Students begin with narrative writing to quickly boost their writing production, to learn the foundational skill of Focus and to become comfortable with the key classroom habits and routines they will use all year. After exploring how specific details allow them, as writers, to communicate the emotion of the “characters” in their own experiences, students apply this level of analysis to determining the narrator’s perspective .

Writing Productivity: Grade 8 students are expected to produce a minimum of 140 words during the 10- to 12-minute writing activities.

Focus: Focused writing clearly develops one moment, one topic, or one idea. Unit A targets this skill, which will be foundational for students’ ability to write well-structured arguments and analyses in later units.

Targeted Feedback: Teachers will provide regular, targeted feedback for each student’s writing .