AISD Writing Unit of Study- Kindergarten
Genre: Narrative
Definition: To tell a story
Focus Forms: Personal Narrative, Memoir, and Autobiography
TEKS: (18) Students write literary texts to express their ideas & feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas. Students are expected to:
(A) write brief stories that include a beginning, middle, & end.
Writing Process: (13) Students use elements of the writing process. Students (with adult assistance) are expected to:
(A) plan a first draft by generating ideas for writing through a class discussion
(B) develop drafts by sequencing the action and details in the story
(C) revise drafts by adding details, or sentences
(D) edit drafts by leaving spaces between letters and words
(E) share writing with others
Understandings (possible anchor charts)
Essential Skills and Concepts (possible mini-lessons)
Mentor Texts
(what students should understand)
(what students should be able to do)
(what students might use to support their work)
Understand how to craft personal narratives and
memoirs (orally, in picture, and/or print) from
mentor texts
Understand that a story from your life is usually
written in first person (using I)
Understand that writers tell stories from their own
lives (orally, in picture, and/or print)
Understand that the writer can look back or think
about the memory or experience and share
thoughts or feelings about it (orally, in picture,
and/or print)
Understand that a story should be one that is
important to the writer
Think of topics, events, or experiences from own life
that are interesting to write about
Understand that a story can be a “small moment”
(description of a brief but memorable experience)
Explain one’s thoughts and feelings about an
experience or event (orally, in picture, and/or print)
Write an engaging beginning and satisfying ending to
stories
Provide some descriptive details to make the story more
interesting
Use simple words that show the passage of time
(then, after)
Develop voice as a writer by telling own stories or
memories from own life (orally, in picture, and/or print)
Tell a story across several pages in order to develop the
story or idea (orally, in picture, and/or print)
Tell events in order that they occurred in personal
narratives (orally, in picture, and/or print)
Usually write in first person to achieve strong voice
A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams (Spanish)
Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco (Spanish)
Crab Moon by Ruth Horowitz
Do Like Kyla by Angela Johnson
Joshua’s Night Whispers by Angela Johnson
Just Us Women by Jeanette Franklin Caines
It's Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel
by Jamie Lee Curtis
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn (Spanish)
The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson
Mis abuelos y yo / My Grandparents and I
by Samuel Caraballo (Spanish)
Night Shift Daddy by Eileen Spinelli
Shortcut by Donald Crews
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Spanish)
Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day
by Jamie Lee Curtis
The Two of Them by Aliki
When I Was Little by Jamie Lee Curtis
Professional Resources
(books for teachers to make all this happen)
Already Ready by Matt Glover
The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8
by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas
Craft Lessons by Ralph Fletcher
How’s It Going? by Ralph Fletcher
Mentor Texts (chapter 2) by Lynne R. Dorfman
Models for Teaching Writing- Craft Target Skills (page 99)
by Maria S. Freeman
The Resourceful Writing Teacher (section 2)
by Jenny Mechem Bender
Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray
Units of Study for Primary Writing – A Year Long Curriculum
“Small Moments” (book 2) by Lucy Calkins
*Bold items in Essential Skills and Concepts = new skills in kindergarten