Unit Topic: Writing a
personal narrative and publishing it using a digital story.
This is an overview of
an entire unit on writing personal narratives that would cover approximately
13-16 days.
Benchmarks:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.6
With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.5
Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.
Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.
Essential
Questions:
1. How can
ideas be generated and selected for personal narrative writing?
2. How do
writers add details and dialogue to a narrative piece?
3. How do
writers focus and sequence ideas in a draft?
4. How can
writers revise and edit to improve the quality of their writing?
Materials: Writer’s notebook, pencil, colored pencils, iPad,
headphones
Formative Assessment: Conferencing with students throughout the
unit
Summative Assessment: Digital story created in Shadow Puppet Edu
Unit Sequence:
Day 1: Generate
ideas by thinking of special people and places. Students learn the purpose of a
writer's notebook and a strategy for generating personal narrative entries.
Day
2: Use descriptive details to paint a picture. Students learn more strategies for
generating personal narrative entries.
Day
3: Include descriptive details to describe the setting. Students learn how to
use descriptive details and specific words to create scenes in their stories.
Day
4: Create a clear sequence of events. Students learn that writers tell their
stories using a timeline to unfold the sequence of events.
Day
5: Choosing one idea. Students learn how to choose one idea that matters the
most and draft the whole story as it comes to mind.
Day
6: Use specific verbs. Student will use specific verbs to make their writing
clear.
Day
7: Telling the internal story. Students learn how writers include the internal
story using their thoughts, feelings, and responses to what is happening.
Day
8: Revising leads. Students learn how to improve their leads by studying the
work of published authors.
Day
9: Revising endings. Students learn how to improve their story endings by
studying the work of published authors.
Day
10: Revision. Students revise for meaning and clarity.
Day
11: Editing. Students learn that writers use a revision/editing checklist to
edit their stories.
Day
12-14: Publishing personal narratives. Students create final drafts from their
revised and edited personal narratives using a digital storytelling
application.
Day
15: Celebrate. Students share their published personal narratives/ digital
stories with an audience.
1. Content:
The content I am teaching is writing a personal narrative and publishing it using a digital story. These concepts are addressed using the following Common Core standards: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others, and create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details. One challenging topic is getting students to dig deep and add strong details and verbs to their writing. It is also difficult to get students to make corrections to their writing during the editing and revision processes.
2. Pedagogy:
The lesson will start out using a behaviorism strategy. I will provide students with the initial information by teaching mini lessons on the writing topics and the students will be active listeners. Using the cognitive constructivism approach, I will model examples of good writing by using mentor texts. Then the students will guide their own learning, by taking what they learned in the mini lesson and applying it to their own writing. Throughout this process I will conference with students who are struggling to make sure they are on the right track and help them develop their ideas when necessary. Finally, once the students have learned how to use the Shadow Puppet app, I will move into a facilitator role while the students independently publish their writing into a digital story.
3. Content &
Pedagogy:
These
strategies work well for teaching this content because the students need be
taught what effective writing looks like, sounds like, and feels like before they
are able to become successful writers themselves. Seeing the teacher write
examples and hearing examples of good writing from published authors does this.
Once students have been taught how to write a successful narrative piece, most
of them are able to go off and write on their own. However, there are still
some that struggle with writing and will need the teacher to meet with them on
a regular basis to help overcome these obstacles, which is why conferencing
with students during writing workshop is an important teaching strategy I chose
to use.
4. Technology:
The
technology I will be using is an iPad application called Shadow Puppet Edu
because it is a very user-friendly and geared towards kids, it can be
downloaded for free on my classroom set of iPads, and I heard wonderful things
about it from other teachers who have used it. This technology is also a
great choice because it has the capabilities for students to share their work
with many types of audiences. The technology would not be necessary to teach
the writing standards, but it is necessary to cover the standards that pertain
to using technology to produce and publish writing and creating
engaging audio recordings of stories.
5. Technology &
Pedagogy:
The
technology aligns with my pedagogy strategies because it allows for a cognitive
constructivism approach where the students take on the role of an active
thinker and independently develop a way to create a published digital story
using technology. This technology also enables them to use audio recordings to
develop their final product into a coherent piece that can be shared with many
different audiences, such as peers, teachers, and parents.
6. Technology &
Content:
The Shadow
Puppet App will help teach the big ideas by giving students the opportunity to
look more closely at their finished writing product to see if they have
included all of the concepts and details that an effective personal narrative
needs. While students are working with the app and putting each piece of their
narrative into a digital story format, they will be more likely to see if there
is anything that needs to be changed or added to their story to make it sound
better. I also think students will be more engaged in accounting for all of the
necessary concepts when they know that there will be an opportunity to share
their final product with an audience in the end.
7. Assessment:
In
the end, I want the students to demonstrate that they can create a personal
narrative with a clear sequence of events using strong details, verbs, and
dialogue. I want them to demonstrate that they can edit and revise their
stories to develop coherent published writing pieces. The published digital
story should also include engaging audio to grab the audience’s attention and
show fluid reading. I will formatively assess what students have learned by
conferring with them throughout the writing process. For a summative
assessment, I will have the students share their completed digital story with
me via email and I will grade them using a rubric that includes all of the
topics listed above.
