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Writing Unit #2: The Literary Essay
Writing Unit #2: The Literary Essay
Essential Questions:
Essential Questions:
How do writers compose strong literary essays?
How do writers elevate the complexity of literary essays?
How do writers compose compare and contrast essays?
Priority Standards:
Priority Standards:
Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.
Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
Supporting Standards:
Supporting Standards:
Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 6 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
ELA Learning Expectations:
ELA Learning Expectations:
Curiosity-The desire to know more about the world.
Openness-The willingness to consider ways of being and thinking in the world.
Engagement-A sense of investment and involvement in learning.
Creativity-The ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating and representing ideas.
Persistence-The ability to sustain interest in and attention to short-and long-term projects.
Responsibility-The ability to take ownership of one's actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others.
Flexibility-The ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.
Metacognition-The ability to reflect on ones own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural process used to construct knowledge.
National Council of Teachers of English & National Writing Project (2011)
Concepts & Skills:
Concepts & Skills:
Bend I
Students will be able to:
write a flashdraft of a literary essay within the given time
grow big ideas from details and characters
write to discover what a character really wants
craft a claim supported by evidence
convey evidence in a variety of ways (summarizing, storytelling, quoting)
study a mentor text to construct a literary essay
revise essays to be sure you analyze as well as cite text evidence
Bend II
Students will be able to:
identify themes within a text and craft more precise claims
write a flashdraft of an essay using all the techniques that they have learned
craft a powerful opening statement and conclusion
identify and utilize powerful quotes with accuracy
Bend III
Students will be able to:
begin building and utilizing strategies to writing a compare and contrast essay
identifying themes across multiple texts
apply work they have done in previous lessons to revise their work
identify run-on sentences and fragments
Instructional Strategies:
Instructional Strategies:
Reading Workshop to include a daily mini lesson (15 min), writing time and share. Reading time will include small group work, individual convergences, peer editing/revising.
Mini-lesson will include anchor texts and provided strategy notes to develop reading anchor charts.
Options for publishing throughout the unit
Reader's Workshop
Mini-lessons
Guided reading groups, working on fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, word work, written response.
Partner reading / Turn and talk
Independent active engagement
Sharing
(Learning activities, labs, etc.)
Assessments:
Assessments:
(At this time, include the names/types of Comprehensive Course Assessments, School-wide Analytic and Course-Specific Rubrics)
Character Essay
Theme Essay
Compare and Contrast Essay
Argumentative Checklist
Argumentative Rubric
Resources:
Resources:
Lucy Calkins Personal Narrative Curriculum Guide, Mentor Text, and Charts (copyrighted)
Short Stories:
"The Three Little Pigs"
"Raymond Run"
"The Gift of the Magi"
"Everything Will Be Okay"
"Freak the Geek"
"Your Move"
"Stray"
"Eleven"
"Tied to Zelda"
"Inside Out"
"Popularity"
"The Jacket"
"Pink and Say"
"Scout's Honor"
"The Circuit"
"To Build a Fire"
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