Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Reading with a Writer’s Eye Lesson # 01 This lesson will teach students that one way writers make writing powerful is by emulating narrative writing we admire. Materials: “Eleven” red-sweater excerpt on chart, “Eleven” student copies, “Papa who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark” student copies for homework Anchor Chart: Lessons from Mentor Personal Narratives, other personal narrative books,
Connect Teach
Discuss the recent publishing experience Teaching Point (TP) Writers emulate each other by searching for an appropriate mentor text, experiencing the text, and then reading as a writer for techniques used in the text. Read “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros as a mentor text of narrative. (pg 4 -5). Model the experience of the story by acting out small parts. Model thinking like a writer as you point out what could be useful in a future narrative you write.
Engage
Pull out the techniques that are used in the mentor text “Eleven”
Link
Send students off to write and try some of the techniques
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Homework
MidTeaching Point: Reread text to examine more closely how an author uses techniques previously identified.
Pass out “Papa who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark” and have students mark up the text with what they notice about it.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Starting With Turning Points Lesson # 02 In this lesson you’ll remind students to use strategies they already know for generating narrative writing and introduce a new way-first times, last times, times of important realizations.
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Teach
Discuss what was noticed in Eleven and Papa story from yesterday
Teaching Point (TP) Use turning points moment/personal narrative writing topics.
to
generate
small
Specifically: Students learn to list turning points in their lives to use as story starters. Listing Firsts, Lasts and Ah-ha moments. *Key to teaching before, middle and end story concepts. e.g. My first day as a teacher. The last time I petted my very old and sick dog. The lesson I learned about giving gifts that matter to the people they are intended for. Engage
Lead students in generating a list of these turning point moments for their writers’ notebooks.
Link
Send students off to continue listing first times, last times, turning points Have students share with their writing partners and add more to the lists. Students should choose one idea and start writing.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point Homework
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point: Writers Plan. Students should look over what they have written and what their ideas and utilize a graphic organizer or planning box to plan their next piece. Writer’s notebooks-record little things that happen in your life today.
Students should still be using all of the strategies from book 1-timelines/story arcs, step by step showing/not telling, conventions, etc. Hold them accountable. Planning boxes require students to look at the anchor charts and task charts from book 1 and make a planning box of what they need to do next.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Starting With Strong Feelings
Lesson #
03
This lesson will teach students that writers can generate personal narrative writing by choosing a strong feeling and writing the story of one particular time feeling that feeling. Connect
Discuss some turning first times/last times from yesterday
Teach Teaching Point (TP) Use emotions to generate story ideas Specifically: Students learn to list items that evoke a feeling that may lead to a story topic (hope, fear, worry, joy, etc.) *Key to teaching analytical story writing/reading. e.g. Worry The time I knew my mom had gone to see the doctor. The time a report card came in the mail. The time the phone rang and I felt it would be bad news. Engage
Lead students in generating a list of these emotional moments for their writers’ notebooks.
Link
Students will continue to create lists and then write a story or add on to a started story.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Homework
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point: Remembering to Paragraph. Review when to use paragraphs in narrative writing When a new character comes along When a new even happens; new idea is introduced New setting New person speaking Time moves forward or backwards Notebooks: Take a topic from your life (hair, pet, relative, etc.) Create a timeline of things that happened with that topic. Choose one dot on timeline and write about it.
Daily Grade: Set an expectation for the amount of writing you expect students to be generating- quantity and quality
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Yesterday’s Revisions Become Today’s Standard Practice Lesson #
04
In this lesson you will guide students to set goals for the quality of their narrative entries by using all they have learned so far. Connect
Teach
Discuss different ways to get ideas for stories, share that sometimes looking back at writing can help too. Teaching Point (TP) Reviewing our own writing teaches us the ideas that we’ve mastered. Those skills now become part of our drafting, not revising. Share a story about a child that has successfully examined their own writing to identify how far they have come as writers. Lead students in examining their own writing.
Engage
Students take a piece that they have already revised or finished and examines it for lessons they have already mastered Students create a list of what they have learned in their notebooks. Goal Setting with students.
Link Tell students that from this day forward they need to take action in their writing to insure that what they have learned appears in their writing. Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point: Remembering to Paragraph. Review when to use paragraphs in narrative writing Check current writing for paragraphs using chart from yesterday.
Homework
Notebooks: Take a topic from your life (hair, pet, relative, etc.) Create a timeline of things that happened with that topic. Choose one dot on timeline and write about it.
Mechanics-collect student papers today and notice their use of mechanics. Create groups based on the following: Second language learners
almost all correct mechanics
Lots of errors
Common mistakes, but about 80% correct
When conferring, meet with groups to work on mechanics this week-differentiates!
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Listening for Significance in Seed Ideas Materials: Checklist for Monitoring My Writing Progress
Lesson #
05
Connect
Review what you saw students doing with writing yesterday.
Teach
Teaching Point (TP) Listening deeply to the seed idea of a piece is one way to help a writer develop an idea into story. Share a story about a writing conference you had where you listened and demonstrated listening through support, empathy and forming connections (as appropriate) so the writer could verbally draw out his story as part of planning.
Engage
Lead students in listening to each other. Students listen to each others’ stories and help each other draw out the internal story.
Link Invite students to tell the internal story today. Student choice activity Students revise and continue to write deeper stories.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point: Drawing on Strategies. Remind students to look over their pages of notes regarding how to develop seed ideas.
Homework
Notebooks-collect details to help you write your personal narrative seed idea chosen today. Observe and really pick out details to include in your writing.
**It is time to begin assessing your students. Look for ways to guide them towards a completing draft for you to look at. Make a rubric for expectations: Ideas-seed story, step by step, show not tell; organization-lead/conclusion; voiceinternal story; word choice-interesting words; sentence fluency-variety; conventionsword wall words, spelling the best you can, and appropriate capitals/punctuation If most of the class is still writing summary writing rather than a narrative with a character progressing through a sequence of events, spend the next week showing students how to plan and write with the story arc. Use new mentor texts. Then asses again.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Writers Ask, “What am I Really Trying to Say?”
Lesson #
06
In this lesson, you will teach students that writers always consider what their stories are really about, since this decision guides all choices in crafting and revising narratives. Materials: “Eleve” excerpt again, monitoring my writing checklist Connect
Review what you saw students doing with writing yesterday.
Teach
Teaching Point (TP) Student will learn how to focus in on the most important message of their story. This will develop theme or big idea of their stories. Tell students they must learn to answer the question “What am I trying to say in this story”. Re-read sections of the mentor text Eleven
Engage
Identify through discussion the big idea that Sandra Cisneros was writing about.
Link Invite students to find the big idea in their writing. Student choice activity Students revise and continue to write deeper stories.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point Homework
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point: Angling Teach students through examples that word choice influence the point of view and message of a piece.
Notebooks- write a new story
**Continue to encourage students to complete a draft for assessment. It is time to begin assessing your students. Look for ways to guide them towards completing a draft for you to look at.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Studying and Creating Leads
Lesson #
07
Materials: Owl Moon, other books with interesting leads, story on chart Connect
Remind students/help them recall the types of leads they already know how to write.
Teach
Teaching Point (TP) Looking at mentor texts can help students to draft and revise leads. Read leads from mentor texts for more ideas. Highlight what the author did (technique) with what they could have done. Chart these responses.
Engage Link
Mid Workshop Teaching Point Homework
Create chart that contains the author’s lead that the class identifies from the mentor text, and the technique used. Invite students to write their own lead that mimics what was done by the author. Mid-Workshop Teaching Point: Elaborating on Important Parts teach students to make choices about what they stretch out. Make sure that it is important to the big idea they are writing about.
Leads search again. Look for 3-4 different interesting leads. Choose a story in your notebook and try out a similar lead.
**Plan to take a daily grade soon–leads tried or have students go on a hunt and create their own chart of types of leads. You could have students try 3 different leads for several of their stories and circle their favorite one per story.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Telling the Story From Inside It
Lesson #
08
Materials: draft on chart, Qualities of Good Personal Narrative Writing Anchor Chart (started earlier), Homesick by Fean Fritz, story samples Connect
Review what you saw students doing with writing yesterday.
Teach Teaching Point (TP) Writing from the narrator’s point of view. Tell a story that requires you to maintain the perspective of the narrator even if you want to go deeper into another point of the story. Students listen to the story and provide a thumbs up or thumbs down as the narrator’s perspective stays or changes during the story.
Engage
Students practice telling a story (orally) to a friend who monitors their narrator’s perspective.
Link Students can copy their leads and begin writing from their narrator’s perspective
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Asking ourselves if our details ring true. The writers should focus on real details that they experienced or saw during the moment.
Homework
Reread entries in notebook and visualize the story. Sticky note any parts that need more details.
Possible grading opportunity: Ideas, organization
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Bringing Forth the Internal Story
Lesson #
09
Materials: “Eleven” on chart, Passage from Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henke chapter 11, examples of writing Connect
Discuss length of their stories
Teach
Teaching Point (TP) Writing both the internal and external story. Explain that sometime our focused stories are really short. To lengthen them and explain the significance we need more than just the actions of the story, we need the thoughts and feelings that the characters experienced with these actions. Read a mentor text (Eleven) and discuss the internal story.
Engage
Link
Mid Workshop Teaching Point Homework
Read an excerpt of Olive’s Ocean pg 106 (or other book of choice) and instruct students to listen for the internal and external story. Students relay the events in order (external then internal). Invite students to tell the internal and external part of their story. Students work on individual pieces of writing at various stages of the writing process. Mid Teaching Point: Read another student’s efforts at telling the internal story of a piece.
Notebook-reread your draft and find the heart of the story. Check for thoughts and feelings. Add if needed.
During the writing/monitoring time keep a log of student conferences and look for growth or trends in their writing.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Adding Scenes From the Past and Future
Lesson #
10
In this lesson you will teach students that writers use scenes from the past or future to bring out the internal story and add power to their personal narratives. Materials: “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark” by Sandra Cisneros, Timeline for Papa story, examples of narratives that show back and forth time. Connect
Discuss what they have been trying in their writing.
Teach Teaching Point (TP) Writers use scenes from the past or future to bring out the internal story and add power to their narrative. Share writing by professional and student writers that show both imagined future events and remembered past events. Engage Students listen to the story and participate in a discussion of the many ways and reasons an author chooses to use this strategy. Link Invite students to try telling a scene from the past or flash forward to the future. Students work on individual pieces of writing at various stages of the writing process.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid Teaching Point: Using flashback to convey the main feeling of a piece
Homework
Try adding “I remember…” to a part of your story to go into the past.
During the writing/monitoring time keep a log of student conferences and look for growth or trends in their writing.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Bringing Forth the Story Arc Lesson # 11 In this lesson, you will teach students that one powerful way to revise their narratives is to bring out the story structure. Materials: Peter’s Chair by Exra Jack Keats, Shortcut by Donald Crews, Anchor Chart: How Stories Tend to Go, story example with story structure, story mountain for Peter’s Chair. Connect
Discuss planning tools used in writing
Teach Teaching Point (TP) Teach students that their narratives should follow the story structure. Make reference to other planning tools you have provided (maps, timelines, etc). Review stories’ basic story structure by reading Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats Guide students through the moments of a story: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution Engage Create an arc of the story, asking students to provide the events as you place them along the arc. Link
Have students choose a piece of writing and create a story arc for the events in the story. Students work on individual pieces of writing at various stages of the writing process. Students revise their writing by creating a story arc and then revising that arc.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid Teaching Point: Developing Story Mountains. Point out that it may be easier to start the story close to the action/problem so that the mini-stories you write get to the point quickly.
Homework
Choose a story from your notebook and plan the story mountain for that story. If it is missing parts, put them in the mountain plan, you can always add more to your story.
During the writing/monitoring time keep a log of student conferences and look for growth or trends in their writing.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Ending Stories
Lesson #
12
In this lesson, you will teach students that writers don’t just end stories, they resolve problems, learn lessons, and make changes to end them effectively. Connect
Discuss story arc and the way stories unfold across the arc
Teach Teaching Point (TP) Teach students that we don’t just end stories we resolve problems, learn lessons and make changes to end them effectively. Share several possible endings to a story that you may have been working on. Engage Students listen to the story and participate in a discussion of the endings and help to determine which could be the best solution. Link Students work on individual pieces of writing at various stages of the writing process. Students revise their writing by creating a powerful ending to their story arc.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid Teaching Point: Developing Story endings. Brainstorm with students possible endings for one child’s paper.
Homework
Reread story and make any changes to story. Read it aloud and make sure it sounds great.
Take a grade: Story Planning-story arc, lead, conclusion.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Editing: The Power of Commas
Lesson #
13
In this lesson, you will teach students about punctuation, commas in particular, by looking at mentor texts. Materials: books with commas, chart: Examples of Commas in Mentor Text/What Does the Comma Do/Using the Comma in My Writing Connect
Discuss hard to read writing. Make a chart of expected conventions for your grade level.
Teach Teaching Point (TP) Set students up to learn about punctuation, commas in particular, from writing they admire. Set up an exploratory chart for punctuation study Model a few examples Engage Provide examples of text that use commas in different ways. As a group complete a comma inquiry Link Students work on individual pieces of writing at various stages of the writing process. Students edit and revise their text to utilize this new punctuation appropriately.
Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Mid Teaching Point: Discuss comma use in the students’ own papers.
Homework
Final fix ups of writing.
Take a daily grade: Conventions-Tell students to edit a piece of writing for capitals, ending punctuation, commas,paragraphing and word wall words. They should make any needed corrections.
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study Narrative Writing Book 2 Author’s Celebration Planning Minutes
Teacher Behavior Teaching Point (TP) Plan for an author’s celebration *Share in groups *Invite parents *Share with another class *Read Around the Circle
You choose!!!
Set up a rubric for this unit of study: Planning story arc/time line Ideas-turning point Flash back/flash forward Internal/external story Conventions including commas Students should be working to publish a piece of their writing.
Lesson #
14
Student Behavior
Students share published work with an audience.
