Unit 4 Realistic Writing

Writing Workshop: Big Ideas
Writers will spend time exploring what it means to be a writer of fiction, paying close attention to how authors get ideas for their stories
* Write a lead that includes setting and introduces characters
* Develop characters by including their feelings, thoughts and intentions
* Use details to focus attention on specific characters or events
* Develop a plot
* Use descriptive and literary language
Unit Standards
3.6.3.3Write narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. A. Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. B. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations. C. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order. D. Provide a sense of closure.
3.6.4.4Wit h guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1 –3 above.)
Grammar
Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
Use spelling patterns and generalizations(e.g. word families, position based spelling, syllable patterns, endings, rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.
Writing Resources
Lucy Calkins’ Writing Units of Study, book 4: Writing Fiction, Big Dream, Tall Ambitions
What’s Your Story? By Marion Dane Bauer
Mentor Texts:
Allie’s Basketball Dream (basal)
Brave as a Mountain Lion (basal)
Thundercake, by Patricia Polocco (basal)
Sam and the Lucky Money (basal)
Tight Times, by Hazen
Dad, Jackie, and Me, by Myron Uhlberg
The Wednesday Surprise, by Eve Bunting
Tar Beach, by Faith Ringgold
The Patchwork Quilt, by Flournoy
Hickory Chair, by Fraustino
Assessment
6 trait rubric for published pieces
Narrative Writing Continuum
Conference Notes
Self-Reflections as Writer of Fiction
Notes

Writing Unit __4__: _____Realistic Fiction______

Unit Bends in the road / POSSIBLE Teaching Point
Using Mentor to Texts as Models /

Writers listen to a realistic fiction text read aloud to understand the genre. (across the unit of study)
Writers study mentor texts to identify the characteristics of realistic fiction. ( Ex: real world setting, believable character, appropriate believable problem, character struggles, satisfying believable resolution)

Generating ideas for fiction writing /

Writers reread their writer’s notebooks for possible story ideas.

Writers take their real experiences and change them slightly to make them fictional. (change character, change ending, change the details of the struggle)
Writers take the emotions from their real experiences and imagine a story where the character feels that emotion, yet creating different characters and problems.

Writers collect story ideas by reading the blurbs on the backs of books, and letting them spark their own ideas by changing characters, setting, and parts of problems.
Writers collect story ideas by paying attention to the stories they wish existed in the world.

Using story structure to help develop our writing /

Writers live with their story ideas for a time before drafting. They consider:

What is my character’s big problem?
What does my character need to do to solve that problem?
What are my main character’s main characteristics? (Both inside and outside characteristics.)

Writers draft possible story mountains, making the story problem worse and worse as they move up the mountain.
Writers turn each point on the story mountain into a scene. Scenes include action and dialogue to create drama.

Tools & Techniques for Revision /

Writers use scenes to show what our characters yearn for without coming right out and saying it.
Writers pause during their drafting to reread, evaluate their stories, and obtain input from peer groups or mentor texts.
Writers read two of their scenes, adding the necessary transitions between them to make them flow.
Writers revise their leads to make them stronger. (mentor texts)
Writers can add scenes from the past (flashback)
Writers make sure they show the time and place in each scene so their readers don’t have a disoriented feeling.
Writers imagine the way the physical setting can reflect the internal feelings of the characters.
Writers take their time with endings, drafting and revising to find one that fits. (mentor texts)
Writers reread their drafts several times, each time with a different question or concern in mind. (Reading through different lenses, such as: character development, passage of time, sentence length, punctuation for rhythm or suspense.)

Grammar /

Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue.
Use spelling patterns and generalizations(e.g. word families, position based spelling, syllable patterns, endings, rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.

Editing and Publishing to Share Our Work /

Writers check their work for correct spelling.
Writers edit their work for paragraphing, correct capitalization, and correct punctuation.

Authors celebrate by reflecting on themselves as writers of realistic fiction.
Authors celebrate by respectfully appreciating the work of others.
Authors may display their pieces in a class anthology.

Name

Report Card Standard / Grade 1
1 point / Mid Level 1.5 pt / Grade 2
2 pt / Mid Level 2.5 pt / Grade 3
3 pt / Mid Level 3.5 pt / Grade 4
4 pt / Score
Develops
characters by
including their
feelings,
thoughts and
intentions / (ELABORATION) The
writer put the picture from his mind onto the page. He had details in pictures and words. / Mid-Level / The writer tried to bring
her characters to life with details, talk and actions. / Mid-
Level / The writer worked to
show what happen to
(and in) his characters. / Mid-Level / The writer added more to the heart of her story, including not only actions and dialogue but also thoughts and feelings.
Develops a plat / (OVERALL) The writer
wrote about when he/she
did something. / Mid-Level / The writer wrote about
one time when he/she didsomething. / Mid
Level / The writer told the storybit by bit. / Mid-Level / The writer wrote the important part of an event bit by bit and took out unimportant parts.
(CRAFT) The writer used
labels and words to give
details / Mid-Level / The writer chose strong
words that would help
readers picture his/her
story. / Mid-
Level / The writer not only toldher story, but also wroteit in ways that gotreaders to picture whatwas happening and thatbrought her story to life. / Mid-Level / The writer showed why characters did what they did by including their thinking.
The writer made some parts go quickly, some slowly.
The writer used a storytelling voice and conveyed the emotion or tone of his/her story through description, phrases, dialogue, and thoughts.
(ELABORATION) The
writer put the picture from his mind onto the page. He had details in pictures and words. / Mid-LeVel / The writer tried to bring
her characters to life with details, talk and actions. / Mid-
LeVel / The writer worked to
show what happen to
(and in) his characters. / Mid-Level / The writer added more to the heart of her story, including not only actions and dialogue but also thoughts and feelings.
Uses figurative
language / (CRAFT) The writer used
labels and words to give
details / Mid-Level / The writer chose strong
words that would help
readers picture his/her
story. / Mid-
Level / The writer not only told her story, but also wrote it in ways that got readers to picture what was happening and that
brought her story to life. / Mid-Level / The writer showed why characters did what they did by including their thinking.
The writer made some parts go quickly, some slowly.
The writer used a storytelling voice and conveyed the emotion or tone of his/her story through description, phrases, dialogue, and thoughts.

Unit 4 Realistic Fiction