How do we do that? We use our writing superpowers! Today, we're going to learn about three main superpowers: Planning, Revising, and Editing. These three steps help us take our good ideas and turn them into amazing writing!"

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 3)

"Remember our warm-up just now, the Brainstorm Blitz? You were just letting all your ideas out for 'My Favorite Season.' That's actually the very first step to powerful writing: Planning! Before we even write a single sentence, it helps to think about what we want to say."

Mini-Lesson: Planning, Revising, Editing in Action (10 minutes)

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 4)

"Let's dive into our first superpower: Planning, also known as pre-writing. Just like building a house needs a blueprint, or baking a cake needs a recipe, good writing needs a plan! Planning means:

• Thinking about your ideas before you write.
• Organizing what you want to say so it makes sense.
• Deciding your main point or what you want your reader to know."

"Why is planning important? Who can tell me?"

(Elicit responses: helps organize, don't forget ideas, makes writing easier.)

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 5)

"Our second superpower is Revising. This word literally means re-seeing your writing. It's about making your ideas stronger and clearer! When you revise, you're not just looking for tiny mistakes. You're asking big questions about your writing, like:

• Does it make sense to the reader?
• Did I include enough interesting details?
• Could I explain this part better?
• Are my sentences interesting, or do they all sound the same?"

"Revising is about improving the content and flow of your writing. It's like adding more paint to a picture or making a story more exciting!"

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 6)

"Let's look at a quick example of revising. Here's a very simple sentence: 'The dog ran.'

How could we revise this sentence to make it more interesting, more detailed, or clearer? What kind of dog? Where did it run? Why?"

(Elicit student suggestions and show Revision 1 and 2 on the slide. Discuss how the revisions make the sentence stronger.)

"See how much more information and imagery those revised sentences give us? That's the power of revising!"

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 7)

"Our third superpower is Editing. Editing is like being a careful detective looking for small mistakes! This is where we make sure our writing is polished and perfect for our readers."

"When you edit, you look for things like:

• Spelling errors (Are all the words spelled correctly?)
• Punctuation (Did I use periods, question marks, and commas in the right places?)
• All capital letters in the right places (Did I start sentences with capitals? Are names and places capitalized?)
• Grammar mistakes (Do my sentences sound grammatically correct?)
• Sentences that sound right (Are there any run-on sentences or incomplete sentences?)"

"To help us remember these, we can think of the acronym S.P.A.G.S. – Spelling, Punctuation, All Capitals, Grammar, Sentences. I'm going to hand out a Revising & Editing Checklist Worksheet that uses this. We'll go over it together."

(Distribute Revising & Editing Checklist Worksheet. Review each point on the checklist, explaining briefly what students should look for.)

Guided Practice: Sharpening Our Sentences (7 minutes)

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 8, or write the paragraph on the board)

"Now, let's practice our superpowers together! On the screen, I have a short paragraph. As a class, we're going to use our Revising & Editing Checklist Worksheet to make this paragraph stronger and clearer."

"Let's read it first: 'The cat sat on the mat. it was furry. It liked to nap.'"

"First, let's think about Revising. What big changes could we make? Does it make sense? Are there enough details? How could we make it more interesting?"

(Guide students to suggest adding details about the cat, its fur, why it liked to nap, etc. Write down their suggestions or make changes directly on the board/slide.)

"Great ideas! Now that we've made our ideas stronger, let's become detectives and do some Editing using our S.P.A.G.S. checklist. What small mistakes do you see? Spelling? Punctuation? Capital letters? Grammar?"

(Guide students to identify the lowercase 'it' at the start of the second sentence, potentially combine sentences, and check for any other errors. Make corrections.)

"Look at how much better that paragraph is now! You all did an amazing job planning, revising, and editing to make it super clear and interesting for the reader."

Cool-Down: One Thing to Remember (3 minutes)

(Display Your Words, Your Power Slide Deck - Slide 9)

"Fantastic work today, everyone! As we wrap up, I want you to think about all the amazing things we learned about making our writing powerful. I'm handing out an exit ticket called 'Cool-Down: One Thing to Remember.'

"On this ticket, please write down ONE important thing you will try to remember the next time you plan, revise, or edit your own writing. This could be anything from our checklist, something we discussed, or an 'aha!' moment you had. Your one important thing."

"Please hand me your exit ticket on your way out/when you're finished. This will help me see what stuck with you today. Great job, writers!"

Warm-Up: Brainstorm Blitz!

Instructions: Your teacher will give you a topic. For 3 minutes, write down every idea, word, or phrase that comes to your mind about that topic. Don't worry about spelling or grammar, just get your ideas out!

Topic: My Favorite Season

Ideas:

Revising & Editing Checklist: Make Your Writing Shine!

Instructions: Use this checklist to make your writing the best it can be! Check off each box as you review your work or a partner's work.

## Part 1: Revising (Making Your Ideas Stronger)
(Remember: Revising is about the big ideas!)

* [ ] Clarity: Is my main idea clear? Does it make sense?
* [ ] Details: Did I include enough interesting details and examples?
* [ ] Flow: Do my sentences and paragraphs connect smoothly? Are they in a good order?
* [ ] Word Choice: Did I use strong, descriptive words? Can I replace any boring words?
* [ ] Completeness: Did I answer all parts of the prompt or share all I wanted to say?

## Part 2: Editing (Fixing Small Mistakes)
(Remember: Editing is about the small fixes!)

* [ ] Spelling: Did I check all my words? (S.P.A.G.S. - Spelling, Punctuation, All Capitals, Grammar, Sentences)
* [ ] Punctuation: Did I use periods, question marks, and commas correctly?
* [ ] All Capitals: Did I start sentences with capital letters and capitalize proper nouns?
* [ ] Grammar: Do my verbs agree with my subjects? Do my sentences sound correct?
* [ ] Sentences: Are all my sentences complete? Do they make sense?

Cool-Down: One Thing to Remember

Instructions: Before you leave, think about what we learned today about making our writing powerful. Write down ONE important thing you will try to remember the next time you write.

My one important thing to remember about planning, revising, or editing is: