How Writer’s Work- Narrative

In the How Writers Work unit of study, students will understand the writing process and get to know how and why writers write in the ways they do. Students will find out all of the different reasons why we write and have the opportunity to build their own writing identities. The books in the study will help students read closely, think about the authors’ purposes, and understand them as people as well as writers. The texts span multiple genres, styles, structures, and themes. The topics will allow students to connect to the authors’ experiences and share their own.

Students will:

• Use mentor texts as inspiration for writing
• Recognize different purposes for writing
• Reflect on their own writing identities
• Understand the purposes of the various writing process stages
• Create a published piece of writing using the stages of the writing process

Author Study (Patricia Polacco)- Narrative

In the Author Study unit of study, students will explore the work of Patricia Polacco who is a consummate storyteller who draws upon family history and ritual for many of her tales. Her books center on the stories she learned from her family. Her books appeal to both young and more advanced readers because they contain a mixture of text and abundant illustrative support that will encourage them to read deeply and reflect upon the many issues addressed. Students will connect to Polacco’s choice of topics represented in this unit. She will help students discover that the world around them is full of opportunities to explore, question, ponder, and investigate not only within their own communities but also within the community of the world, past and present. Polacco shows us that writing to think, question, learn, and honor is something we should do every day.

Students will:

• Identify how Patricia Polacco uses her life experiences, curiosity, interests, and observations about the world around her to generate ideas for writing
• Begin to use what they have learned from Polacco as inspiration for their own writing and drawing, as evidenced in their final pieces
• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions on grade 3 topics and texts
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details, and clear event sequence
• Focus on verbs and verb tense, capitalization, dialogue, prepositional phrases, text layout, sentence structure, text features, nouns, conjunctions, apostrophes and commas

Nonfiction- Informational

In the Literary Nonfiction unit of study, students will be introduced to the purpose, style, and structure of the literary or narrative nonfiction genre. The books chosen for this unit offer excellent examples of how a variety of fact-based texts can be conceptualized, organized, developed, revised, and published. In this unit students will discover the features of nonfiction writing, including that nonfiction is fact based, has an informative purpose, uses data and specific details, involves and compiles research, uses graphics and other visual aids, and employs content-specific vocabulary. Students will also explore their own interests, passions, and areas of expertise to generate ideas for writing.

Students will:

• Read nonfiction texts and contemplate the author’s process and type of research that went into creating a published piece
• Explore different nonfiction topics through reading, asking questions and having collaborative discussions
• Select and focus on a nonfiction topic to examine and develop
• Develop a topic with facts, definitions and concrete details
• Introduce a topic clearly and group related information into paragraphs or sections
• Provide a concluding sentence or section that relates to the information presented and is modeled after a mentor text
• Strengthen their writing as needed by planning, revising and editing
• Use technology to research and publish their writing
• Publish a nonfiction piece of writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to the writer’s purpose and audience
• Focus on verbs and verb tense, capitalization, prepositional phrases, text layout, sentence structure, text features, nouns, conjunctions, apostrophes and commas

Biography-Opinion

In the Biography unit of study, students will form opinions about the various people studied based on the accomplishments and attributes discussed. Students will explore the features of biographies and examine the differences and similarities between these features and how they influence readers. Students will also see how different biographers present the important events, accomplishments, struggles, and character traits of a person’s life, as well as how they use word choices and tone to convey their admiration for and opinions of the people they write about. The biographies selected for this unit give students a chance to explore inspirational people who lived during various time periods, came from different cultural backgrounds, and had various influences on a variety of topics and/or issues such as sports, politics, human rights, the environment, literature, and more.

Students will:

• Learn about many influential and historical subjects and understand the time in which they lived and what they accomplished
• Form opinions of the various people studied based upon the accomplishments and attributes discussed
• Support their point of view with reasons, facts, and details
• Understand the purpose and structure of a biography
• Conduct research to build knowledge on their subject and develop their biography with information from various sources
• Include facts and details to support their opinion and inform readers
• Publish a biography of a subject of their choosing, which includes planning, researching, drafting, revising, editing and publishing
• Focus on verbs and verb tense, capitalization, prepositional phrases, text layout, sentence structure, text features, nouns, conjunctions, apostrophes and commas