Before you teach — read this first

Grade 6 · Lesson 3 — Checked and kept

Unit 0 · notebook · blocked · 30 minutes · 16 slides · Launch → I do → We do → Read → You do → Closure
The language behind this lesson — read this before you teach it.
CHECKED AND KEPT

What it is. A notebook is only worth keeping if nothing has been removed from it.

Why our test works. Children tear pages out to hide work they are ashamed of, which is exactly the work most worth keeping — a corrected error is evidence of learning and the page it was on is the one they should revisit. Framing the check around FUTURE USE rather than neatness removes the shame from the decision.

Leans on. Grade 4 established the skipped line.

Watch for. Missing pages. Ask about them without making it an accusation.

What this lesson is

Maintain the page standard independently. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher shows an exemplar and a weak page and asks for the difference. The class reads Writing Book 6, p.42 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.

Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“A record kept honestly is worth more than one kept flatteringly.”
A different reason every lesson, on purpose. It is not on a slide and it is not a script — if you have a better reason today, use yours. What should land is the idea, not a sentence they can recite.
How it goes

You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.

Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher shows an exemplar and a weak page and asks for the difference. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.

The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class names three faults in the weak page. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.

They open Writing Book 6 to page 42 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.

Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Complete a full page and self-check.

You close on the exit direction — Hand in with your checklist. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Read it back. Fix in the skipped line. Never tear a page out.

Exit directions — in full, standing still, before anyone moves
Notebook and pencil · Heading first · Complete a full page and self-check.
Watch for

Missing pages. Ask about them without making it an accusation.

As-Suffah Academy · Writing · narrative brief