Personal Narrative Writing Unit {My Life is a Story}
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This Personal Narrative Unit is perfect for kicking off Writer’s Workshop at the beginning of the year, while also providing enough content to support the Narrative Writing Common Core Standard at any other point in the school year. The lessons in this unit will build excitement for writing and set foundations for the rest of your academic year. This unit also contains lifelong tools which could supplement other writing units and the overall writing process.
*Writing Unit Calendar with Teaching Points *Blank Planning Calendar *Mentor Text Suggestions and Links *20 Lesson Ideas for the Unit
(The lessons in this unit are NOT always in a specific lesson template or written to precisely tell you what to do. However, there are detailed descriptions and ideas for each teaching point, including how the teacher can model, how students will practice, and what students will do independently. This unit will look different in every classroom as your own personal teaching style, experience, and perspective filters through. I have included a brief explanation for each teaching point and how it would/could look in the classroom. I have also noted when to use the anchor charts for each day as well as included pictures of notebook work that may help also. This unit of resources will hopefully “fill your fist” as Katie Wood Ray would say, with writing strategies to help your writers build a love for writing! You can check out my blog for anchor chart ideas and information on teaching writing.
*20+ Writing Notebook Anchor Charts for the Writer’s Notebook to help support applying the writing strategies into their work by providing anchor charts at your students’ fingertips.
*20 Anchor Charts to be used for: teaching the lesson, laminated as posters, put in sheet protectors and on a binder ring as part of your writing center or any other creative way you find use for them!
*Narrative Writing Checklist and Grading Rubric
*Standards for 3rd-5th grades (to glue in notebook)
*Publishing Paper
Whether you are using this in your classroom to start off the year or as a way to improve your students’ writing process, I hope you and your students enjoy this unit as much as we did! If you have any further questions or needs I would love to hear from you!
Get your students excited about informational writing! This complete informational writing unit includes daily lesson plans, notebook charts, mentor texts and more. This unit takes your students through the whole writing process. Students will begin with getting ideas and end with a published piece of informational writing. The informational writing lessons included can be used in two ways:
✋ This unit is also part of the Writing Units Bundle which includes Narrative, Opinion, & Informational Writing Units.
🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5.
What is included in the informational writing unit?
✏️Writing Minilessons:
There are a total of 24 minilessons. The lessons can be skipped, moved around, modified as needed based on your students' needs.
Study a Mentor Text
Writers are teachers.
Getting Ideas
Prepare for research
Writers research
Look for Big Ideas (Main Ideas for Text)
Sort Information
Plan with Boxes & Bullets
Draft Paragraphs
Paragraphs with Purpose
Use Text Evidence
Balance Facts with Voice
Using a Teaching Tone
Elaboration: Using Mini Stories
Using Figurative Language
Craft Moves & Elaboration Strategies
Expert Words (Domain-Specific Vocabulary)
Transitional Words & Phrases
Introductions
Conclusions
Revise: Add Text Features
Revise: Eliminate Unnecessary Words
Edit
Polish & Publish!
✏️PowerPoint:
For each lesson above, PowerPoint slides are included that can be used to model and teach the lesson.
✏️Notebook Charts/Binder Charts for Students (see full list below):
For each lesson, a notebook chart is included to support student learning.
"My school adopted a curriculum which was just had guidelines as to what should be taught but was lacking resources. I purchased this writing unit and was so pleased with how comprehensive the lessons and graphic organizers are! I will definitely purchase the other units! Thank you!" - Jessica M.
"Your units are amazing and my students have benefited greatly. Before this, I used to hate teaching writing. But this is honestly now one of my favorite subjects to teach." - Brittney B.
"Excellent resource. This is jam packed with information and is everything you promise and more. Thank you for a thorough product." - Ms. Duffy's Dream
📹 Click play on the video to see the complete unit.
You probably already know that conferring and working in small groups is the most organic and effective way to differentiate your instruction AND meet your students' needs. However, that requiresYOUto be working with them. What about when you're not working with them? You want meaningful, rigorous writing opportunities that are skill-specific. That is precisely the purpose of these writing centers.
There are 5 Types of Writing Centers with 5 of each writing center. That means you've got 25 Writing Centers to help your students grow! Each writing center also includes an Answer Key so that students can self-check or you can use as a grade if you prefer. The centers are available as color-coded or black and white. This particular set of Writing Centers are based on Scientific concepts.
1. Fix it Up! Editing -Students edit a paragraph. The number of mistakes is located at the bottom so students know when they have found them all OR if they need to keep looking. An answer key is included so students can self-check.
Topics:
Cool Critters! (Ants)
Sluggish Situation (African Land Snail)
Amphibians
Salamanders
Poison Dart Frog
2. Transition Mission-Students use a transitional words and phrases chart to add transitions to a paragraph. An answer key is included so students can self-check.
Topics:
Crocs & Gators
Metamorphosis
Animals Impact Their Environment
Oil Spills
Endangered Species
3. Elaboration Station -Students are given a few sentences with facts about the topic. After the facts/evidences, students use elaboration strategies to add on to the paragraph. Sample responses are included.
Topics:
Volcanoes (Informative)
Grizzly Bears (Informative)
Drought (Informative)
College Athletes (Opinion)
Physical Education (Opinion)
4. Paraphrase Practice -Each center has a paragraph. Students practice paraphrasing the paragraph. A chart for the STP (Stop! Think. Paraphrase) strategy is provided.
Topics:
Indicator Species
Pollinators
Tracking Twisters
Invasive Species
Animals in Zoos
5. Sort + Write -This center includes 5 different science-based sorting activities. Students have directions for each sort. They are given words and phrases to sort for a specific purpose. After they have sorted, they write a multi-paragraph essay using the details and the sort to organize and write their essay. There are a total of 5 sorts. These could also double duty as a science center.
Writing Rocks! (Classifying Rocks)
Life Cycles (Complete + Incomplete)
Heat Energy (3 Types)
Writing Matters! (Solid, Liquid, Gas)
People & Their Environment: Helpful or Harmful?
The centers are included in color + black and white. Ideas for storage and organization are included. Please see the preview for more information and to get a better look at these centers.
If you have any questions as to how you can use these in your upper elementary classroom, please email me at jessica@theliteracyloft.com.
- Jessica
These centers are the perfect supplement for our writing units and the monthly text sets.
Biography Project {Grades 2-5} | Distance Learning | Google Slides
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*Google Slides and Print Option*
*Rubric Added!*
About this Product
This product came as a result of my students’ love of the biography series “Who Was…?” If you have not looked into this series, I recommend that you do! They are a fun, easy read that offers an engaging way for students to learn about historical figures and important people. Although this product is based on this series, this product could be used for any biography book or project. This is a nice way to integrate Reading, Writing, and Social Studies.
🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5.
How I Used this Product
In my 3rd Grade classroom, I used multiple copies of the same book or books and paired students in partnerships. In my school, we have a 30 minute Reading Intervention Block. I began this project with students who were not pulled out or working with me in small groups during this time. This was a nice way for students to work independently or in partnerships. It also created an extension for what they could already do as readers. Plus, they had so much fun! I let them work on this project in their partnerships. This held several benefits. Many students who were not pulled out or working in small groups tend to be higher level students OR students who have untapped potential. Allowing them to work on a project like this can extend their learning, as well as find new ways to enjoy reading. While other students had special groups or went to see other teachers, it was nice for these students to have their own project too.
The Poster Page is a template that you could use for students to turn in with the essay or you could use this as a planning page and then have students create a larger poster on their own. I assigned it as homework and was pleasantly surprised at what my students turned in. I saw a wonderful increase in engagement by students who had shown little motivation or enthusiasm for reading. You can see the photos in the preview or in the product itself. Please know I updated the pages after the photos were taken with more detail and provided the poster template. Good luck to you with this project! If you have any questions, please contact me!
Launching Writing Workshop Unit | Distance Learning | Google Slides
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$14.00
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🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5.
This unit is a foundational unit to build craft, community, and confidence in your writing workshop. This is a 10 day unit that focuses on moving through the writing process and having students complete one narrative piece. The narrative unit will go deeper into crafting a personal narrative.
What's included?
Unit Lesson Plans
Writing Notebook Charts
Google Slides Presentation
Google Slides Interactive Student Presentation
Google Slides Interactive Student Notebook
PowerPoint pdf
Need something else? Let me know in the comments!
By the end of this unit, your students will be able to:
Follow routines, procedures, and directions during each part of Writing Workshop. They listen quietly during the minilesson and participate with their partner.
Begin working right away during independent writing time. They solve problems on their own and do not disturb others.
Generate ideas for a personal narrative.
Plan a personal narrative.
Use their writing plan to draft a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Use strategies to spell unknown words.
Effectively communicate and work with a writing partner.
Revise their own work by using a checklist.
Edit their own work by using a checklist to correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
Collaborate with a partner to share and work on their writing.
