Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
Stage 1 - Desired Results
Unit Summary
In this unit, students will receive a brief overview of reading and writing genres as an activator for later
study throughout the year. Students will engage in effective reading and writing strategies, including a
review of basic parts of speech. Students will examine the components of fictional texts by examining
novels and short stories, and review and use the writing process to develop original compositions of
varied length.
Transfer goal: Students will leave the class able to use their learning to understand that we use a
variety of literary genres for an array of purposes. Students will learn to distinguish between genres
and will experience, access, and utilize each effectively.
Content Standards and Learning Expectations
Listening/Speaking
L/S.9.4 Uses a variety of language patterns and structures to explain text and discuss topics and
themes; expresses thoughts and opinions to analyze plot, problem, and solution, make predictions and
inferences, and draw conclusions from listening to a variety of texts and multimedia sources.
Reading
R.9.3 Analyzes characters and traits; explains setting in fiction and nonfiction; distinguishes between
first person, third person, and omniscient point of view.
R.9.4 Organizes plot; establishes cause and effect relationships; makes connections, predictions,
inferences, draws conclusions, and classifies conflicts in narrative, expository, and persuasive texts.
R.9.5 Distinguishes between fact and opinion in narrative and expository texts; states and paraphrases
main idea and selects important details.
Writing
W.9.2 Distinguishes appropriate and incorrect grammar structure; applies a variety of syntactic styles
in writing.
W.9.5 Uses basic editing marks and revising techniques; uses reference sources to verify information;
writes a final draft using the writing process.
Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings:
Essential Questions:
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Literature both reflects and contributes to
knowledge.
We use a variety of literary genres for an array
of purposes in written language.
Effective readers and writers are actively
involved with the text.
Conventions of language help readers
understand what is being communicated.
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In what ways does literature contribute to our
understanding of the world?
How is each genre used to express ideas?
How do we determine the appropriate genre
for a specific purpose?
How does the correct use of language
conventions help convey specificity and
meaning to written text.
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Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
Content (Students will know…)
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Skills (Students will be able to…)
Characters, character traits, and setting in
fiction
Plot, problem, solution in texts.
Main idea or topic and important details
Appropriate and incorrect grammar structure
Sources for reference
Content Vocabulary
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narrative
expository
persuasive
genre
character traits
plot, setting, and point of view
resolution
prewriting, drafting, revising, editing,
publishing
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Use a variety of language patterns and
structures to discuss topics and themes.
Organize plot.
Express thoughts and opinions.
Paraphrase, draw conclusions, and summarize
text information.
Construct a composition.
Verify information.
Use basic editing marks and revising
techniques.
Write a final draft using the writing process.
Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks
Other Evidence
My Goals for 9th Grade English
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After studying the writing process, students
will write a short essay explaining their goals
for English class this year.
As a pre-writing activity, students will
brainstorm goals (write them down quickly
without editing for spelling or content).
Students will choose the 3 goals that are most
important to them and write an outline for
their essay. Other pre-writing activities are
available here:
http://www.eslflow.com/academicwritng.htm
l
Students will use their outline to write a first
draft of their essay.
After drafting the essay, students should use
an editing checklist to edit and revise their
work. Peer editing may also be used. (See
attachment 9.1: Performance Task – Editing
checklist).
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Reading Log – Students will keep a running
record of books read throughout the unit, and
throughout the year, including title and pages
read.
Genre Flip Book – See Learning Activities
section “Genre Overview”
Eight Parts of Speech Quiz – Students are
given sentences and instructed to label the
parts of speech.
Story Map for read aloud novel – Tuck
Everlasting – (see attachment: 9.1 Learning
Activity – Story map)
Elements of Fiction group work – See Learning
Activities, Elements of fiction, bullet 4
Create a Word Wall as a class using unit
vocabulary and new concepts/words students
encounter in texts they read during the unit.
Students will create individual word “walls” in
their reading logs for unknown words they
encounter while reading.
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Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
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A final draft should be submitted to the
teacher, along with all graphic organizers and
rough drafts. Students will be assessed on
their adherence to the topic, use of the
writing process steps including completion of
each step, and accuracy of the final draft.
Elements of Fiction Mini Book1
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After reading Tuck Everlasting (or another
novel or short story of the teacher’s choosing)
with the class and studying elements of fiction
(see Learning Activities), students will
demonstrate their understanding of the
elements of fiction by making a mini-book
about the novel.
 Students will
o identify elements of fiction (plot, problem,
character, setting, and theme).
o analyze a fiction book, locating elements
of plot within that book.
o communicate elements of plot in their
book, in visual and written form, by
producing a mini-book.
o celebrate reading by sharing their books
with their classmates in either pairs or
small groups.
 As a prewriting activity, have each student list
on a sheet of paper the elements they will
include in the pages of their book. The books
will comprise eight pages, including
o Cover (p. 1)—students will write the title
of the book they read, and then design an
alternate cover of their choosing (based on
something from the book such as a
recurring symbol).
o Printed copyright information (p. 2).
o Plot summary and descriptions of the main
character, setting, conflict, and theme (pp.
3–7).
o Author biographical information (p. 8).
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Source: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/book-report-alternative-elements138.html
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Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
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Students will, in one or two sentences each,
summarize the plot and describe the main
character, setting, conflict, and theme of the
books they read.
Students will revise their drafts as needed.
They will then draw pictures on each page,
representing the element being discussed.
Students will discuss their books with the
teacher in one-on-one conferences in order
for the student to demonstrate the ability to
use appropriate language to discuss and
analyze the text.
Stage 3 - Learning Plan
Learning Activities
Overview of the writing process
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Introduce and review the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing).
Provide notes and discuss the steps using examples (see attachment 9.1: Learning Activity –
Writing Process Notes).
Students will practice editing and revising by editing sample paragraphs such as those available for
printing here: http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/proofreading.html . If internet access is
not available to the teacher, he or she can write paragraphs with various errors for the students to
edit.
Students will demonstrate basic comprehension of the steps of the writing process by completing
the Performance Task “My Goals for 9th Grade English” and will continue working with the writing
process throughout the year.
Genre overview
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Discuss the traits of the different genres. Provide students with a note chart to be completed
together during the lecture and discussion.
GENRE
DESCRIPTION
Personal
Narrative
A true story about something that
happened to the person telling the
story.
EXAMPLES
(A few examples that would be
familiar to the students can be
provided by the teacher and students
should add to this section of the chart
throughout the year as they read
from the genres.)
Fictional Narrative
Memoir
Etc…
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Read selections from model texts that represent the different genres. Lead the students in a
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Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
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discussion of the traits of the text that demonstrate the genre and the differences between the
selections.
Group Activity: Provide small groups with selections from texts and have them read the selections
together and categorize the texts according to the definitions. Have groups share their findings by
giving a brief synopsis of each text and explaining their reasoning for their decisions on genre
categorization.
Flip Book: Direct the students to create a flip book as a study guide for the genres. Students can
write descriptions and draw pictures to represent each genre (see attachment 9.1: Learning
Activity – Make a Flipbook).
What effective readers do
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Fiction Read-Aloud: Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt (This is a suggested text. Any enjoyable,
age-appropriate fiction novel can be used.) – Introduce the anticipation guide as a pre-reading
strategy. An anticipation guide is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and
build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to or read several statements
about key concepts presented in the text which should be structured as a series of statements. The
students can choose to agree or disagree and present reasons for their opinions. After reading, the
anticipation guide can be revisited to see if reading the novel changed the students’ opinions
concerning the statements (see attachment 9.1: Learning Activity – Anticipation guide – this can be
modified to fit any novel that the teacher chooses to read and study).
o Suggested statements:
 It would be wonderful to live forever.
 Everyone who commits a crime must be punished.
 People should have control over life and death.
 Living means always changing.
 Whenever you see an opportunity to make money, you should take it.
 Think-Pair-Share Pre-reading activity: Ask students to think about the possible advantages and
disadvantages of never growing any older. With a partner, share their thoughts and discuss the
advantages and disadvantages together.
o The teacher should provide sentence starters as a scaffold for students who need them. (Can be
printed on paper or written on the board as a reference. (Example: “I think that never growing
older ____.” “An advantage to never growing older would be ____.” “A disadvantage to never
growing older would be ____.”
 Read a portion of Tuck Everlasting to the class each day and assign chapters for independent
reading to complete the novel within 4 weeks. Preview/Review each chapter to help the students
better comprehend what has been read and anticipate the upcoming chapter.
The eight parts of speech
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Review the eight basic parts of speech (noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition,
conjunction, interjection). Provide notes (see attachment 9.1 Learning Activity – Parts of Speech).
Provide students with an opportunity to practice identifying the parts of speech by writing
sentences on the board and having students label the words correctly, either in their notebooks or
on the board.
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Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
Practice sentences:
o Stop! (verb)
o John works. (noun, verb)
o John is working. (noun, verb)
o She loves animals. (Pronoun, verb, noun)
o Animals like kind people. (noun, verb, adjective, noun)
o Tara speaks English well. (noun, verb, noun, adverb)
o She ran to the store quickly. (pronoun, verb, preposition, noun, adverb)
o She likes small dogs but I hate them. (pronoun, verb, adjective, noun, interjection, pronoun,
verb, pronoun)
o Well, she and young John walk to school slowly. (interjection, pronoun, conjunction, adjective,
noun, verb, preposition, noun, adverb)
Elements of fiction
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Define the elements of fiction (setting, characters, plot, point of view, topic, and theme) and give
notes. Refer to the left side of attachment 9.1: Learning Activity – Story Map for guidance.
Using a few model fictional narrative short stories, lead the class in identifying the elements of
fiction of each.
Discuss the plot structure of a selected short story, review the plot map, and complete it together.
Print or draw on the map paper. Example available here:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/graphic-organizer-plot-diagram (also see
attachment 9.1: Learning Activity – Story Map)
Group work: Give each small group an imaginative short story selection (all groups may work with
the same story or the teacher may choose to use a different story for each group). The groups
should work together to identify elements of fiction in the story as well as to focus on the plot
structure (initiating conflict, rising action, climax, falling actions and resolution) of their assigned
story. Results can be shared using Story Map graphic organizer (see attachment 9.1: Learning
Activity – Story Map).
Individual Work: Encourage students to examine the read-aloud novel (Tuck Everlasting) to identify
the elements of plot structure and to create of plot map for the novel. Students should also
identify the elements of fiction in the novel.
Sample Lessons
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Book Report Alternative: The Elements of Fiction http://www.readwritethink.org/classroomresources/lesson-plans/book-report-alternative-elements-138.html?tab=1#tabs
Story Elements Alive! http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/storyelements-alive-1073.html?tab=3#tabs
Additional Resources
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Full-text short stories, novels, poems, etc from a variety of genres: http://www.searchlit.org/
Implementing the Writing Process: http://www.readwritethink.org/professionaldevelopment/strategy-guides/implementing-writing-process-30386.html
Rubric creator: http://rubistar.4teachers.orgg/
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Unit 9.1: Genres Overview, Elements of Fiction
English as a Second Language
6 weeks
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Graphic organizers: http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizerr/
Pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading strategies:
http://www.readinga-z.com/more/reading_strat.html
Literature Connections
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Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (fictional narrative)
Hatchet by Gary Paulson (fiction)
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett (fiction)
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (fiction – fantasy)
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch (fictional narrative)
Junmangi by Chris Van Allsburg (fictional narrative)
Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan (fiction)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (fiction)
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki (personal narrative)
But I’ll Be Back Again by Cynthia Rylant (personal narrative)
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (memoir)
My Mama Had a Dancing Heart by Libba Moore Gray (memoir)
The Magic School Bus Series by Joanna Cole (informational)
Sharks by Seymour Simon (informational)
Jackie Robinson by Dan Elish (biography)
Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks (autobiography)
Temper, Temper by Bruce Lansky (drama)
Free Agent by Timothy Tocher (drama)
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carrol (poetry)
Hist Wist by E.E. Cummings (poetry)
READ XL (Ninth grade) Textbook
o War of the Worlds by Orson Welles page 122 (Play: Cause and Effect)
o Masquerade by Phyllis Fair Cowell page 36 (Short Story: Cause and Effect)
o The Fish Story by Mary Lou Brooks page 38 (Short Story: Analyze Plot)
o The Jigsaw by J.B. Stamper page 40 (Short Story: Analyze Plot)
June 2012
Adapted from Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
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