FOURTH GRADE LITERARY ESSAY WRITING UNIT



Personal Narrative/Small Moment Writing Unit

Grade 2 | |

|Desired Results for the Unit |

|GOALS (What are our relevant goals for this unit?) |

| |

|Student will write a narrative account of personal significance. |

|Students make meaning though storytelling. |

|OUTCOMES OF UNDERSTANDING (To achieve our goals, what understandings will be needed?) |ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: (What essential questions will focus our goals, stimulate conversation, and guide our|

|Students will understand that… |actions?) |

|Writers develop a sense of purpose | |

|Writers write with an audience in mind |What is your story? Why is it important to you? |

|Writers tell and write stories that carry personal meaning |Why is your story important? Who are you telling it to? |

|A small moment is a cohesive narrative or chronological account using a sequence of micro events |What is the heart of your story? How do the pieces relate to the heart of your story? |

|Writers plan using a timeline |How does your writing hold the interest of your reader? |

|Writers elaborate parts of their writing using descriptive language, dialogue, thoughts, feelings, | |

|emotions, showing not telling etc.) | |

|Writers reread their work to revise and edit | |

|Assessment Evidence |

|CULMINATING PROJECTS AND PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF LEARNING: |INFORMAL ASSESSMENTS: (What are the key observable indicators of short and long term progress? What data |

|Small moment narratives |should be collected?) |

|Publishing party |Conferencing’ |

| |Student self-assessment checklist |

|Resources |

|UNIT RESOURCES: (What materials and resources are needed to support this unit?) |STUDENT RESOURCES: |

|Mentor texts (Memoirs, RF, Personal Narratives): Chicken Sunday, Just us Women, Owl Moon, Snowy Day, |Small moment outline planning page |

|Kissing Hand, Chair for my Mother, When I was in the Mountains, The Two of Them, Shortcut, Fireflies, Salt|Small moment paper booklets |

|Hands, Do Like Kyla, Joshua’s Night Whispers, Nightshift Daddy, I Fly | |

|TC Small Moment Personal Narrative Writing Unit (Book 2) | |

|Charts: Generating Ideas for small moment writing | |

| | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY |

|WEEK 1: |TP: Writers choose a seed idea from|TP: Writers choose a seed idea from|TP: Writers select a small moment from|TP: Writers organize their writing |TP: Writers look at their |

|Generating |writer’s notebook, list the small |writer’s notebook, list the small |the list they generated. Tell your |by putting the parts in order by |timelines. Tell your partner the |

| |moments that pertain to it and |moments that pertain to it and |partner the moment by stretching it |using sequencing words –i.e. First,|small moment story by stretching it|

|attention to narrowing |write about it |write about it |out across your fingers. What happened|then, after, next last….(timelines).|out across your fingers. Sketch |

|focus & sequential order | | |in the beginning, middle and end? |Students pick one small moment from |out a few boxes to help capture |

| | |Let’s get more specific! Break down|Sketch out a few boxes to help capture|their list and create a timeline for|beginning, middle & end of small |

|(working in notebook) | |small moment lists even further! |beginning, middle & end of small |that story in their notebook. |moment. Write about that small |

| | | |moment | |moment |

|WEEK 2: |TP: Writers organize their writing |TP: Writers select a seed idea by |TP: Writers continue to organize their|TP: Writers plan to write a book, |TP: Writers stretch out writing |

|Drafting |using sequencing words – timelines |choosing one small moment to bring |small moment timelines – teachers |touching each page and saying what |across book pages, adding |

| | |through the writing process. |model and students continue to develop|goes there |description and detail by choosing |

|Read Owl Moon prior to |They look at a mentor text, |Writers first orally tell story |their own timelines | |precise words |

|Monday’s workshop |research how an author organizes a |across fingers. Begin to organize | | | |

| |small moments focused on the |writing on a timeline planning page| | | |

|Introduce graphic Organizer|important parts of a story and |as modeled previous day | | | |

|& booklets |revise a timeline and/or create a | | | | |

| |new one | | | | |

| |(Introduce booklets) | | | | |

|WEEK 3: |TP: Writers stretch out writing |TP: Writers learn to reveal their |TP: Writers improve their writing with|TP: Writers craft strong leads by |TP: Writers end their stories with |

|Revising/Editing |across book pages, adding |internal stories by adding in their|show not tell |starting with a question, describing|an emotional statement or message |

| |description and detail by choosing |feelings and thoughts | |a specific image or surprising the |to the reader |

| |appropriate dialogue | | |reader | |

|WEEK 4: |TP: Writers reread their stories to|TP: Writers reread their stories to|TP: Writers reread their stories to |TP: Writers Publish |TP: Writers Publish |

|Editing/Publishing |edit their work for punctuation to |edit their work for spelling to |edit their work for grammar to assist | | |

| |assist the reader |assist the reader |the reader | | |

Writing Workshop

Small Moments: Personal Narrative Writing

2nd Grade Mini-Lessons

Lesson 1

Writers come up with a topic we care

about and list small moments pertaining to it

Materials Needed: Chart paper, markers, writer’s notebook, and pencils

Connection: “Writers we’ve started talking about some strategies that writers use to help us think of things to write about. We learned that writers sometimes think about a person that is really important to them and think about a special memory that tells about a time you spent with that person. This helps us get started writing a story in which we tell what happened first, then next, then next. (You’ll notice lots of ways in which we subtly remind children that when writing narratives, these stories retell events and they progress through time.)”

“Today I’m going to teach you another strategy to add to our list of ways to get ideas for writing. I’m going to show you how to take one idea and make a list underneath that idea of tiny moments that matter to you and are connected to the idea. The big idea should be something that really matters a lot to you because if you just put down any old thing, like, “hats”, and you don’t really care that much about hats, you’re not going to want to write about anything on your list! So today I’ll teach you a strategy for coming up with true stories that you care about.”

Write on chart paper the title “How to Get Ideas for Writing” or something similar.

Teach: “Notice how I use this strategy. First, I want to write something I care about on top of my page. Umm… ok, I’ll write, ‘Taking Care of a Baby--Dimitris’. Of course, Dimitris matters a whole, whole lot to me, and also, I know I have a zillion tiny moments I could write about him if I just relax and let them come to me. Watch me make my list.” (Shift into role of writer. You will probably want to use your own story. The story you invent now will thread through many minilessons. Look ahead to see how it’ll be used.)

“I’m thinking of my son Dimitris. The first thing that comes to my mind is

I remember early one cold morning before the sun came up, the two of us sat in the warm kitchen dressed in our flannel pajamas. I was feeding Dimitris warm breakfast cereal made of pureed oatmeal, formula and apricots. After drinking his usual 4 ounces of milk, he watched me fill a small red baby spoon with the brownish-orange oatmeal mix. I lifted it to his lips. Dimitris smiled and opened his mouth wide took a bite and puckered his lips and squinted his eyes and shook his head left and right and left and right. “No” he was saying with his body language “no, no, yuck, yuck.” His teary eyes opened and he spit out his food onto his clean white high-chair tray. I tasted the brown mush and it was as sour as lemon or an unripe plum. I fixed another bowl of oatmeal, but this time, I thinly sliced a ripe banana. His healthy, happy smile told me he was grateful.

(Notice this is a chronological story of an everyday small episode.)

write on chart paper:

Taking Care of My Baby Dimitris

• Feeding him solid food for the first time

“What else…Oh, I know! A tiny moment I could put on my list is the first time I gave him a bath. It was kind of shocking and scary for me, but I also learned that it can be a really fun time for us to bond together.”

• first time I gave him a bath

“Another tiny moment I remember is when he said his first words.

• Encouraging Dimitris to say his first words

Three examples are plenty. Notice they are varied; they are also each a focused narrative.

“I’ve got a lot more moments to add to my list about how taking care of Dimitris, and I can add them any time! But for now, I’m going to choose one moment from my list – I’m going to write about the first time I fed him solid foods. I’ll begin with …

I remember early one cold morning before the sun came up.”

“So writers, if we want to find true stories to write, we can think about a person that is important in our life and write a story about that person or we can list tiny moments that matter about something and then take one moment and write about it.”

Active Engagement: “Now let’s try making a list of tiny moments about one thing. (Take an experience the class shared together so that everyone can contribute to the list.) How about recess time? Think for a moment about a tiny moment or memory from recess. Give me thumbs up when you have a great little story about one thing that happened at recess. Okay, will you all turn to the person next to you and share one tiny moment about recess that comes to your mind?”

[As students talk to each other, you can sit beside different pairs for a minute to eavesdrop for some ideas to bring back to the whole class.]

“Oooh! I love hearing about these tiny moments from recess! Like yesterday when ….(share two examples is plenty)

“Now that we have this list of moments about recess, we can go back and write about one of these times.”

Link: ““So, writers, any time you need to generate ideas for writing, you can use this same strategy! Let’s add this one to our list of ways to get ideas for writing.”

On the “How to Get Ideas for Writing” chart, under “Think about a person that is important to you and remember an episode,” write “List tiny moments about something that matters.”

“So today, you’ll continue to collect true story details for your stories. You can use any of these strategies.” (Point to the chart.)

Share: “Writers I love how some students selected a topic they care a lot about and then all the moments they could think of that pertain to that moment. I was also impressed to see that some people circled one they wanted to write about and started writing.

(Share one or two examples of a focused, detailed story that a child has written. You can comment on what the student did well as a writer…Don’t you love that detail, how they incorporated dialogue, used lots of different types of sentences, etc..’ Read your children’s work like their texts are precious jewels!)

“You just planned to use a terrific strategy that you can always use to help you come up with an idea to write about. Any time when you want to come up with an idea for writing a true story from your life, you can think about something that is really important to you and then remember the moments that pertain to that idea. You can then write the story.”

Lessons 3

Writers plan by telling one’s story across one’s fingers

Connection: “Writers, remember yesterday we learned about choosing ‘seed-sized’ topics instead of ‘watermelon-sized’ topics. You did such a great job with that! As you write more entries, I want you to remember to keep your stories really small, like little seeds, and to not write all you can think of about a huge topic.”

“Today I want to teach you another strategy that writers use to help us write the stories of our lives really well. Today’s writing strategy helps you remember what happened first, then second, and next, and next, until the end. An easy way to retell something that happened first, then second, and so on is to make a timeline for your story. Lots of writers use this strategy because it really helps us organize our writing.”

Teaching: “Let me show you how I can make a timeline of an event from my life in a way that helps me write it clearly. On a timeline, you just write a few words that help you remember how it happened. Let’s see…I’ll retell the time I saw a porcupine in the park. Here’s how it went:”

[Again, you should insert your own story here, or you could use a student’s story that you think will demonstrate this concept. It would be best, for this lesson, to write out the events on the timeline right in front of the children. Think aloud in front of them about what came first, second, etc. You can even change your mind mid-stream about what order things happened in.]

After breakfast, I decided to go to the park. Then, I walked into the park. After that, I sat at the park reading a book. I heard someone scream. I saw a porcupine.

Teachers this isn’t a focused story on purpose – look ahead to Session 5. Your English language learners will benefit from help telling the story in past tense and using transition words (then, after, next, etc.). We’ll help you with this.

“No, wait a minute. I heard someone scream, and then what I did was I just sat there for a few minutes, waiting to see what happened. After a bit, I was just too curious about it. I had to get up and walk over to where the scream came from. So let me fix my timeline and put that part in.”

I heard someone scream. I sat there. Then I wondered what it was so I walked to where I heard the noise. I saw a porcupine.

Active Engagement: “Let’s use our story about standing under the tree at recess and practice making a timeline. With your neighbor, say how a timeline could go of what happened first, then second, then third when you went under the tree at recess. Let’s make a total of five dots on our recess story timeline. If you aren’t sure what happened with that tree – if you weren’t there – just pretend you were.”

Remember that you can revisit the same story again and again as you teach new writing strategies. The story you use here should be one that most of the children in your class have experienced or are familiar with. The tree story isn’t the best choice for that reason!

“I heard some ideas for our five dots about standing under the tree at recess. I’ll write them in a timeline on this chart. Okay…Willie, you said “We went outside for recess and when we got outside we realized it was a horrible, hot day.” I’m going to make that into two dots because first we had to go outside, THEN we realized how horribly hot it was:

• We went outside

• We realized it was a horrible, hot day

“Then, Amanda what happened next?

Continue with the five dots.

“Did you see how we took a tiny event that happened to us and we remembered the time, then made a timeline that helped us retell what happened first, next, then?”

Link: “Now you know how to make a timeline for what happened in your story. Today, you may want to think of a seed-sized story you can tell in your next entry and make a timeline for what came first, then second, and so on. Or you can use any other strategy (refer to the chart) to come up with ideas to improve your stories.” One possible chart:

Mid-Workshop Teaching Point

“Writers, may I interrupt you? I want to teach you another strategy for telling your story in the exact order that it happened. Sometimes writers retell their story on their hands like this: Use one finger for each thing that happened: On my thumb, I say, “We went outside for recess.” On my index finger I say, “It was horribly hot outside.” On my middle finger I say, “It was too hot to play even.” On my ring finger I say, “I looked around and saw Christina standing under that one little tree in the yard.” On my pinky I say, “I got under the shade with her, and so did Willie, Amanda, Fatima…”

“Writers, try that now with your neighbor. Try telling your story out loud to each other and tell it in order across your fingers.”

Lesson 4 & 7

Teach children to organize writing using sequencing words

Connection: “Writers, yesterday we were working on listing tiny moments that we spent with a person who is important to us.”

“Today, I want to teach you a way that writers organize their writing.”

Teaching: “Let me show you how I can make a timeline of an event in my life in a way that helps me write it clearly. On a timeline, you write a few words that help you remember how the event happened.”

“Watch me as I retell the time that I caught a fish with my dad.”

Demonstration:

#1- “One morning I was having breakfast with my family and we were eating delicious pancakes. My sister was sitting with us at the table, painting seashells that she collected on the beach. She was painting them blue, green and red. She even put sparkles on some of the shells. After breakfast, my dad and I decided to walk to the fishing pier to try to catch some fish. Then, my dad showed me how to use a fishing rod. All of a sudden, I saw a splash and felt a tug at the end of the line. I leaned over to see what was pulling so hard! I saw a small grey fish at the end of the line.

“Wait a minute…I need to fix my timeline because I had way too much information in that story.”

#2- “After breakfast, my dad and I decided to walk to the fishing pier to try and catch some fish. Then my dad showed me how to use the fishing rod. All of a sudden, I saw a splash and felt a tug at the end of the line. I leaned over to see what it was that was pulling so hard! I saw a small grey fish at the end of the line.”

#3- Now watch as I put the events of my story on this timeline using the sequencing words first, second, next, then, and last. (plot the story on the timeline in front of the class and show them as I count out each specific event on my five fingers.)

Timeline-

First: Dad and I walked to the fishing pier.

Second: Dad showed me how to use the rod.

Next: I saw a splash and felt a tug.

Then: I leaned over to see what it was.

Last: I saw a grey fish at the end of the line.

“Did you notice how I used a timeline to help me to organize my writing? Writers do that…they tell what happened using sequencing words, first, second, next, then, and last.”

Active Involvement: “Now it is your turn to try it. You and your writing partners are going to think about the Halloween parade. Let’s start first with when we put on our costumes in Ms. Gluck’s room. (write that on the timeline). Turn to your partner and finish organizing your story using your 5 fingers and sequencing words. “

Students try it with their partners and then they will share events from the Halloween parade that we will add to the rest of the timeline together.

Link: “Today we’re going to go back to our journals and create a timeline for a story that you want to tell. Remember, we are not telling a huge story, but really picking a small story and saying what happened first, second, next, then, and last.

Independent writing: Students will create their own timelines as teachers walk around and watch Stacey model conferencing.

Lesson 6

Writers organize small moments by creating a timeline of the important parts

(Owl Moon mentor text)

Connection: Yesterday we were working on using sequencing words first, second, next, then and last to help create a small moment timeline of the most important parts of the story. Today I want to teach you that writers take a small moment and stretch it out to make it an even longer story.

Teach: When I think back to the story Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, I notice that Yolen takes a small moment about going owling and stretches it across the pages with careful attention to setting detail, what’s happening and description. Watch me as I map out the timeline of Owl Moon. Notice how Yolen stretches the moment by giving us those tiny little details that make it exciting for the reader. But also notice how this timeline focuses on the most important parts.

Going Owling

First pa and boy walked out to the line of the pine trees in the woods

Second Pa called out the sounds of the Great Horned Owl and waited

Next Owl called back like an echo, “whooo, whooo”

Then owl flew right over, landed on a branch and they stared at each other

Last owl flew away and pa and boy walk home

Did you notice how I mapped out the timeline of Owl Moon? Writers organize their small moments by creating a timeline of the most important parts.

Active Engagement: Now it’s your turn to try. Turn and talk to your partner. List what happens first, second, then, next and last in Owl Moon.

Link: Today you will go back to you seat and practice using a planning page by organizing the timeline from Owl Moon using a planning page/timeline.

HW: Finish Owl Moon timelines

Lessons 7 & 8

Writers organize small moment pieces using timelines

Teach: Teacher models her own outline and children work on revising theirs

Active Engagement: Turn and tell your partner what you plan to do on your timeline, pointing to each box.

Link: Students revise outlines to be focused on moments

HW: work on focusing timelines

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

Writers plan to write a book,

touching each page and saying what will go there

Teach: Teachers models how to take First box and stretch out across a whole page, adding description and detail. Kids work on page 1 and 2.

Active Engagement: Turn and tell your partner what will go on each page, touching one at a time

Link: Student work on stretching pages 1 & 2

HW: Finish page 1 and 2

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

Writers stretch out writing across book pages,

adding description and detail by choosing precise words

Teach: Teacher models how to take second and next boxes and stretch out across page, paying attention to precise word choice.

Active Engagement: Turn and tell your partner about the places you will use precise words in your story.

Link: Students work on stretching pages 2-4 with precise word choice.

HW: work on pages 1-4

Lesson 11

Writers stretch out writing across book pages,

adding description and detail by choosing appropriate dialogue to add in

Teach: Teacher models how to take then and last boxes and stretch out across pages, adding in dialogue when appropriate.

Active engagement: Place a start in a place you want to add dialogue. Turn and tell you partner what you plan to say there.

Link: Student work on stretching all pages with consideration to description and detail by being specific about word choice and incorporating dialogue

HW: work on pages 1-5: revising word choice and dialogue

Lesson 12

Writers learn to reveal their internal stories

Teach: Teacher uses student text as model to highlight how thoughts and feelings can be incorporated into writing.

Active engagement: Students reread first page of story and find a place where they can add in thinking or feeling. Turn and tell partner.

Link: Find several places to add in internal thinking.

HW: Add internal stories to draft pages 1-5.

Lesson 12

Lesson 13

Writers improving their writing by showing not telling

Teaching Point: Writers improve their writing with show not tell.

Teach: Teacher uses student text to highlight parts where a student balances between telling (almost reporting) and showing (painting a picture).

Active engagement: Students act out the actions of the student writing to notice details of voice, breathing, sound, movements, etc.

Link: Find places to show not tell.

HW: Students continue finding places to show not tell on pages 1-5.

Lesson 14

Writers craft strong leads by starting with a question,

describing a specific image, stepping into an action or surprising the reader

Teach: Teacher uses mentor texts to model each type of lead.

Active engagement: Students turn and talk to plan what type of lead they will craft to start their story.

HW: Students work on revising leads by choosing precise language.

Lesson 13

Lesson 15

Writers sometimes end their stories with an emotional

statement or message to the reader

Teach: Teacher models how she could end her story in two different ways: crafting and emotional statement or a deeper message to the reader about why their story is important.

Active engagement: Students turn and talk to come up with two ways to end a shared class story (i.e. Halloween parade)

Link: Craft an ending to your story.

HW: Students finish revising their endings.

Lesson 16

Lesson 16

Writers reread their stories to edit their work. Editing is when we check for mistakes and make the necessary changes to get a piece ready for publication

Connection:

Yesterday we were working on…

Writers, we have been working on revising our stories to make changes, to make our stories better and more interesting for the reader. We added details, dialogue, what we were thinking, and our feelings.

Today I want to teach that…

Writers also edit their stories to get them ready for publication. That means they reread their work and check for spelling mistakes and correct them. Writers also check punctuation to be sure they use their periods, question marks, exclamation marks and commas correctly. Today, we will learn to reread our stories and be sure we used commas in two (2) specific ways.

Teaching:

When I read…

Yeilin’s story, I noticed that she used commas in these two (2) different ways.

Watch me as I show you how Yelin uses a comma to pause, stop and take a breath in her writing. She also puts commas in the spaces between words when making a list of things.

Demonstration:

Use Yeilin’s story

#1 Read Yeilin’s work. - 1. Point out how Yeilin paused, stopped and took a breath after the word ‘First’ and to show that pause, she put a comma after ‘First’. She also paused, stopped and took a breath after the word ‘Second’ and she put a comma after ‘Second’. Point to Next, Then, and Last.

#2 Reread Yeilin’s work. – 2. Point out how Yeilin wrote a list of things she wore to go outside and after each piece of clothing in her list she put a comma to separate the items in the list.

Did you notice how…

Yeilin put a comma after ‘First,’ when she paused, stopped and took a breath?

Second, did you notice how she put a comma after each thing she wore to separate those items in a list?

Good writers reread their work and check to see if they used commas in the correct ways. You might use a comma to show a place in your writing where you take a breath. You might use a comma to separate items in a list.

Active Involvement:

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO TRY IT!

I will give each child a passage or two to read and decide with their writing partner where to put…

1. comma- when the writers pause, stop and take a breath

2. comma- when the writers separate items in a list of things

TURN and TALK-Students try it.

First I went into the kitchen to bake my favorite chocolate cake. I took out the bowl spoon spatula cup and recipe book.

I noticed…

3 students share their findings

Chart responses

On Chart paper

|Punctuation |

|What we notice |What it meant |Example |

|Comma , |1. pause, stop,and take a breath | |

| | | |

| |2. to make a list | |

Link:

So today, writers, I want you to reread your writing and get it ready for publication. You are going to reread your work to check your punctuation marks.

On chart paper

|Punctuation |

|What we notice |What it meant |Example |

|Comma , |to pause, stop, and take a breath |First, I went to the kitchen to bake my |

| | |favorite chocolate cake. |

| | | |

| |to make a list |I took out the bowl, spoon, spatula and |

| | |recipe book. |

|Periods . |to show a stop |The bird lived in an old tree. |

| | | |

|Exclamation ! |to say something louder. It makes it more | |

| |exciting. |My new red bike is fantastic! |

|Questions ? |to show an asking sentence |Are you my friend? |

| | | |

-----------------------

How to Get Ideas for Writing

• Think about a person that’s important to you and write a list of memories you have with that person

• Think about something that matters to you. List some stories you have about that topic

Improving Our Stories

• Don’t write about giant watermelon topics, write about tiny seed-topics

• Make a timeline for what happened in the story

•

When Writers Plan for Our Stories, We Can

Make them Better

• Envision your story like a movie in you mind

• Make a timeline for what happened in the story

• Retell your story across your fingers

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