Prewriting Your Great Story!

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Preparing for playtime on a cold winter day, planning a trip, and other activities you enjoy doing require planning.

Your family may take care of most of this planning, but it’s fun to be involved in the decisions that are part of this preparation. Let’s say for example, you and your family members are planning to go on a trip. This trip can be to anywhere you’d like.

• To go on this trip, you will need to prepare some items, correct?

• What would you have to prepare to go on this trip?

You may help gather the directions to the destination, decide what to pack for the trip, and more!

• What if you didn’t prepare anything and just went to your destination?

You probably wouldn’t enjoy the trip as much as you would if you had prepared! For example, you may not have packed the correct clothing or followed the correct directions to get to your destination.

The same thing happens when you are about to write! You need to have an idea and a plan of what you are going to write before you write! This preparation helps you write a message that is organized and fun for the reader to enjoy.

Prewriting means you create a plan to write your essay, book, story, or whatever writing piece it may be. This is the first step in the writing process. The steps for prewriting include:

1. Choose a topic. We suggest that you choose a topic that is interesting to you!
2. Think about the information your audience needs to know.
• Who is your audience, or who will be reading this piece of writing?
• Are you writing to your mom or dad?
• Are you writing to a friend?
• What kind of information do they need to know that will help them best understand what you are trying to tell them about your topic?

3. Collect information about your topic. Research books, websites, and other resources to help you gather information about your topic. You may even find that your own memories, experiences, ideas, and imagination are all you need for some types of writing.
4. Organize your information. To best organize your thoughts, it’s always good to put them in some sort of order and write them on paper! You may choose to write an outline to organize your thoughts, draw pictures about your topic, or can create a bubble or cluster map.

Here is an example of a bubble or cluster map:

• Which strategy may work best for you?

Give each a try or pick one to use next in the Got It? section.