Unit 3: Literary Nonfiction
Estimated Days: 4 - 6 Weeks
Big Ideas/Essential Questions (How does this unit apply to a student’s life?)
• How do we learn from our life experiences?
• How can we express our understanding of learning from our experiences?
Priority Standard(s)
RI 5: Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to
the whole and to the development of the ideas.
W 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant
descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
a: Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or
characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
b: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or
characters.
e: Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
W 4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.
W5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by
planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience
have been addressed.
Support Standard(s):
RL 1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
RL 2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text;
provide an objective summary of the text.
RL 7: Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia
version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera
focus and angles in a film).
RL 10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the
grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
RI 1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
RI 2: Determine two or more central ideas in a text, and analyze their development over the course text;
provide an objective summary of the text.
RI 5: Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to
the whole and to the development of the ideas.
L 6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases;
gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Content
READING:
• Students will be able to identify literary
nonfiction elements.
• Students will be able to identify textual
evidence to support author’s ideas.
• Students will be able to identify how structural
organization impacts the development of ideas
in a work of literary nonfiction.
WRITING:
• Students will be able to construct clear,
detailed and organized paragraphs.
• Students will be able to analyze character and
setting in example memoirs
• Students will be able to develop characters and
setting in their memoirs
Skills
READING:
• Students will read a selection of literary
nonfiction.
• Students will use textual evidence to support
the main idea of literary nonfiction.
WRITING:
• Students will be able to punctuate dialogue
correctly
• Students will be able to use sensory details in
their writing
• Students will be able to use narrative
transitions
• Students will be able to incorporate character
and setting description in their memoirs
• Students will be able to select an effective
introduction and conclusion
Summative Assessment:
• Students will write a memoir based on a memoir-worthy experience demonstrating coherent
development, organization, and style.
o SCORING RUBRIC: SMARTER Balanced Writing Rubric or ODE Writing Rubric
Note: Choice of writing rubric to be determined by PLCs.
Factors to consider:
SMARTER Balanced Writing Rubrics measure the Common Core Standards, however, at this time,
anchor papers are not available. There is a separate SMARTER Balanced Writing Rubric for each
type of writing.
ODE Writing Rubric does not measure Common Core Standards, but anchor papers do exist. As far as
addressing increased standards for rigor in writing, a score of 4 on the ODE no longer meets the
standard. Scores of 5 or 6 would be required for meeting the current standard.
Formative Assessment:
• Different ways to begin a narrative.
• Different ways to end a narrative.
• Responses to literary nonfiction.
Resources:
TEACHER RESOURCES:
• Step Up to Writing
• Nancy Atwell’s Writing in the Middle
WRITING RESOURCES:
• Various literary nonfiction writing