P.S. 105 The Blythebourne
Grade 1
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Unit 2: Writing (December 3, 2012 – February 1, 2013)
Standards
NYS: CCLS:ELA & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects PreK–5, NYS: 1st Grade , Writing
WI 1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Big Ideas
· Writers share information that they have learned from informational texts through their writing.
· Writing is a process and good writers make many changes to their writing to ensure their meaning is clear for the reader.
· There are many resources that will help with writing (e.g. teacher, word wall, word lists, environmental print, etc.). / Essential Questions
§ Why do writers write “all about” informational texts?
§ How do we choose a topic for our informational writing?
§ How do we organize and plan our writing?
§ How do authors use text features to provide information?
§ How do writers revise for clarity?
Content
· Introduction to informational texts (immersion into the genre)
What is the author telling you?
Why is the author telling you that?
How else would you say that?
· Informational texts organize ideas under headings, have photographs, diagrams and labels, and have a contents page to help the reader.
· The purpose of informational texts is to inform others “tell us about…” / Skills/Strategies
Writing:
· develop a clear topic and focus
· recording information about a specific topic
· plan for writing using talk, text or drawing
· include features of informational texts in creating original text
· provide details about an identified topic
· organize facts under headings
· provide a sense of closure with a concluding statement
· apply basic punctuation, capitalization, and spelling rules
· use topic and genre appropriate words
· reread as they write to maintain meaning
Assessment/ Performance Task
Pre-Assessment
Students will write an informational book on a familiar animal chosen by the teacher. The teacher will choose a big book on a familiar animal and do a shared reading. Students will be given an opportunity to ask questions that they have about the animal. Students will name what they’re writing about and include information about the topic derived from the reading. The teacher will remind students to use all they know about writing informational books.
Suggested time frame: approximately 90 minutes total
The two tasks will be administered in two chunks of time in one day.
Task 1: Shared reading of a chosen text on a familiar animal by the teacher
The teacher will engage the students in shared reading of a text on a familiar animal. After the first reading, the teacher will give students an opportunity to ask questions that they have about the animal. The teacher then reads the text a second time.
Task 2: Information book writing about an animal
Students will write an informational book about the chosen animal, naming what they’re writing about and including information about the topic derived from the reading. Teachers will remind students to use all they know about writing information books.
The teacher will review all students’ writing, rate it against the rubric and use the GAP analysis to identify student learning needs. The teacher will use this data to determine and modify instruction for her class from the content in the unit of instruction
On Demand Performance Task
Day One:
1. Introduce the task to the students and introduce the first shared reading text on cats, Kittens by Brenda Parkes. Explain that this time they are gathering information so they can write their own text about cats. Follow the pattern used throughout the unit:
· Discussing the text and photographs
· Creating a chart of facts the students have learned about cats
· Having students generate questions about other information they would like to find out about cats
· Introduce and read a second text, Cats by Clive Harper and Beverley Randell, to try and answer questions and add new facts
2. Students reread facts and teacher supports them to categorize the facts, e.g. what they eat, where they live
3. Students decide on categories ,e.g. where they live, what they look like
4. Once categories are decided, the teacher records this on a chart and children physically move facts into categories where they belong
Day Two:
1. Teacher and students review the facts they have learnt.
2. View video clip, “Cat Spotlight” (http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/wild-detectives-kids/wd-ep7-cats/) and add new information onto the chart.
3. The teacher says, “Wow, we are experts on cats! We can write to teach others about cats.”
4. Have students work in pairs to come up with questions they think the readers might want to know the answers to, e.g. where do cats live, list questions.
5. Teacher chooses one question and models putting one fact into a sentence.
6. Teacher models drawing and labeling a diagram/picture to match the sentence.
7. It is the students’ turn to be experts and teach others what they have learned about cats. They decide what they want to teach their readers about and select the appropriate paper. On the table there is:
· Paper with a space for students to write their own questions as a heading/draw picture
· Blank white copy paper
8. Students begin planning by drawing and labeling a diagram, picture, etc.
Day Three:
1. Students reread the shared writing done by the teacher the day before. Students tell their buddies what they are experts in and are going to write about and set about drawing, labeling, and writing.
2. Students are encouraged to use the chart to write about other categories they think the reader might like to learn about.
3. Teacher reminds students to reread what they have written to check (refer to the chart already created):
· if it makes sense and decide if they need to add more details
· punctuation (2 minutes)
· or words they are not sure how to spell (3 minutes)
Learning Activities
Whole group learning activities:
· Generate a topic together
· Identify facts from non-facts
· Write down facts on researched animal
· Use RAN chart to chart information gathered from reading
· Review RAN chart facts to categorize information
· Find commonalities to formulate headings
· Continue to add additional facts through literacy block
· Generate wonderings about the animal after researching facts
Individual Research:
· Students select a topic of their own
· Introduce research notebooks and how to jot down facts
· Using the fish bowl technique, introduce research stations (rules and expectations)
· Students will research in their groups using “research, share, jot” strategy. / Resources/Touchtone Texts/Field Trips
Kittens by Brenda Parkes
Rigby PM Collection Orange Animal Facts: Pets Cats (Nonfiction)
Old Stone House
< Previous Year
Writing
Focus / Differentiation / Main ActivityPre-Assessment / -Use native language support for Bilingual and ELLs
-Students can tell, draw, and/or write. / Teacher will discuss what students think a report is, then provide examples of fiction and non-fiction texts, and explain the difference.
Pre-Assessment:
Teacher will read a chosen big book on a familiar animal and give students an opportunity to ask questions that they still have about the animal. Students will write an informational book about the chosen animal, naming what they’re writing about and including information about the topic derived from the reading.
Text Structures and Features of a Non-Fiction Text / Work in pairs / Teacher will discuss the purpose of writing informational texts.
Teacher will create a chart with students: What makes a good report?
Activate prior knowledge about the chosen animal. Record “What I Think I Know about Topic” on post-its. Introduce RAN chart or research notebook.
Teacher provides three to four topics for students to choose.
Using your Own Words to Record Information / Using multiple resources (pictures, tapes, books, realia...) / Teacher will group students into groups. Teacher will model how to record facts into own words. After students research at the stations, they confirm and move information, and add on new facts on the RAN chart.
Planning for Writing Using Talk, Drawing and Graphic Organizers / Students will use their research notebook to organize their writing.
Giving Writing a Title / Students will add a title to their writing.
Grouping Information under Headings / Students will organize their facts on the RAN chart into categories:
· Characteristics (what do frogs look like?)
· Habitat (Where do frogs live?)
· Food (What do frogs eat?)
· Life Cycle( How do frogs grow and change?)
· Fun and Amazing Facts
Using Diagrams/Pictures with Labels / Students will use labels with pictures to give additional and valuable information.
Writing a Closure / The teacher will model how to identify key ideas and use them to write a closure.
*Revising Information: Using the Conjunction “and” and/or the Punctuation “,” to Link Information / The teacher will model how to link ideas together using the conjunction ”and” and/or the punctuation “,”.
Teacher will create a chart to remind students to check:
· if it makes sense and decide if they need to add more details
· punctuation
· for words they are not sure how to spell
*Revising: Checking for Missing Words / Reread to check for missing words.
*Revising: Use Varied and Interesting Sentence Starters / Revise sentences using varied and interesting sentence starters, such as “Did you know that…?”
*Editing / Making changes to writing such as adding or changing punctuation or spelling.
Locate words in the classroom on the word wall and in the environment.
Publishing for an Audience / Students will use the approach, “Publish as You Go,” to continue writing their informational text.
Reflecting/Sharing / Students will reflect on their writing and identify what they did well.
Students’ writing will be shared with others.
*Revision and editing will be done in each category using the “Publish as You Go” approach.
Additional possible minilessons:
Unit 2 Writing Part I: How to Do a Research Topic with the Whole Class
Day 1: Let’s think of something we know about and can teach others.
How to generate a topic and a focus. What are
Day 2: What is a Fact? Listen to facts vs. opinions.
Day 3: How to jot down facts through read alouds and shared reading
Day 4: Put all the post its on large sheet of paper together. Let’s find all the similar ones? Put them together.
Day 5: What does these information teach you? Generate the headings and categories based on the information learned. Do not give them the categories or headings.
Day 6: What else do you want to learn about your topic? Wonderings?
Continue read alouds
Day 7: Answer the wondering questions using more read alouds/shared readings.
Day 8: Let’s look at the wondering answers and see if any similarities to add to the categories or create a new one.
Day 9: What do you want to teach about dogs? (pick one category a day can be out of order)
(writing paper) Look at the information in the category about the dogs.
Teacher models how to Write sentences from the post its info. “and”, linking words
Rubric
First Grade Writing RubricAssessing Task / Level 4-
Above Proficient
(Above Grade Level) / Level 3-
Proficient
(At Grade Level) / Level 2-
Intermediate
(Approaching) / Level 1-
Novice
(Below Grade Level)
Structure/
Focus- Sense of Genre
W. Standard 1.2
Write informative/ explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of
closure. / Provides a brief introduction: this may look like a more elaborated cover page or a direct address to the reader, previewing what the book will teach. / Write informative/ explanatory texts in which they name a topic.
Either through a first page heading, or through creating a cover page, names a topic that encompasses all the information the writer has included.
The key facts and details in the writing relate to the writer’s stated main topic. / Through headings, captions or in interviews, the writer names what he/she is writing about on each page, or the bigger topic.
Most pages are informational and relate to a central topic. / Uses a combination of representational drawings, oral language, and attempts at writing to tell about a topic.
Many pieces of information may be off-topic, or a tangential piece of information may take the writer in the direction of storytelling rather than information writing.
Elaboration – Supplying and Organizing Information
W. Standard 1.2
Write informative/ explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure. / Includes accurate facts that relate to the topic across multiple pages and attempts to elaborate on these facts.
Gestures towards more explanatory writing: may define some vocabulary, write to explain or describe in detail to make points about the topic. / Supplies some facts about the topic…
Uses multiple pages to write and draw mostly accurate facts that connect to the topic. Some information is from Kittens, Cats, or “Cat Spotlight.” Offers detail on many pages: information is conveyed either through diagrams with multiple annotations or multiple sentences of writing. / Writes and draws information about a topic, including mostly accurate facts.
The information supports the topic, and there is at least one example of more detailed information, in multiple sentences or multiple annotations. / Writes and draws information about the topic, mostly of a general nature and in few sentences. Some information may be inaccurate or off-topic.
The sentences may seem mostly like captions, “The tiger is eating.”
First Grade Writing Rubric
Continued / Level 4-
Above Proficient
(Above Grade Level) / Level 3-
Proficient
(At Grade Level) / Level 2-
Intermediate
(Approaching) / Level 1-
Novice
(Below Grade Level)
Structure/
Conclusion
W. Standard 1.2
Write informative/ explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure. / Provides a conclusion that follows from the rest of the text. / Provides some sense of closure.
May end with a big idea about the topic or by addressing the reader directly. In some way lets the reader know this is the end of the text. / Demonstrates an attempt at closure, but the concluding section may seem random or take the reader in a new direction. / There is no demonstrated attempt to provide closure. The final section of the piece reads like any other section, with no indication that this marks the end of the text.
Concepts of Print/Craft / The writing is readable by others, and there is evidence that the writer is aware of a reader, trying to engage the reader and sound knowledgeable about the topic.
This may come through in the form of direct address to the reader, or through explanations or definitions that teach specific, important points. / The writer writes with directionality, a sense of word, and a command of enough high frequency words and enough onsets and rimes that readers can generally read the writing. / The writing shows a grasp of directionality and a sense of word, with letters generally representing each dominant sound in a word and with spaces between many of the words.
The child can point to words as he or she reads, demonstrating a grasp of one-to-one correspondence. / The text includes approximated written words, indicating an understanding of the directionality of English. This includes some labels on drawings and writing underneath the pictures.
The child “reads‟ his/her writing, understanding that the writing carries its own specific meaning.
First Grade Scoring Guide: Writing Task