Grades 5 and 6 Writing Units of Study.pdf

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memories; when I hear things I want to remember and take time to write them down. I am a writer when I capture thoughts, dreams, noticings, and wonderings in my writer‘s notebook; when I write as a means of expressing my emotions; when I write poetry that stems from my personal experiences. I am a writer when the words in my notebook float effortlessly off the paper like a musical composition that lingers in my head; when I have time to really express my ideas and not have to share them with anyone; when I am given time to reflect upon my personal and professional life. I am a writer when the words I‘ve created bring me back to the me I should be; when I allow myself to relax and write whatever I am feeling, whatever I am frustrated by, whatever I am thinking, and when I am finished, I feel cleansed; when I pour out my heart through words.
September Literary Essay Overview of the Unit This unit aims to make reading a more intense, thoughtful experience for children and to equip them to write expository essays that advance an idea about a piece of literature. In order to write about reading in this way, you will need to decide which piece(s) of literature your children will study in the unit. If your children are reading novels and talking about the deeper meanings of those novels in book clubs, you could use literary essays as a way to harvest their interpretations of these books. However, students can also write literary essays about a short story or picture book. Cynthia Rylant‘s book, Every Living Thing, has some wonderful examples you could use. Also, Ever Bunting‘s pictures books are provide excellent opportunities for literary essays. You can create a small collection of stories for students to read and respond to. Likewise, you could begin the unit with the entire class reading the same short text and responding to it in their notebooks. Then you could do a quick publish of this as a model for a more in depth literary essay about the book they are reading in reader‘s workshop. If you start your reader‘s and writer‘s workshop unit at the same time, doing a quick publish of a short text will offer you time during reader‘s workshop to collect entries about the characters in their stories. By the time you have completed your quick publish, students will have completed work during reader‘s workshop about their characters. This will give them information and ideas to use during writer‘s workshop as they begin a more in-depth study of their character for their second literary essay. During the first few days of the unit, you will want to demonstrate a way of reading and writing off of a story. Invite children to look closely at a text and to write, ―I see..‖ and then write what they notice. Encourage them to write long about this, extending their observations by adding, ―The surprising thing about this is…, The important thing about this is…, The thought This gives me is…, or I wonder if… Once they have the short story/novel that they will write a literary essay for, they will collect entries about the text. The process of choosing a seed idea in this unit becomes double pronged. First, a child chooses a story. Then, the child lives wit that one story and gathers entries about it. Eventually, the child will also reread those entries to choose a seed idea – a claim- about their story. Remind students to observe their lives and create thought patches in their notebooks. They can use prompts like, ―The thought I have about this is… or This makes me realize that…‖ They can pause as they read to observe what is happening to a character and then grow an idea using the same sentence starters. They can also extend their thought patches by using thought prompts to grow their thinking. As students give examples to grow their thinking, remind them that they can linger on these ideas too. Teach them to record an idea using new words by saying, ―that is..‖ or
Page 1 and 2: August Launching Writing Workshop *
Page 3 and 4: What can I write before school star
Page 5 and 6: Writing Notebooks Start by giving s
Page 7 and 8: Collecting Entries Write about your
Page 9 and 10: Make a square and divide it into 4
Page 11: Below is a sample 5 day schedule (e
Page 15 and 16: Alignment to the Standards 5.3.3 Co
Page 17 and 18: 6.6.4 Use correct capitalization. 6
Page 19 and 20: Writers carefully choose a piece to
Page 21 and 22: Writers edit their essays. They mak
Page 23 and 24: One of the most exciting aspects of
Page 25 and 26: Once your students have begun draft
Page 27 and 28: 6.6.1 Use simple, compound, and com
Page 29 and 30: model how from nonfiction texts and
Page 31 and 32: considering an ending like this,
Page 33 and 34: through the first ―Lessons That A
Page 35 and 36: how you introduce a main character
Page 37 and 38: Writers give lots of details about
Page 39 and 40: What would be the same as our world
Page 41 and 42: As with any unit of study in a writ
Page 43 and 44: seed idea, and then list a few para
Page 45 and 46: Writers may meet together not only
Page 47 and 48: Drafting Writers develop the reason
Page 49 and 50: - To Clarify (In other words, To cl
Page 51 and 52: One problem with this solution is t
Page 53 and 54: • organize the composition clearl
Page 55 and 56: March/April Nonfiction Alignment wi
Page 57 and 58: Teaching Points for Nonfiction writ
Page 59 and 60: ―This makes me feel…‖ ―I‘
Page 61 and 62: May Creative Non-Fiction or Memoir
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• organizes information by catego
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Take an incident from a memoir and
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-Writers generate ideas by thinking
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Options for what you might do after
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Writing Poetry Overview of the Unit
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6.3.1 Identify different types of f
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Choosing an Idea Writers choose a s
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Writers develop powerful endings fo
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Narrative Alignment with Standards:
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ins of books looking for books with
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this writer do to write this lead?
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Grades 5 and 6 Writing Units of Study.pdf

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