ELA Curriculum
Writing
Students are currently working in our Narrative Writing Unit. They have learned that a personal narrative is a story written about an event that has happened in their lives. We are working on zooming into a small moment in time and using details and description to turn it into a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. Students will be developing a seed idea and taking it through the writing process.
Strategies for Writing Good Personal Narratives
Close your eyes and make a movie in your mind of a small moment.
Zoom in on the most important part of the story.
Focus in on exact details and specific words rather than general sentences.
Leave out parts that don’t matter.
Storytell the events in your story step-by-step across your fingers or use a timeline.
Tell the inside story by including your thoughts, feelings, and responses to what is happening.
Begin with a strong lead – action, setting, description, dialogue, or thoughts.
Close with a strong ending – action, dialogue, thoughts, images, and whole-story reminders that make a lasting impression.
Reread your story to a partner or through a stranger’s eyes, look for confusing parts, and revise for meaning.
Reading
In reading, we are currently helping our students to build a reading life. We know that children will be creating reading identities, assuming roles within the classroom community, and we want to do everything possible to lure children to take on the role of being powerful, avid readers. We have been discussing ways to be accountable and monitor our ability to understand what we are reading. Students learn to take on the role of active problem solvers when they encounter places of difficulty and learn new vocabulary from their books. To conclude our unit, students will read, think, and write about books in the company of others. They will learn to recount stories to their partners.
We have recently started the text Third Grade Angels and will be moving onto the text, Because of Winn Dixie. We encourage you to ask your child about these and other texts read daily in the classroom.
