Content Statements

In this unit narrative writing skills will be developed. The craft of narrative writing will be explored through a wide variety of reading experiences in which one ‘reads like a writer’. Craft will also be honed through the experiences of drafting, revising, and publishing pieces in a range of different narrative formats for different audiences and purposes. Mechanics will be addressed as identified by ongoing student writing assessments.

Common Core Standards:

RL.8.1-10

W.8.2.4-8, 10

SL.8.1-6

L.8.1-6

Overarching Essential Questions

What routines and materials will help me be a more effective and successful writer?

What have I read that can act as a model for my own narrative writing? How can I craft my own narrative writing on these models?

How do writers make decisions about the mechanics of writing? How can I incorporate these decisions into my own writing?

How can I write about real or imagined experiences?

Overarching Enduring Understandings

Writers use their knowledge of the writing process and how writers work to produce writing in different genres and for different audiences and purposes.

Writing and reading are interconnected; reading effective writing can help develop the craft of writing and help guide writers in decisions about mechanics.

I can write about my real or imagined experiences by:

nengaging and orienting the reader with a POV, situation, sequence, narrator and character

norganizing an event sequence that unfolds naturally

nusing dialogue, description and pacing

nusing transition words, phrases and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another

nusing precise words, phrases, details and sensory language

nproviding a conclusion that follows from the experiences or events

Unit Essential Questions

How can I work independently in Writing Workshop in a variety of ways that support effective writing such as:

• Use a writer’s notebook?
• Collect seeds and territories?
• Know steps of writing process?
• Use rubrics and graphic organizers to guide my writing?
• Write for a sustained period?
• Reflect on my own writing?
• Conference with my peers and teachers?
• Use touchstone and mentor texts?
• Revise and edit pieces to make them more effective?
• Develop a sense of voice in my own writing?

How can I make decisions about mechanics to make my writing more effective such as:

• Know reasons for paragraphing?
• Use commas for a variety of purposes?
• Create sentences of different length, variety, or complexity?
• Use capitalization for a variety of purposes?
• Use the correct form of adjectives and adverbs?
• Create adverbial and prepositional phrases?
• Use colons, apostrophes, hyphens, parentheses, semi colons, and end punctuation effectively?
• Properly use different types of verbs?
• Use verbs of consistent tenses that agree with the subject?
• Properly use different types of nouns?
• Use different types of pronouns?
• Use conjunctions, interjections, and appositives?
• Use resources and references sources to help support my decisions about mechanics?
• How can I use knowledge of spelling patterns to help me spell words in my writing?
• Use correct spelling and legible handwriting or technology?
• Spell all high frequency words at my grade level correctly?

What skills can I use to write narratives?

• How can I use graphic organizers that help organize narrative story elements?
• How can my personal experiences be incorporated into a narrative piece?
• How can narrative writing be written in the 1^st person? (myself) 3^rd person? (others)
• How can the ‘show don’t tell’ technique be used to make my narrative writing more descriptive?
• How can the ‘magic of three’ technique be used to develop the plot of a narrative piece?
• How can ‘snapshots’ and ‘thoughtshots’ be used to add detail to my writing?
• How can I use the technique of “adding on” to make my writing more detailed?
• How can I incorporate sensory images into my writing?
• How can vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs be used to improve my writing?
• What strategies can be used to create openings which ‘hook’ the reader and what strategies can be used for closings?
• What are some ways that characters in narrative pieces can be described?
• How can literary elements such as similes and metaphors be used to enhance my writing?
• What decisions can I make about word choice and vocabulary to make the writing richer?

Unit Enduring Understandings

I can write for different audiences and for different purposes and use strategies from Writing Workshop to get ideas.

I can use rubrics and graphic organizers to help organize my thoughts and guide my writing.

I know the steps of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. I understand that writers move in and out of these steps as they work on pieces.

I can use feedback from my teacher or my peers to improve my pieces. I can look at my own pieces and see ways to improve them.

I can use texts that I read to help guide my own writing.

I can use examples of how authors use grammar and mechanics in effective ways to make my writing clearer.

I can use my knowledge of spelling patterns to help me spell and read words.

Unit Rationale

Writing involves both process and product. Students need a working knowledge of all steps of the writing process in order to produce effective pieces in the narrative genre. Experiences in reading a variety of narrative texts and analyzing the author’s craft aid in the creation of a student’s own narrative piece. Elements of narrative writing can be also be used to help create pieces in which a writer may ‘speculate’ about what may happen in a fictional scenario.

Unit Overview

In this unit students will continue to practice the routines and behaviors of successful Writing Workshop participants. They will read and analyze a variety of narrative texts in order to uncover the craft used by authors of this genre. These texts will provide authentic models for writing 3rd person narratives that will help develop the speculative writing required by standardized testing. Students will also expand the idea of a personal narrative into a personal essay in which a 1^st person narrative helps illustrate a lesson learned.

Suggested Activities for Inclusion in Lesson Planning

Read alouds, shared reading, and class discussion of touchstone texts with narrative elements

Whole group, small group, and individual analysis of touchstone narrative texts

Writer’s Notebook – collecting seeds and writing territories

Memoir Unit – write about a place, person or object

Dialogue Activities using cartoons

Show don’t tell practice

eBooks and Google books for narrative texts

My Access Writing Program

use of word processing programs

Use digital tools to publish a piece of writing, including flip cameras, iPads, Smartboards, netbooks and computers.

ePortfolio

Substitute precise words for listed generalized words

Describe created settings and characters, with details -- justify, verbally, how the details are relevant

Convert transition words into transition phrases and then transition clauses

Personal Essay

Short story writing

Guided reflection examples. Narratives in 3^rd person