Writing Units of Study

Writing Unit: Bringing History to Life

In this unit, students will write informational texts on the American Revolution. They will first write an overview of the American Revolution and draft chapters on one focused subtopic of their choice (i.e. the Boston Tea Party or Boston Massacre). At the end of the unit, they will have created a four-chapter book!

Writing Unit: Literary Essay Writing

This unit, The Literary Essay: Writing About Fiction, brings the work of opinion writing and narrative writing full circle. As students build on their learning of essay writing and apply it with increasing sophistication to a unit on literary essays—that is, writing about fiction.

Writing Unit: Opinion 

In this unit, students will learn to write well within an expository structure. Building off the third-grade unit, students will learn a variety of more sophisticated strategies for introducing their topics, providing reasons to support their opinions, and elaborating on those reasons with facts and details. 

Writing Unit: The Arc of Story: Writing Realistic Fiction

This first unit parallels the reading lessons taught in the first reading unit. The goal of this writing unit is to create a realistic fiction story. Students will have lots of writing time practicing the skills taught in the minilessons. They will create and develop stories and characters that feel real, draft and revise with an eye for believability, and prepare for publication with an audience in mind.