Students begin with narrative writing to quickly boost their writing production, to learn the foundational skill of Focus and to become comfortable with key classroom habits and routines they will use all year. Then, students apply their new observational focus to some lively readings from Roald Dahl’s memoir, Boy: Tales of Childhood, and learn how to work closely with textual evidence.

Texts

• Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

• EXTRA: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

• EXTRA: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Skills and Content

Character and Narrator: Observe how an author creates a character

Writing: Focus on a moment in the text and develop a unique perspective about it

Text Structure: Sensory and figurative language