Course: 4 t h G r a d e W r i t i n g
Harlingen CISD
Unit Two
1st Grading Period (38 Days)
2014-2015
Quarter 3
Unit 2: Personal Narrative
Unit Pacing: 2 Weeks
Dates: January 26 – Feburary 6
Planning for Instruction
Professional Resources
Selections from Texas Treasures:
Treasures Grammar and Writing
Handbook, Macmillan/ McGraw-Hill
“Mexico: My New Home”, Unit 1 p. 8
“My Diary from Here to There”, Unit 1 p. 11
“Because of Winn Dixie”, Unit 1 p. 109
“My Brother Martin”, Unit 2 p. 140
“Me and Uncle Romie”, Unit 3 p. 373
Detailed Lesson Plan for Personal
Narrative – This is a 4 Week Unit.
“Leah’s Pony”, Unit 6 p. 679
You will need to modify these lessons to fit
a 2 Week lesson cycle.
Mentor Texts:
Bigmama’s, by Donald Crews
Fireflies, by Julie Brinckloe
Goggles!, by Ezra Jack Keats
The Paperboy, by Dav Pilkey
Suggested Sequence:
*The following sequence is only suggested.
Your students’ needs should drive your
instruction. Dedicate the time to the areas
where your students are in need of extra help.
Prewrite & Organize – 2 days
Draft – 1 day
Revise & Confer – 3 days
Edit – 1 day
Final Draft & Publish – 2 days
Areas of Focus:
Genre and Audience
This is a review of the personal narrative unit
taught earlier this year. A personal narrative tells
the story of something important or interesting that
happened to the writer. It is more than just a
retelling of a story, however. The story needs to
make the reader feel involved, stir his/her
emotions, teach a lesson, or communicate an
important idea.
As we move closer in time to the STAAR test, it
becomes more tempting to tell students that they
are writing to prepare for the test. While we all
know this is the reality of the 4th grade classroom,
we should still make every effort to keep their
writing as authentic as possible and students
should publish for a real audience.
See this idea for Publishing Suggestion for
Personal Narratives
TEKS
Students will write about important personal
experiences, for the purpose of entertaining
an audience. They will use the writing
process to produce a focused and organized
sequence of events that tells a story from
beginning to end and communicates why this
story has special meaning to the writer.
Review your criteria for a good personal
narrative from previous units. Review and
reteach as necessary: leads and conclusions,
snapshots, thoughtshots, feelings, and
dialogue.
You may want to add a few more advanced
techniques, such as sensory images, similes
and metaphors, Explode a Moment (See
Barry Lane), flashbacks, etc. if your students
have mastered the basic elaboration
techniques.
Grammar/Editing
If you have kept up with teaching the
conventions SEs as outlined in the
previous Units, all grammar and editing
skills have already been taught. You can
simply review all the skills through the
writing process, as well as in STAAR
Revising and Editing formats.
The SEs shown in this unit focus on using
different lengths and styles of sentences
(short, long, simple, compound) to make
student writing more interesting. Writers
generally try to achieve a balance of some
long and some short sentences to create a
rhythm or flow in the writing. Student may,
however, choose to use a series of long or
short sentences to create certain effects,
(e.g., short sentences to show abrupt
actions or thoughts; long sentences for
smooth, flowing descriptions; long
sentences to extend time in a story.)
Assessment
Our main purpose for revisiting the
personal narrative is to give students more
practice with this genre before the STAAR
test. A secondary purpose is to show
writers how to pare down their writing to a
one-page story.
For a personal narrative, the most
effective technique to writing a shorter
story is to narrow the focus. You will need
to teach your writers to eliminate all
unnecessary details leading up to the big
moment in the story and zoom in on only
that one big moment. They may also need
to eliminate unnecessary details and
repetition in other parts of their story.
You will need to teach your writers to
achieve that delicate balance between
including the kind of details that make the
reader feel like he is right there in the
story with the writer and eliminating
extraneous details. The key is being
concise and effective.
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Course: 4 t h G r a d e W r i t i n g
Lesson
and Pacing
TEKS
Student Expectations:
17(A) write about important
personal experiences.
Harlingen CISD
Unit Two
1st Grading Period (38 Days)
Student will know:
Writers use their ideas to choose one
memory that matters to write about.
Reading and discussing mentor texts
(memoirs) helps writers understand the
genre, form and author’s purpose.
Week Three and
Four
2014-2015
Quarter 3
Student will be able to:
Read a variety of mentor texts of the narrative genre, think about
and discuss ideas, Life Topics, small moments, themes, and
characteristics.
Explain the qualities of a good personal narrative
Key terms: Life Topics, small moments,
zooming in, narrative, reconstruction of
events, mentor texts, lesson learned, leads
Jan 26 – Feb 6
Lesson 1:
Personal Narrative
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Course: 4 t h G r a d e W r i t i n g
Harlingen CISD
2014-2015
Unit Two
Quarter 3
15(A) plan a first draft by
Persuasive writing
is Grading
often written
in the
Write a persuasive letter or essay.
1st
Period
(38form
Days)
selecting a genre appropriate for of a letter, but can also be written as an
conveying the intended meaning essay.
Choose an audience for a persuasive letter or essay and
to an audience and generating
brainstorm ways to make it convincing.
ideas through a range of
Persuasive arguments are most convincing
strategies (e.g., brainstorming, when the writer is passionate about the topic Develop the arguments in favor of the author’s point of view.
graphic organizers, logs,
and has a real audience in mind.
journals);
Use feedback from peers to revise the persuasive writing and
Each paragraph within the body of the text
make it clear and convincing.
15(B) develop drafts by
develops the arguments in favor of the
categorizing ideas and
author’s opinion.
Edit the persuasive writing to correct all spelling, mechanics, and
organizing them into paragraphs;
grammar errors.
Adding, changing, and deleting text help to
15(C) revise drafts for focus and make a writer’s meaning more clear.
Publish the persuasive writing in a way that celebrates the writer’s
coherence, organization, voice,
commitment to a final product.
development of ideas, word
Authors revise their writing using feedback
choice, use of simple and
and advice from their peers.
compound sentences, and
audience independently and in A persuasive argument is most effective
response to feedback from peers when it is free from spelling, mechanics, and
and teachers;
grammar errors.
15(D) edit drafts for grammar,
Feedback from peers is often the most
mechanics, and spelling using a helpful to writers as they practice what their
teacher-developed rubric; and
writing sounds like in a safe, supportive
environment.
15(E) revise final draft in
response to feedback from peers Key Terms: essay, convincing, persuasive
and teacher and publish written argument, point of view, feedback,
work for a specific audience.
mechanics, grammar
In addition to the TEKS listed in this Lesson, every week teachers should also provide rigorous and explicit instruction in the Recurring TEKS: F19 (A-F)
Comprehension Skills, 1(A) Fluency: Read aloud grade-level and instructional text, 2(A-E) Vocabulary, 13(A-D) Comprehension of Media, 20 (Bi-Bii) Writing
Conventions, 21(A), Oral and Written Conventions/Spelling, 27(A) Listening and Speaking/ Speaking, 28(A) Listening and Speaking/Listening
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Course: 4 t h G r a d e W r i t i n g
Harlingen CISD
Unit Two
1st Grading Period (38 Days)
2014-2015
Quarter 3
Writing Process: Personal Narrative - All Attachments (in RED) for this Page can be found here
Prewriting: Have students revisit the Topics I Can Write About list or the Sentence Stubs they
Organizing: As we guide our students to narrow their focus and streamline their
produced during the first week of school. Were there any ideas they generated at that time that
they have not had a chance to write about? As they look over these graphic organizers, do any new
ideas come to mind?
stories to one page, we should inform them of the real-world reasons why they need
to learn how to write in a limited amount of space: Writing in a Small Space, p.910
Earlier in the year, we recommended that students use a story map or double-web
to encourage them to write stories with as many details as possible. When writing a
one-page story, however, students should plan their focused story in 3 parts,
beginning, middle, and end.
Have writers draw symbols on their planning page to help them think about the
techniques they can use to develop a good story. They can plan where they will
insert these strategies, before they begin drafting or they can revise to insert these
strategies after they have written a draft.
Using Picture Books to Generate Ideas, p.1-3 – Revisiting an old idea, but adding a new twist!
A new idea for prewriting: Trigger Words, p.4-5
Focus/ Seed Ideas, p.6-8 – Now more than ever, we need students to focus their stories on one
important moment in time
Final Draft/Publishing: Publishing Personal
Narratives, p.48 – A new idea for celebrating your students’
writing
After writing the final draft, have students fill out this
‘Reflecting on Your Writing’ page to keep with the final draft.
(Texas Write Source, p. 112) Personal Narrative Reflection,
p.49
What to Do When You Think You Are Done, p.50 – All writers
should continue working quietly while the others finish their
final drafts. Refer students to this chart to remind them of
what to do!
STAAR Personal Narrative Rubric, p.51
Conferencing:
Students use this
Narrative Revising Checklist, p.38 to give
feedback on their own and each other’s
personal narratives.
Teacher Conference, p.39
Read your students’ compositions ahead of
time, so you can decide on the one change
you will advise them to make that will make
the biggest difference in this piece of writing.
A Conferencing Tip from Georgia Heard,
p.40 – Read a student’s writing back to
him/her
Drafting: How do we teach students to write an outstanding one-page
story? We teach them to write well-developed, focused stories, without
worrying about the length. Then we teach them to prune their writing to
only the most essential parts of the story and to choose only the most
effective words to express their ideas. This process will need to be
modeled many times. See the revising lesson below: How to eliminate
unnecessary details
F.I.T. Chart, p.11 – This graphic organizer can be used while drafting or
as a revision tool to help writers develop their ideas.
Focus on the Big Moment, p.12 - This lesson will help students
determine the most important part of their writing and zoom in to write
with detail about that one important moment in their story.
Personal Narrative Criteria Chart, p.13
Editing: Editing Checklist from Lucy Calkins, p.41 Another type of Editing Checklist, p.42
Revising: Revising Leads and Conclusions, p.14-17 Revise to Improve
Sentence Boundaries, p.43 Have writers ‘frame’ each sentence of their writing to think about
whether it is a complete sentence.
Transitions, p.18
Review Snapshots and Thoughtshots, p.19-20 Show, Don't Tell Feelings, p.21
Dialogue, p.22
Once students know that their story can only be one page long, we know this will be
their biggest worry! We can alleviate this concern by modeling How to Eliminate
Unnecessary Details,p.23-27 throughout the story, especially the details leading
up to the big moment in their story.
A Look at Sentence Variety, p. 28-32 Use mentor texts to illustrate sentence
variety.
Combine short sentences to create longer, more sophisticated, compound
sentences:
How to Combine Sentences, p.33-35
Balance Some Long and Some Short Sentences, p.36-37 to create a rhythm or
Subject-verb agreement means that the subject and the verb must agree in number. If the subject is
singular, the verb must be singular; if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural.
Research to Find the Correct Spelling, p.44: We should not expect writers to spell every word
correctly in every draft. However, we do want them to think about the spelling of their words. Only
when they become aware of the words they may have trouble with, will they slow down to try
different solutions to their ‘problem words’.
flow in the writing.
Use a series of long or short sentences to create certain effects, (e.g., short
sentences to show abrupt actions or thoughts; long sentences for smooth,
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flowing descriptions; long sentences to extend time in a story.)