A Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop
By Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from TCRWP
Grade 6 Unit Map
Unit #1: Raising the Level of Personal Narrative
Time: September
and Edging Toward Memoir
Overview
Narrative writing is an essential life skill and is a key ingredient in all non-narrative forms as well. This
unit stresses the importance of students incorporating all they know about narrative writing right from
the start of the year. Since your students should by now be quite familiar with the rituals of a writers’
workshop, it is not necessary to spend weeks establishing them. A quick review and reflection should
suffice with particular attention paid to the use and importance of writers’ notebooks. Additionally, it is
important to reinforce the notion that the goal of writing workshop is to lift the level of one’s writing.
An on-demand writing assessment should be given very early to gauge what students know about
narrative writing. This task will likely show that the most students have an understanding of the
essentials of narrative writing and are ready to write one effective personal narrative during the unit.
After a few days of entry writing, students will be ready to reread all their entries (maybe during a share
session) and select one seed idea for the narrative they will eventually publish. They will then spend a
few days rehearsing before devoting one intense day to a first draft.
Lessons on revision will focus on students rereading, rethinking, and envisioning their stories with a
focus on storytelling versus summarizing. As students learn about narrative writing, some of the lessons
will be explicit (taught through minilessons and conferences) and some implicit (by looking at mentor
texts).
Students need to know that their ideas matter and their voices count. This unit provides opportunity for
both student and teacher to honor this.
Part One: Generating Narrative Writing
 Study a mentor text as a means of inspiration and emulation
 Review/Remind students of their repertoire of strategies for topic generation and the
expectation that it take no more than five minutes to complete this process
 In a single day while generating ideas, writers produce more than one entry
 Ideas for narratives can come from turning points, emotions, or major issues
Part Two: Revising Your Students’ Knowledge of Narrative Writing Even Before They Write Their Draft
 Remind/Reteach the essentials of narrative writing (zoom in, movie in the mind, create a
timeline etc.)
 Writers select a seed idea and rehearse for writing
Part Three: Writing a Rough Draft Quickly
 Using their timeline and movie in their mind write a draft quickly i.e. “flash-draft “(one class
period?)
 Teachers should be monitoring student writing to assure storytelling rather than summarizing
Part Four: Revising Drafts
 Assess and determine need for small group strategy instruction e.g., students who are using too
much dialogue
 Good writing comes from a variety of thought, action, and dialogue
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Problems and solutions are characterized by rising action and increasing tension
Develop a clear theme-tell both internal and external story
Narrative elements must be present and purposeful e.g., characters/narrator, clear situation,
setting, etc.
 Make plans based on self-reflection on their writing
Part Five: Editing and Word Study: What About Errors in Students’ Entries?
 Create an awareness of putting pronouns in proper case-subjective, objective, or possessive
 Be mindful of punctuation throughout drafting process
Part Six: Celebration
 Share final drafts publicly in a variety of ways
During this unit:
o Get to know writers by spending time individually with each student, using a variety of
assessment strategies to get to know writers
o Establish routines and expectations for the way workshop operates, including a year-long plan
for conferring regularly with all students
o Establish a system for data collection and record keeping
o Establish Writer’s Notebooks
Stage 1 – Common Core State Standards and Indicators– What must students know and be able to do?
Writing:
Text Types and Purposes:
 6.W.03 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 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.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
 6.W.05 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. (Editing for
conventions, should demonstrate command of Language Standards 1-3 up to and including
grade 6 on page 52.)
Range of Writing:
 6.W.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline- specific tasks,
purposes, and audiences.
Language:
 6.L.01 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and
usage when writing or speaking.
a. Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, possessive).
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Essential Questions for Students
1. How do I use what I already know
about narrative writing to generate
ideas, create a plan, and draft quickly?
2. How do I engage and orient the reader
by establishing a context and
introducing a narrator and/or
characters?
3. How do I revise my writing to be sure
the reader understands the intended
message or theme?
Guiding Questions for Teachers
1. How can I set challenging expectations for
students to use that they have learned about
narrative writing in previous grades?
2. How can I assure that students write in
volume?
Stage 2– Common Assessment – What is the evidence of understanding?
Universal Screens
Formative Assessment Strategies
Fall Writing on Demand Assessment
Writer’s Notebooks
Individual Writing Conferences
Stage 3 – Instruction – What learning experiences will lead to understanding?
Skills:
Key Terms/Vocabulary
flash-draft
One Possible Sequence of Teaching Points
(A Note To Teachers: Please remember that this one possible sequence of teaching points. Based on
the students in your class, you may decide to spend more time on some things and less on others. This
is a guide to help you make decisions based on the learners in front of you.)
Part One: Generating Narrative Writing
 Writers Draw on What We Already Know How to Do: “Today I want to teach you that writers get
ready to read and write by setting up places and tools that will make it easy for us to read and
write really well. We can think, ‘What have I seen or done in other years, in other times, that
made reading and writing really work for me?’”
 Writers Read Mentor Texts with a Writer’s Eye (see Session I in Raising the Quality of Narrative
Writing): “Today, what I want to teach you is this: when we want to make powerful writing, one
strategy we can use is to study the writing of authors we admire. We can read their writing and
ask, ‘What did this author do that I could also do in order to make my own writing more
powerful?’”
Mid-workshop: Writers Sometimes Collect Thinking about Issues That Affect Us (see Session I in
Memoir: The Art of Writing Well for an alternate version of the teaching described here):
“Today, before you start generating personal narrative entries, I want to teach you one more
strategy that I often use when I want to write personal narratives. This is a strategy that
especially helps me write entries that can become powerful stories. Specifically, I can think
about issues I face— how my gender, my body, my friends, the things I like or don’t like—have
affected moments in my life, as in not liking the same things as my friends and being picked on
for that, or not liking the way I look and how it kept me from doing certain things. These are
often powerful moments for me, but I know they will be powerful for my readers because many
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people face these same issues.”
Mid-workshop: Writers Sometimes Start with Strong Feelings (see Session III in Raising the
Quality of Narrative Writing): “Today I am going to teach you one more strategy that writers use
to generate personal narratives. This one is especially good for generating entries that can be
turned into really powerful true stories. We know it is easier to write well if we are writing about
small moments that are, for some reason, important ones. So usually, we’ll want to recall times
when we wanted something badly or felt something strongly. It sometimes works to think first
of a strong feeling—worry or hopefulness, embarrassment or sadness. We can write a feeling on
the top of a page, and then ask ourselves, ‘Can I remember one particular time when I felt that
feeling?’ Then we write the story of that time.”
Yesterday’s Revisions Become Today’s Standard Practice (see Session IV in Raising the Quality of
Narrative Writing): “Today, instead of helping you think about what to write, I want to help you
think about how to write. And specifically, I want to teach you this. Everything that you did to
revise and edit your last piece of writing can now move forward in your writing process,
becoming part of what you naturally do as you write an entry or a first draft. What was at one
time a revision and editing strategy ends up becoming part of planning and drafting.”
Part Two: Revising Your Students’ Knowledge of Narrative Writing Even before They Write Their Draft
 Teaching Share: Writers Select a Seed Idea to Develop into a Draft: “Today I want to teach you
that once writers have accumulated a mass of seed ideas, we search for one that we care about
so deeply we know we need to develop it into a the best story we can. We choose a seed idea
that calls to us because it carries such strong meaning for us, we can’t help but develop it to
bring out the beauty of the story.”
 Writers Ask, “What Am I Really Trying to Say?” (see Session VI in Raising the Quality of Narrative
Writing): ”Before you can decide which lead will work best for your story, or whether you want
to stretch out one section or another, you need to decide what you really want to say in your
story. You need to ask, ‘What is my story really about?’ and to realize that the same story could
be written to show very different things. You could write about going on a Ferris wheel, and
your story could show that you conquered your fear of heights. Or you could write about the
same ride on the Ferris wheel and show that when you are in a crowd of people, you always find
ways to be alone. As a writer, once you have chosen the entry that will be your seed idea, you
need to pause and think, ‘What am I really trying to say in this story?’ and then let your answer
to that question guide your work as a writer.”
 Writers Expect Depth from Their Writing (see Session III in Memoir: The Art of Writing Well): “As
we are rehearsing our idea, writers, I want to teach you that we can dive even more deeply into
our topics by writing longer about them, asking questions and answering them. We can think,
‘Why does this moment matter to me?’ and write a little bit trying to answer that question.
Then maybe say, ‘Could there be another way to look at this?’ And write a bit more. When we
both invent questions and try to answer them, we can uncover ideas we were not even aware
were already there.”
 Possible Small-Group Work for Writers Struggling to Stretch Out and Sequence Their Stories:
Writers Plan for Writing by Creating Time Lines: “Today I want to teach you that one way we can
rehearse for writing is by creating multiple time lines, thinking ‘Maybe my story will go like this .
. .’ and ‘Maybe my story will go like that . . .’ That is, we consider different starting points and
different ways the story might unfold.”
 Teaching Share: Writers Listen for Significance in Ideas: “Today I want to teach you to become
good teachers for yourselves and for each other, because each of you needs someone who can
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listen so deeply and so intently that you find yourself saying more than you thought you had to
say. Good writing teachers listen, and allow writers—the writer in each of us—to uncover layers
of an idea. Good writing teachers help us know we’ve chosen a good seed idea and help us
continue to find the words to write about that idea.”
Studying and Creating Leads (see Session VII in Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing): “Have
any of you tried to do a skateboarding trick? Or a skiing trick? Or a new dance step? If so, I bet
you’ve watched someone who can do these things—maybe in real life, maybe on TV—and then
you’ve tried to imitate that person’s prowess. I’m bringing this up because today I want to
remind you that in the same way, writers study other writers who we admire. This is how we
learn moves that we want to use in our writing. Today I want to teach you to expand your
options for writing leads by looking closely at how writers who we admire begin their stories.”
Part Three: Writing a Rough Draft Quickly
 Writers Tell the Story from Inside It (see Session VIII in Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing):
“As you work on your drafts, I have one bit of advice that I think can set you up to write an
especially true story: you need to put yourself inside the skin of the main character. (The
character is you, of course, just you in a different time and place.) Your job as a writer is to tell
the story as you see it unfolding, looking through the narrator’s eyes. Then, write on and on,
letting your pen fly.”
Part Four: Revising Drafts
 Writers Bring Forth the Internal Story (see Session IX in Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing):
“Our stories are not just what happens, they are also our responses to what happens.
Specifically, I want to teach you that if I’m going to write not only what happens but also my
response to what happens, then much of the story will be the internal story, not just the
external one.”
 Writers Revise Our Stories to Develop the Heart: “I want to teach you today that revision is about
finding and developing the potential in your piece. This means, first of all, that when we revise,
we return to drafts that seem promising to us. So today you’ll reread both the stories you’ve
written and decide which one has special promise; that will be the piece you revise and publish.
And then, once it is time to settle into serious revision, you again need to reread, asking, ‘Which
section of this do I think works especially well?’ That is, after looking for the piece that is good
enough to revise, you look for the section that is the heart of it! Usually in any story, there will
be a part where the readers should pull in to listen—the part that really matters, the heart of
the story. And one important thing we can do when we revise is find the heart of a story and
develop it further. So revision is not about cleaning up messes; it is about finding and developing
powerful writing, and one way we develop writing is by adding more to the important parts of
the story.”
Midworkshop: Writers Add Aspects of the Story That We’ve Left Out: “Today I want to teach you
that good writing comes from a variety of thought, action, and dialogue. As we reread our
drafts, we often realize that we over rely on just one of these components of storytelling. We
might realize our writing over relies on dialogue, providing just the soundtrack. When we notice
this, we revise our writing to show the aspects of the story that we have left out.”
 Writers Bring Forth the Story Arc (see Session XI in Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing):
“Today I want to teach you that just as our writing workshops usually follow one general plan or
format, so, too, stories usually follow one plan or format; they both have a ‘way they usually go.’
Writers know how stories usually go, and when we write stories, our stories tend to follow the
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same general plan. One way to revise our writing is to bring out the story structure that is
probably hiding underneath our personal narratives.”
Writers Revise, Choosing Emblematic Details (see Session X in Memoir: The Art of Writing Well):
“Our narratives are not just a record of our memory, they also let our readers in on how we feel
about the event. As we craft our writing we can place particular focus on the kinds of details we
are choosing. Today I want to teach you that writers can reveal characters not only by including
descriptions of their actions and thoughts but also by spotlighting significant details within every
aspect of our writing, even the setting. For example, if I want to show how alone I felt, I can be
sure to describe details in the setting that also feel solitary.”
Midworkshop: Writers Add Scenes from the Past and Future (see Session X in Raising the Quality
of Narrative Writing): “Today I want to teach you that characters in personal narratives
sometimes travel through time and place. We do this by remembering and fantasizing.”
Writers Revise by Thinking of Audience: Rethinking Our Leads to Make Sure We Orient the
Readers, and Rereading the Text to Make Sure We Answer Readers’ Questions: “Today I want to
teach you that writers orient their readers from the very start by establishing the situation and
introduce the narrator or characters in the story. When you reread your writing, think, ‘Is the
situation clear to my readers? Do they know not only when and where this is happening, but
also why it matters?’”
Writers Create Powerful Ending for Our Stories (see Session XII in Raising the Quality of Narrative
Writing): “Today I want to help you wrestle with just one part of your story arc, and that’s the
part represented by the words ‘and so, finally . . .’ Today I want to remind you that writers don’t
just end stories, they resolve their problems, change their feelings, learn their lessons.”
Part Five: Editing and Word Study: What about Errors in Students’ Entries?
 Writers Edit Our Stories, Studying Punctuation in Mentor Texts (see Session XIII in Raising the
Quality of Narrative Writing): “Whenever you want to learn a punctuation mark’s secret, when
you are ready to add its power to your writing, what you have to do is study that mark. You have
to scrutinize it, examine it, study it with both your eyes and your whole mind to figure out what
it does. Today, what I want to teach you is this: You can figure out any punctuation mark’s
secrets by studying it in great writing.”
 Teaching Share: Writers Use Peer Editors to Strengthen Our Writing: “Today I want to teach you
that in this class, we have a great number of resources to strengthen our writing: each other!
Our peer editors can look at our work with fresh eyes, helping us to notice ways in which we can
improve the mechanics of our writing.”
 Writers Check for Clarity in Their Pronouns: “The words we put on the page can help or confuse
our readers. One thing to check for is how we refer to people in our writing. Sometimes, for
example, we use the word he, but as a reader we might be uncertain who the he is in the story.
When I edit, it is helpful for me to look for those words, called pronouns, and check if the person
I am referring to has been mentioned recently, and if not, I will correct it. Either I will change the
he to a name, or I will make sure that in a close sentence I used his name.”
Part Six: Celebration
 A Writing Community Celebrates by Reading Aloud Our Writing (see Session XIV in Raising the
Quality of Narrative Writing): “Today, we’ll hear a few stories together as a community. And
then we’ll disperse to our story corners. It is here where we can have a more intimate
audience.”
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Resources:
Calkins, Lucy and Colleagues. 2011. A Curricular Plan for The Writing Workshop, Grade 6. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann.
Calkins, Lucy. 2006. “Memoir: The Art of Writing Well (mini-lesson Expecting Depth from Our Writing”
and “Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing.” Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cisneros, Sandra. 1994. “Eleven.” Literature and Language. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell & Co.
Fletcher, Ralph. 1996. A Writer’s Notebook- Unlocking the Writer Within You. Evanston, Illinois:
McDougal Littell & Co.
Fletcher, Ralph. 2000. How a Writer Works- Finding a Process that Works For You. New York: Harper
Collins.
Fletcher, Ralph. “Eating the World” or “Statue.” Marshfield Dreams.
Mentor Texts:
Websites and Technology:
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