This lesson includes scaffolded analytical writing tasks that provide examples for teaching Common Core writing.

The main character, Leigh Botts, has been writing to an author and keeping a journal for several years. He enters a writing contest at school with a story he wrote about his father, who he rarely gets to see, and gets to meet a famous author who encourages him to keep writing. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Reading, 2005)

This lesson was created as part of the Basal Alignment Project, during which teachers created CCSS-aligned lessons for existing literary and information texts in basal readers. All page numbers and unit/week designations found in this lesson relate to the edition of the basal reader named above. If you are using a trade book or different edition of this title, the page/unit/week references in this lesson will not match. Consult the content referenced in the body of the lesson to determine appropriate page numbers for your text.