Planning: How to Build Out Three Weeks
In this next section, I give you some help extending and developing a unit of study starting with author’s purpose and point of view but branching out to other aspects of craft and structure. Students will analyze the structure of texts and will move into drama and poetry, in turn writing in response to their reading. When mapping out the year, we know how much time is allotted to skills and standards. What aspects of this unit fit with your curriculum? How much time do you have? Those are driving questions as you plan. Week 1 reflects the lesson sequence on POV.
Reading closely for POV. Writing in response to reading.
Week 2 focuses on interpreting words and phrases as they are used in a text—especially figurative language. While this is a one-week lesson, it can and should be repeated throughout the year—students should always notice language and vocabulary. However, since this specific sequence is geared more toward the beginning-of-the-year instruction, I’ve only included a week for language, followed by Week 3, which focuses on analyzing and explaining how text structures relate to each other. Again, these are almost “launch” lessons for more in-depth studies throughout the year. As students read and write, they should always be aware of craft and structure.
Three Planning Calendars
Getting Ready
OK, so you’ve finished a week or so of lessons on craft and structure, and you’ve seen your students really starting to get the hang of it... but now what?
Your best coach (and reality check) is your own class. That is, the daily (informal) assessment you do of students’ learning gives you the surest data for the most needed next steps. From there, decide where exactly it is you think you can take the class in three weeks. Define that for yourself (see www.corwin.com/thecommoncorecompanion for an example) and then devise an end of unit assessment task that measures students’ proficiency with the task. It doesn’t have to be a big, scary task, but it should be something that asks students to apply what they learned to a brand new setting: that is, a text they have never read before, a writing task that requires them to demonstrate independence and understanding of the requirements of the standard. Generally speaking, I administer these end-of-unit assessments in class and students finish them in an hour.
What might an assessment look like? Here’s a possibility:
Informal assessments:
Observations
Conferring
Group work
Student work
Written responses to reading
It goes without saying: While the calendars at www.corwin.com/thecommoncorecompanion show a template for direct instruction, guided practice, and tasks, remember that students should be reading independently every day! As they read, hold them accountable for asking and answering key questions about the books they have. Remember—the goal is independence and internalizing these questions. While students are reading, confer or pull needs groups together—continue to use that time to instruct!
Photocopy the My Unit Planning Notes, on the next page, to begin jotting ideas.
Extending Instruction: How to Build Out Into a Unit of Study
Please go to www.corwin.com/thecommoncorecompanion for weekly calandars that plot out how you might deepen the work students have done in this sequence. You’ll also find other teaching resources.
Driving Questions
How do I move beyond using a fairy tale to teach POV? How do I bring increasingly rigorous text to my reading workshop?
How do I move beyond POV? Craft and structure includes vocabulary, figurative language and overall structure of texts—including a variety of genres? How do I include these in a unit of study?
What other writing in response to reading fits into this unit of study?
And these are the generic questions that we should always be asking ourselves:
What is missing from my current curriculum (or basal)? How do I ensure my students are getting the skills they need?
What are other “routes” I can take to teach these skills?
Task
Write a fully developed compare/contrast essay, citing evidence to support your thinking and using strong word choice. The essay should include the POV for each text.
This is where your judgment comes in—students can continue to compare/contrast fairy tales or the genre you’re studying. They can compare and contrast different literature—see Week 3—or anything that fits your unit and your students’ needs. Another option is to compare and contrast the POV of different characters within the same text.
Remember: Only use student writing that shows what kids are doing well. If you use a piece from a student in your class to show areas that need to have work, you will end up embarrassing the student (and losing the trust of the class) and students will stop taking risks. Notice, however, that the student writing in this book retains misspellings, grammar glitches, and the like, because I believe it’s all right to showcase a minimal amount of mechanical errors.
Lesson Sequence 2 Integrating Reading Craft and Structure With Opinion Writing
In this lesson sequence, students examine arguments and write an opinion piece of their own. To craft strong pieces, students need to read a variety of opinions and discern how writers declare their idea and then develop and organize their supporting ideas and evidence. I feature fifth-grade lessons that mesh history content with literacy; however, it is easily adapted to third and fourth grades (see pages 74–77) and across the curriculum and with any topic that lends itself to students voicing rich, authentic, and informed opinions.
This sequence can be used any time of the year and across the instructional day. It builds on Sequence 1 on point of view, where persuasive or opinion writing is introduced. That sequence used literature as a focus; in this sequence it’s informational text. Here, we hone in on students’ knowledge of opinion and persuasion to go more deeply into argument. It focuses on the Revolutionary War but works with any social studies or science topic, thus the mesh with disciplinary literacy. Ideally, provide your students with direct instruction on text features and annotating in informational text beforehand. It works nicely with textbooks as the reading material, but be sure students understand how the textbook is organized and how to read it in order to make this sequence productive. While textbooks are the norm in many schools and districts, bringing in a variety of texts, visuals, videos, and documents makes disciplinary literacy more engaging, leading to deeper understanding and thinking.
Task
If you had lived in America around 1775, would you have been a Loyalist or a Patriot—and why? Take a stand. State your opinion and support it with three or more reasons with facts and details.
This sequence can be replicated throughout the