UNIT OF STUDY 1: Raising the Level of Narrative Writing
Grade 6: Personal narrative
The focus of this unit of study is the personal narrative. Through study of the personal narrative, students will learn the classroom routines and rituals needed so that they can flourish in a workshop setting. They will revisit their writer’s notebook, building an arsenal of ideas for this unit of study as well as upcoming units. In the first week, students will mine their lives by using a variety of strategies to generate ideas for their personal narrative. They will select one story and in one classroom setting tell it by writing a full draft. For the next few weeks, they will write a second draft and move through the revision and editing process by trying out the lessons gleaned from mentor text. The mentor text will teach them how to tell stories rather than summarize, focus their stories on one important event in their lives, and write leads and endings. Eventually, they will publish their personal narrative.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING(S) – What big ideas do students need to know well? What big ideas are transferable to other situations?Through writing we can better understand the significance our lives.
Everyone has a powerful, interesting, unique story to tell.
We can craft our stories in a way that others will care.
The writing process can lead to surprises and discoveries.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
Why does my story matter to others?
How can we make this year the best possible year for us as writers? How can we support each other as writers?
Focus of unit of study: What will students inquire about?
The personal narrative and supporting each other as writers.
What standards/benchmarks will your unit address? (Power standards in bold)
Writing strand:
· 1.1 (topic, purpose, audience) Media literacy: 3.2
· 1.2 (generating ideas) Oral communications:
· 1.4 (classifying ideas) 1.2 (active listening strategies)
· 1.5 (organization) 2.2 (interactive strategies)
· 2.2 (voice)
· 2.3 (word choice)
· 2.4 (sentence fluency)
· 2.5 (point of view)
· 2.7 (revision)
· 3.4 (punctuation)
· 3.6 (proofreading)
· 3.8 (producing finished works)
· 4.1 (metacognition)
Knowledge: What will students KNOW at the end of this unit of study?
The routines and rituals of a writing workshop
The difference between storytelling and summarizing
The definitions of chronological order and flashback
The characteristics of a personal narrative / Skills: What will students be able to DO at the end of this unit of study?
Use the writer’s notebook to plant seeds for upcoming writing projects and to experiment with their writing
Use mentor text to study personal narrative and writers’ crafts and then to apply those lessons to their writing
Focus on one event by using snapshots and thought shots
Rehearse, plan, draft, revise, and edit a personal narrative
Select specific words so that readers can make movies in their minds
Write engaging leads
End stories in a satisfying way
Punctuate and indent dialogue so that a reader can easily follow the flow of the narrative
Use active listening to give and receive feedback
Work effectively in their writing workshop groups
Use “I” statements when giving feedback
Describe the performance task: What will student write? What will they write?
Students will publish a personal narrative. Attached to their published piece will be a writer’s memo that explains their process for writing the personal narrative. (See sample at the end of this document.)
How will you provide feedback? Monitor student performance? Let students know how well they’re doing? Collect formative assessment? (Assessment for learning)
Conferring, peer response, respond to drafts, tuning protocol. check list – generated by class,
Publication: Where might students publish their writing?
Options: copies available for class to read; published book for classroom library; wiki; Glogster; online journals, such as Teen Ink
Preparation for the unit of study:
1. Gather personal narratives, to include complete texts and excerpts.
2. Select one as your classroom mentor text.
3. Make baskets of personal narratives for close study (one basket per class table.)
4. Option: select a personal narrative as your class read aloud (suggestion: Ralph Fletcher’s Fig Pudding).
5. Continue to expect students to write a full page each night in their writer’s notebooks.
6. Keep in mind that many of your mini-lessons will be developed based on student work or conferences with students.
The goal of the mini-lesson is to make sure that students are ready to be successful in the work that they are doing that day. Often you will develop mini-lessons based on your daily formative and informal assessments.
Resources:
For teachers:
· Teachers College Reading and Writing Middle School Units
· Ralph Fletcher, What a Writer Needs and Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8
· Barry Lane, Reviser’s Toolbox, chapter 2 “Using the Binoculars” and chapter 3 “Snapshots and Thoughtshots”)
· Nancie Atwell, Lessons that Change Writers
For classroom use as mentor text:
Barron, TA. Where is Grandpa?
Blume, Judy. The Pain and the Great One.
Bunting. Eve. Fly Away Home, Smoky Nights, The Memory String
Chicken Soup for the Kid’s Soul, “Going, Going, Gone”
Cisneros, Sandra, “Eleven” from Woman Hollering Creek
Ehrlich, Amy, ed. When I Was Your Age
Fletcher, Ralph. Grandpa Never Lies, Marshfield Dreams
Fox, Mem. Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge.
Lowry, Lois. Looking Back: A Book of Memories
McLachlan, Patricia. All the Places to Love; Through Grandpa’s Eyes
Soto, Gary. A Summer Life
Spinelli, Jerry. Knots in My Yo-yo String
Viorst, Judith Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day(picture book)
Student work from former years
Lifting the Level of Narrative (personal narrative) – grade 6Page 8
Topic/Concept / Teaching Points / JIS Standards and Benchmarks / Assessment Strategies and ToolsThe predictable structure of a workshop grows writers and thinkers. / · Students understand the routines and rituals of a writing workshop:
o A mini-lesson
o Uninterrupted time to write
o A time to debrief
o The importance of conferences
o The role of the writer’s notebook
o The expectation that writing will be brought to publication
o The use of mentor text
o The importance of a community of writers / 1, 2, 3, 4
Through close study of mentor text, writers build a vision for their writing and learn about genre and craft. / · As a result of close study of personal narratives, writers generate and apply the features of a personal narrative (i.e., 1st person point of view, snapshot, based on truth, focus on the event itself, elements of story: plot, character, setting, theme)
· Writers write small in order to convey meaning and to help the reader make movies in their minds.
· Writers focus their writing and use snapshots with thought shots[1]
· Writers of personal narrative know how to use the truth to tell a good story.
· Writers study other writers to discover and experiment with writing craft.
· Through the study of mentors, writers learn the importance of word choice and ways to craft sentences to create an intentional impact on the reader. / 1.1 Identify the topic, purpose, and audience for a variety of writing forms
2.5 Identify their point of view and other possible points of view, evaluate other points of view, and find ways to acknowledge other points of view, if appropriate.
Writers travel through a process that moves from idea generation through publication. / · Writing quantity matters. Frequent writing builds fluency in writing, adds to the pool of possibilities, and builds a writer’s sense of competence.
· Writers generate ideas through a variety of strategies (e.g., heart maps, drawings, photographs, quick writes, timelines, alternate time lines, storyboards, partner share).
· Writers review their writer’s notebooks to find a significant story and to identify themes that they can explore in drafts.
· Writers rehearse their ideas by writing drafts, talking to others, posing questions to themselves (e.g. What am I trying to show about myself through this story? What do I want readers to know about me? How can I bring that meaning out?)
· Writers plan their narratives through a variety of means, such as timelines, storyboards, or outlines.
· Writers experiment with leads and ends often using mentor text as models.
· Writers organize their writing in a variety of ways, including chronological order and flashbacks. / 1.2 Generate ideas about more challenging topics and identify those most appropriate for their purposes.
1.4 Sort and classify ideas and information for their writing in a variety of ways that allow them to manipulate information and see different combinations and relationships in their data.
1.5 Identify and order main ideas and supporting details and group them into units that could be used to develop a multi-paragraph piece of writing, using a variety of strategies
2.7 Make revisions to improve the content, clarity, and interest of their written work, using a variety of strategies
Writers edit for meaning and conventions. / · Dialogue is powerful for the reader: keeps the reader interested, helps the reader make movies in his mind.
· The conventions of writing dialogue help the reader make sense of the narrative.
· Often we have to make up the dialogue but we need to be sure that it reflects the truth.
· A well-edited story ensures that the reader’s attention is on the story itself and not distracted by errors.
· A well-edited narrative shows respect for the reader.
· Published writing is well-edited. / 3.4 Use punctuation appropriately to communicate their intended meaning in more complex forms
3.6 Proofread and correct their writing using guidelines developed with peers and the teacher
Writers deepen their understanding through talk. / · Writing partners take turns listening to each other’s drafts.
· Asking a writer questions can help the writer clarify her writing, expand her thinking, and consider other options.
· Writers need to read their own writing aloud and need to hear their work read by others.
· A writer sets the agenda in a conference with the teacher or peers by posing a question or stating a concern.
· In an effective workshop group, everyone participates fully by listening to each other, taking turns talking about their writing and providing honest feedback about strengths and concerns.
· A response to writing frequently begins as an “I statement.” / 1.2 Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviors by adapting active listening strategies to suit a variety of situations, including work in groups.
Lifting the Level of Narrative (personal narrative) – grade 6Page 8
Additional support:
A FRAMEWORK FOR MINI LESSONS[2]Or How to Use Assessment to Inform Instruction
Connect – Explain to students how your lesson connects to their work and/or reflects an assessment.
Teach – Teach the concept, skill, strategy, or technique.
Have A Go – Encourage students to try out the concept, skill, strategy, or technique.
Link – Connect the mini-lesson to upcoming work.
MINI-LESSON: MAKING MOVIES IN OUR READERS’ MINDS
Connect: You are all deep into writing your personal narratives. One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve been conferring with you is that many of you are summarizing those important events in your lives, but what readers need is for you to tell us a story. One way of thinking about telling the story is by creating movies in the minds of your readers. Remember when we were reading our choice novels the other day and one of you commented about how reading a good book was like going to the movies – that you could see and hear what was happening? That’s what you want to do as a writer: get your reader to hear, smell, and see the action in your story.
Teach: Let’s look and see how Ralph Fletcher does this in Marshfield Dreams. This paragraph occurs after he’s told us how poor his family was and how his mother had to cut his hair. See if you can visualize the scene:
Mom gave me a whiffle haircut so short I could see my scalp when I looked in the mirror. The haircut was perfect for hot summer days, but it didn’t hide the place in front where my hair jutted straight up as if being blown that way by invisible wind. No matter what I tried – water, spit, Vaseline – that hair insisted on doing exactly what it wanted. (Marshfield Dreams, Ralph Fletcher, page 14).
What did you notice? [Chart their responses.] Here’s what I do when I’m writing and want to make sure that my reader can make those movies:
1. I close my eyes and concentrate on the scene.
2. I imagine the scene and try to get that imaginary movie camera filming. I know if I can create my own movie in my mind through my imagination, then I can find the words to describe it so that the readers also makes movies.
3. I listen hard to what is happening in my imagination and pay close attention to all of my senses.
4. I open my eyes and get writing just as fast as I can so that I can capture all those details.
(Thanks to Nancie Atwell, Lessons that Change Writers for these steps, page 71).
Have a Go: You’ve all brought your drafts with you. Let’s take the next couple of minutes to go back to your drafts and find one place where you could make a movie. Then turn to your writing partner and tell them as many details as you can. See if you can begin creating a movie for your partner.
Link: When I come around to confer with you today, you can be sure I’ll be checking to see how effectively you are making movies in their mind. Are you ready to get started? Okay, let’s go.
Lifting the Level of Narrative (personal narrative) – grade 6Page 8
WRITER’S MEMO
A writer’s memo provides writers an opportunity to reflect on the processes they traveled through while writing any published text. The memo is written after the final draft is completed and is then attached to the published piece. Often the teacher provides a variety of questions for students to respond to, and the students follow the format of a memo as they reflect on their writing.