How Writer’s Work- Narrative

This unit was created to introduce students to writing workshop, to the writing process, and to getting to know why writers write in the ways they do.

Students will:

• Think about what authors and illustrators are thinking and feeling when they write and draw
• Notice how authors incorporate personal experiences, emotions, and details to enhance readers’ experiences
• Focus on

Personal Narrative- Narrative

In the Personal Narrative unit of study, students will tell the big and small stories of their lives. Personal narratives are typically the easiest, most natural form of writing for children because the stories are already complete inside their minds, which enables the words to flow more easily onto the paper. It is this easy flow of words that supports students’ efforts to produce a complete piece of writing.

Students will:

• Recognize that personal narrative writers draw on their personal experiences and interests to generate ideas for writing
• Discover features of personal narratives and identify them in the literature they read
• Utilize various narrative techniques when composing their own personal narratives
• Select one story idea to focus on, develop, and publish
• Use a combination of drawing, dictation and writing to narrate an event
• Focus on text layout, capital letters, sentence structure, descriptive adjectives, and ending punctuation

Nonfiction All-About Books

In the Nonfiction All-About Books unit of study, students will create “All-About” texts which allows students to take the information they know, gather some new “research,” and teach someone all about a topic of interest. Students love to learn new information and share it with their friends, family and teachers. The information they know and the facts they learn are what have inspired the Nonfiction: All-About Books unit.

Students will:

• Name the function and features of nonfiction all-about books
• Consider various topics about which they could write an all-about book and choose one to focus on
• Gather information from various sources to answer questions and reach readers about a particular topic
• Recognize the purpose of all-about writing and its effect on readers
• Publish a nonfiction all-about book using the stages of the writing process
• Focus on text layout, capital letters, sentence structure, descriptive adjectives, and ending punctuation

Fiction With Book Review

In the Book Review unit of study, students will not only enjoy many popular pieces of fiction but also form opinions about the books they have read. In their book reviews, students will describe the book they have read, offer an opinion about that book, supply a reason to support their opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

Students will:

• Identify and discuss specific qualities or characteristics of books they love to read
• Read and explore essential components of book reviews
• Determine the author’s main ideas or messages from books they read
• Analyze and discuss the opinion section of a book review
• Include a clearly stated opinion and supply reasons to support that opinion in their book reviews
• Analyze the recommendation sections of sample book reviews
• Think about their audiences and messages when writing a clear recommendation that promotes their books
• Edit their reviews to make sure that spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization and tense are correct
• Use digital tools and other media to enhance the look of their reviews
• Learn about themselves as readers and writers by listening to, discussing and writing book reviews
• Focus on text layout, capital letters, sentence structure, descriptive adjectives, and ending punctuation