Lower Township Elementary Schools
Writing
3rd Grade
Adopted August 28, 2024
Lower Township Elementary Schools
English Language Arts
Grade 3
Lower Township Board of Education
Gary Douglass, President
Monica DiVito, Vice President
Tricia Ryan, Secretary
Cindy Baldacchini
Lauren Cox
Lauren Randle
Lindsey Selby
Patrica Smith
Joseph Thomas
Jon Vile
Lower Township District Administration
Jeff Samaniego, Superintendent
Sarah Bowman, Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction
Christina Granero, Supervisor of Academic Achievement
Debra Keeler, Supervisor of Special Services
Interdisciplinary Connections |
Social Studies: 6.1.5.CivicsHR.1: Describe how fundamental rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights contribute to the improvement of American democracy (i.e., freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition, the right to vote, and the right to due process). Activity: Students will make a list of rules, rights, and expectations for reading and writing time in their classroom. Science: 3-LS3-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms. Activity: Students will keep a daily journal of seed growth in Science Notebook describing seed properties when water is added each day. |
Integration of Technology |
Career Ready Practice: Use technology to enhance productivity, increase collaboration and communicate effectively. 9.4.5.DC.3: Distinguish between digital images that can be reused freely and those that have copyright restrictions. 9.4.5.IML.7: Evaluate the degree to which information meets a need including social emotional learning, academic, and social (e.g., 2.2.5. PF.5). 9.4.5.TL.3: Format a document using a word processing application to enhance text, change page formatting, and include appropriate images, graphics, or symbols. Activity: Students will type narrative writing piece using Google docs illustrating their work with online images. |
21st Century Skills |
Career Ready Practice: 9.4.5.CI.3: Participate in a brainstorming session with individuals with diverse perspectives to expand one’s thinking about a topic of curiosity. Activity: Students will discuss and create a T chart of the qualifications of great narrative writing and reflect upon why they are important for future writing projects. |
Career Education |
Career Awareness, Exploration, Preparation, and Training: 9.2.5.CAP.3: Identify qualifications needed to pursue traditional and non-traditional careers and occupations. Activity: Students will discuss and create a T chart of the qualifications of great narrative writing and reflect upon why they are important for future careers |
SUBJECT: Writing GRADE LEVEL: 3 UNIT TITLE: Crafting True StoriesLENGTH OF STUDY: 21 days LINK PACING GUIDE: Language Arts Pacing 2024 |
Unit Learning Goals |
Course Objectives ● Establishing routines for a well-managed, productive writing workshop ● Practicing the utility of a writers' notebook ● Establishing a community of writers in the classroom |
Primary Materials | Supplemental Materials |
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New Jersey Student Learning Standards |
Language :
Writing :
A. Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; clearly organize an event sequence. B. Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations. C. Use transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events. D. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events. Provide a conclusion or sense of closure that follows the narrated experiences or events.
Speaking and Listening :
Foundational :
1. Spell single syllable words with less common and complex graphemes (ough, augh; -old, -ind, -ost, -ild families). 2. Use a digital or print tools such as a dictionary or thesaurus to check spellings of unknown words. 3. Identify language of word origin, as noted in dictionaries. 4. Spell singular and plural possessives (teacher’s; teachers’). 5. Change y to i (cried) in words with suffixes, when required. 6. Spell regular two- and three-syllable words that: i. Combine all basic syllable types: closed, VCe, open, vowel team, vowel –r, Consonant-le. ii. Include common, transparent, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re-, pre-, sub-, un-, dis-, mis-; -able, -ness, -ful) and suffix -tion. 7. Spell common words in English, including regular and irregular forms.
1.Improve communication of meaning by replacing weak verbs with stronger ones, and common nouns with precise nouns. 2.Capitalize appropriate words in titles. 3. Choose and maintain consistency of tense, writing nouns and verbs that agree in tense. 4. Use common regular and irregular plural forms, writing nouns and verbs that agree in number. 5. Use appropriate pronouns with clear referents. 6. Use periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks appropriately. (e.g., commas and quotation marks in dialogue, and commas in addresses). 7. Combine simple sentences into compound sentences, using conjunctions and, but, or, yet, and so. 8.Paraphrase a main idea or event in order to vary sentence structure and word use. 9.Organize ideas into paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. |
Daily Targets | Instructional Activities- include links to resources |
Session 1 : Starting the Writing Workshop: Visualizing Possibilites “Today I want to teach you that writers, too, make New Year’s Resolutions. They think about - they imagine- the kind of writing they want to make, and they set goals for themselves to write in ways they imagine. Then they work hard to reach their goals.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 2 : Finding Ideas and Writing Up a Storm “Today I want to teach you a strategy you can use whenever you are having trouble coming up with an idea for a true story. Here it is. (point to bulletin board chart) You can think of a person who matters to you, then list small moments you’ve had with that person, and then write (or tell) the story of one of those small moments.” | |
Session 3 : Drawing on a Repertiore of Strategies: Writing with Independence “Today I want to teach you that writers sometimes think not of a person but of a place that matters to them and list story ideas that go with that place, choosing one story to write. Sometimes, instead of listing stories that happened in a place, they map them, and then they write, write, write.” | |
Session 4 : Writers Use a Storyteller’s Voice. They Tell Stories, Not Summaries “Today I want to teach you that to make your storytelling voices stronger, you try to make a mental movie of what happened and tell it in small detail, bit by bit, so that your reader can almost see, hear, and feel everything.” | |
Session 5 : Taking Stock: Pausing to Ask, “How Am I Doing?” “Today I want to teach you that when a person wants to get better at something - at anything - it helps to look back and think ‘How have I grown?’ And it helps to look forward and to ask, ‘What can I do in the future to get better?’ Then we can work hard toward getting better.” | |
Session 6 : Editing as We Go: Making Sure Others Can Read Our Writing “Today I want to teach you that you don’t wait until you’re finished with your work to ask, ‘Am I correctly spelling words I know by heart?’ Because you want people to read your writing, you take an extra second to think, ‘Wait! I know that word,’ and then you spell the word correctly by thinking about how the word looks.” | |
Bend 2 Session 7 : Rehearsing: Storytelling and Leads “Listen up - this is important. Most writers don’t just pick up an idea and then bingo, write the book. Just as a choir rehearses for a concert, writers rehearse for writing. One of the best ways they rehearse a story is to story-tell their story - and to do so repeatedly in different ways.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 8 : Writing Discovery Drafts “Today I’m going to teach you that after carefully crafting each word of a lead, it’s good to fix your eyes on your subject and to write your story fast and furious, without stopping.” | |
Session 9 : Revising by Studying What Other Authors Have Done “Writers, today we are going to do an inquiry. We are going to investigate the question, ‘What does Karen Hesse do to make Come on Rain! so powerful and meaningful?’ And then we’ll be able to ask, ‘How can we do some of that in our writing?’” | |
Session 10 : Storytellers Develop the Heart of a Story “This brings me to the thing I want to teach you today, so listen carefully. Revision is not about fixing errors; it is about finding and developing potentially great writing, sometimes by adding more to the heart of the story.” | |
Session 11 : Paragraphing to Support Sequencing, Dialogue, and Elaboration “Today, as you edit your drafts, I want to teach you that there are a few places where writers typically begin new paragraphs. Keeping these places in mind can help us know when to start a new paragraph. Some of those typical places are when there is a new subtopic, when time has moved forward, and when a new person is speaking.” | |
Bend 3 Session 12 : Becoming One’s Own Job Captain: Starting a Second Piece, Working with New Independence “Today I want to teach you that when writers are in charge of their own writing, they think back over everything they know how to do and they make a work plan for their writing. Writers sometimes use charts and their own writing to remind them of stuff they know how to do.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 13 : Letters to Teachers: Revision Happens throughout the Writing Process “Today I want to teach you that always, writers try to remember that the qualities of good writing they learned during revision in one piece become qualities of good writing they then think of at very start of their work with another piece. To make the start of a piece show all the writer knows about good writing, writers often pause after just a bit of writing and ask, ‘Does this show everything I know?’ and then they revise.” | |
Session 14 : Drafting: Writing from Inside a Memory Tell children that writing involves reenacting their own experiences. “I am telling you this because writers, like readers, get lost in a story. They pick up the pen and step into another time, another place. As they get ready to draft, they can relive that event, reexperiece that time.” | |
Session 15 : Letter to Teachers: Revision: Balancing Kinds of Details “Writers, yesterday as I was conferring with all of you, I noticed that many of you have tried to elaborate by adding dialogue. And that is definitely one way to elaborate. But we also want to make sure we keep a balance in our writing and use dialogue where it will have the biggest impact and support our meaning. Some of your writing is all talk, and that doesn’t work! Today I am going to teach you that you can also elaborate by adding actions, thoughts, and even setting details.” | |
Session 16 : Commas and Quotation Marks: Punctuating Dialogue “Writers, when you include people talking in your story, you need to capture their exact words and use quotation marks to signal, ‘These are the exact words the person said.’ It is actually more sophisticated than that. You can study what published writers do to punctuate quotations and try to do those exact things.” | |
Bend 4 Session 17 : Writers Revise in Big, Important Ways “Today I want to teach you that when writers finish a piece of writing, they revise in big, important ways. They try to read their finished work like a stranger might, asking, ‘Is this clear? Can I take away a part or add a part to make it more clear?’ They read it aloud to themselves, checking if it flows.” | |
Session 18 : Revising Endings: Learning from Published Writing “You’ve all discovered how writers lead into stories, luring the readers to follow them them with a special lead. But the secret that many beginning writers don’t know is that writers work just as hard - well, maybe even harder - on their endings. Today I want to teach you some ways to do that using the ending of one of our mentor texts, Come On, Rain! By Karen Hesse. | |
Session 19 : Using Editing Checklists “Today I want to teach you that most writers rely on an editing checklist - either a concrete physical list or a mental one - and each item on the checklist reminds them of a lens they can use to reread and to refine their writing. If we have six tiems on our checklist, we’re apt to reread our draft at least six times, once with each item as our lens.” | |
Session 20 : Celebration | |
Post On Demand |
Accommodations and Modifications | |
Special Education |
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Multilingual Learners |
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Students At-Risk of School Failure |
|
Gifted and Talented |
|
Students with 504 Plans |
|
Assessments | |
Formative |
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Summative |
|
Benchmark |
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Alternative |
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SUBJECT: Writing GRADE LEVEL: 3 UNIT TITLE: The Art of Information WritingLENGTH OF STUDY: 17 Days LINK PACING GUIDE: Language Arts Pacing 2024 |
Unit Learning Goals |
Course Objectives ● Writers develop strategies to write effectively about an area in which they have an expertise. ● Writers study the work of others (i.e. mentor texts) to improve their own craft. ● Writers revise their work multiple times throughout the process, using resources such as checklists, mentor texts, and peer feedback |
Primary Materials | Supplemental Materials |
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New Jersey Student Learning Standards |
Language :
Writing :
B. Develop a topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, text evidence, or other information and examples related to the topic. C. Include text features (e.g.,illustrations, diagrams, captions) when useful to support comprehension. D. Link ideas within sections of information using transition words and phrases (e.g., then, because, also, therefore). E. Provide a conclusion related to the information or explanation presented.
Speaking and Listening :
Foundational :
1. Spell single syllable words with less common and complex graphemes (ough, augh; -old, -ind, -ost, -ild families). 2. Use a digital or print tools such as a dictionary or thesaurus to check spellings of unknown words. 3. Identify language of word origin, as noted in dictionaries. 4. Spell singular and plural possessives (teacher’s; teachers’). 5. Change y to i (cried) in words with suffixes, when required. 6. Spell regular two- and three-syllable words that: i. Combine all basic syllable types: closed, VCe, open, vowel team, vowel –r, Consonant-le. ii. Include common, transparent, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re-, pre-, sub-, un-, dis-, mis-; -able, -ness, -ful) and suffix -tion. 7. Spell common words in English, including regular and irregular forms.
1.Improve communication of meaning by replacing weak verbs with stronger ones, and common nouns with precise nouns. 2.Capitalize appropriate words in titles. 3. Choose and maintain consistency of tense, writing nouns and verbs that agree in tense. 4. Use common regular and irregular plural forms, writing nouns and verbs that agree in number. 5. Use appropriate pronouns with clear referents. 6. Use periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks appropriately. (e.g., commas and quotation marks in dialogue, and commas in addresses). 7. Combine simple sentences into compound sentences, using conjunctions and, but, or, yet, and so. 8.Paraphrase a main idea or event in order to vary sentence structure and word use. 9.Organize ideas into paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. |
Daily Targets | Instructional Activities- include links to resources |
Session 1 : Teaching Others as a Way to Prime the Pump “This is what I need you to know. Information writers are teachers. When you write an information book, you are teaching a unit of study on your topic, and it helps to rehearse by actually teaching real students, watching to see which information especially matters to them.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 2 : The Power of Organizing and Reorganizing “Today I want to teach you that information writers often make plans for how to organize their information writing. Writers make one plan, then they think about a different possible plan, and they keep doing this over and over. Each plan includes a different way to divide a topic into parts.” | |
Session 3 :New Structures Lead to New Thinking
“Today I want to teach you that writers try different organizational structures on for size. They explore a few different structures, noting how those structures affect the way they think about a topic.” | |
Session 4 : Letter to Teachers: Laying the Bricks of Information “Today, what I want you to notice is that the unit we are in is called Information Writing for a reason. It is made up entirely of information! The book you will be making is a lot like a brick wall, only the bricks are pieces of information. You write information books by taking those chunks of information, your bricks, and then you lay those pieces of information alongside each other.” | |
Session 5 : Organization Matters in Texts Large and Small “Today I want to teach you that everything you’ve learned about organizing a table of contents applies also to the work of organizing any chapter of information text you write. Whenever you write an information text, start by making a miniature table of contents- even if it’s just in your mind.” | |
Bend 2 Session 6 : Studying Mentor Texts in a Search for Elaboration Strategies “Writers, Today I want to teach you that when informational writers revise, they often consider ways they can add more, or elaborate. Information writers can learn to elaborate by studying mentor texts, taking note of all of the different kinds of information that writers use to teach readers about subtopics.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
Link for Bend 2 Slides with Resources |
Session 7 : Making Connections Within and Across Chapters “Today I want to teach you that writing chapters is like making paper chains. Writers know that each chapter needs to connect to the chapter before it. Actually, each paragraph connects to the one before it as well. There are two secrets to this. First, the order needs to make sense. And second, he author uses transitional words like because and also to glue parts of the text together.” | |
Session 8 : Balancing Facts and Ideas From the Start “Today I want to teach you that when you write information books, you try to interest your reader. Readers love fascinating facts, and they love ideas, too. Writers make sure their writing contains both facts and ideas. | |
Session 9 : Researching Facts and Ensuring Text Accuracy “Today I want to teach you that writers don’t just write, write, write, all of the stuff from their brains. Real writers are researchers. Writers often leave the page in search of the perfect fact or the perfect example.” | |
Session 10 : Letter to Teachers: Reusing and Recycling in the Revision Process
“Writers, I’m noticing that when you learn something new about information writing, you often go back to a chapter you wrote earlier and use tiny post-its or marginal notes to add this or that into your draft. That sort of teeny tiny work is not really revision- that’s fixing up an almost perfect draft. To revise, you’ll need to have the courage to try a chapter over again, or to write the first and last half again.” | |
Session 11 : Creating Introductions though Researching Mentor Authors “Today, specifically, let’s ask, ‘What do our mentor authors do when writing powerful introductions for information writing?’ Once we figure out the answer to that question, we can ask, ‘How can we apply those strategies to our own introductions?’” | |
Bend 3 Session 12 : Taking Stock and Setting Goals “Today I want to teach you that information writers stop, before they are completely done with their pieces, to take stock. They reread what they’ve done so far and think about any guidelines, checklists, or mentor texts, asking, ‘What’s working already?’ and ‘What do I still want to do to make this as strong as possible?’” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
Link for Bend 3 Slides with Resources |
Session 13 : Putting Oneself in Readers’ Shoes to Clear up Confusion “Today I want to teach you that writers know that eventually other people will read their writing, so writers prepare for that by rereading their pieces very carefully, looking for places that are confusing or underdeveloped. Writers then revise to make sure that the writing will reach readers.” | |
Session 14 : Using Text Features Makes it Easier for Readers to Learn
“Today I want to teach you that information writers think ‘Will that text feature help readers?’ and they only include the one that will really help readers. They think what the text is mainly about, and that helps them decide what should be popped out or highlighted.” | |
Session 15 : Letter to Teachers: Fact-Checking through Rapid Research “Today I want to teach you that when information writers get close to the end of their projects, it is important that they check the major facts that they’ve included to make sure they are as accurate as possible.” | |
Session 16 : Puctuating with Paragraphs “Today I want to teach you that informational writers edit with a laser focus on one of the most important organizing structures: the paragraph. Writers look at the paragraph as the most powerful punctuation there is. Paragraphs separate not just words into setentences, but also whole groups of sentences into topics.” | |
Bend 4 (We typically do not teach this bend) Session 17 : Plan Content-Area Writing, Drawing on Knowledge from Across the Unit
“Today I want to teach you that when writers move onto other subject areas, writers don’t just leave their writing skills at the door. Writers carry those skills with them when they become scientists, anthropologists, and mathematicians. Specifically, writers make sure that they use what they know about planning well-organized information texts, whether they are writing a book in writers workshop or writing an article or a paper or a feature article in the social studies classroom.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 18 : Revising from Self-Assessments
“Today I want to teach you that nonfiction writers assess their own writing to see what works and what doesn’t work. One way they do that is by thinking, ‘Did I do what I set out to do?’ They reread to see whether the draft matches the plan for it- and if it doesn’t, they decide whether the plan it does follow works or whether the piece needs to be rewritten.” | |
Session 19 : Crafting Speeches, Articles, or Brochures Using Information Writing Skills
“Today I want to teach you that information writers can use their skills at structuring and elaborating, introducing and closing, to create all sorts of information texts.” | |
Session 20 : Bringing All You Know to Every Project “Today I want to remind you that writers draw on everything they know to make their work the best it can be.” | |
Session 21 : Celebration | |
Post On Demand |
Accommodations and Modifications | |
Special Education |
|
Multilingual Learners |
|
Students At-Risk of School Failure |
|
Gifted and Talented |
|
Students with 504 Plans |
|
Assessments | |
Formative |
|
Summative |
|
Benchmark |
|
Alternative |
|
SUBJECT: Writing GRADE LEVEL: 3 UNIT TITLE: Changing The WorldLENGTH OF STUDY: 20 days without bend 4 LINK PACING GUIDE: Language Arts Pacing 2024 |
Unit Learning Goals |
Course Objectives ● Crafting a claim ● Collecting specific evidence to support and elaborate on a claim ● Shaping a claim and related evidence into a persuasive speech |
Primary Materials | Supplemental Materials |
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New Jersey Student Learning Standards |
Language :
Writing :
A. Identify audience, purpose, and intended length of composition before writing. B. Consider writing as a process, including self-evaluation, revision and editing. With adult and peer feedback, and digital or print tools such as a dictionary, thesaurus, and/or spell checker, find and correct errors and improve word choice.
Foundational :
1. Spell single syllable words with less common and complex graphemes (ough, augh; -old, -ind, -ost, -ild families). 2. Use a digital or print tools such as a dictionary or thesaurus to check spellings of unknown words. 3. Identify language of word origin, as noted in dictionaries. 4. Spell singular and plural possessives (teacher’s; teachers’). 5. Change y to i (cried) in words with suffixes, when required. 6. Spell regular two- and three-syllable words that: i. Combine all basic syllable types: closed, VCe, open, vowel team, vowel –r, Consonant-le. ii. Include common, transparent, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re-, pre-, sub-, un-, dis-, mis-; -able, -ness, -ful) and suffix -tion. 7. Spell common words in English, including regular and irregular forms.
1.Improve communication of meaning by replacing weak verbs with stronger ones, and common nouns with precise nouns. 2.Capitalize appropriate words in titles. 3. Choose and maintain consistency of tense, writing nouns and verbs that agree in tense. 4. Use common regular and irregular plural forms, writing nouns and verbs that agree in number. 5. Use appropriate pronouns with clear referents. 6. Use periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks appropriately. (e.g., commas and quotation marks in dialogue, and commas in addresses). 7. Combine simple sentences into compound sentences, using conjunctions and, but, or, yet, and so. 8.Paraphrase a main idea or event in order to vary sentence structure and word use. 9.Organize ideas into paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. |
Daily Targets | Instructional Activities- include links to resources |
Day for opinion exploration around school | |
Session 1 : Practicing Persuasion “Today I want to teach you that speechwriting is a kind of opinion writing. The writer, or speaker, puts forth an opinion-a thesis statement- and then gives reasons, details, and examples to support that opinion. The tricky part is that the writer, or speaker, has to choose reasons that will convince his or her audience.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 2 : Gathering Brave, Bold Opinions for Persuasive Writing “Today I want to teach you that one way writers of persuasive speeches come up with their ideas is by seeing problems and imagining solutions.” | |
Session 3 : Drawing on a Repertiore of Strategies for Generating Opinion Writing: Writing with Independence “Today I want to teach you that writers change the world not just by looking at what’s broken, but also by looking at what’s beautiful. Writers write to get others to pay attention to people, places, things, or ideas that they might otherwise walk right past.” | |
Session 4 : Considering Audience to Say More “Today I want to teach you that when you want your writing to persuade people, to make them think and act in particular ways, you need to think about your audience and work to reach that audience. One way to reach your audience is to address them directly.” | |
Session 5 : Editing as You Go: Making Sure Your Audience Can Always Read Your Drafts “Today I want to remind you that you don’t need to wait until you finish writing to go back and fix up your writing. Because you want to make sure your reader can grasp what you are saying, it helps to take a second to think, ‘Wait, I know how to spell that word!’ Then you can draw on everything you know to spell as best as you can.” | |
Session 6 : Taking Stock and Setting Goals “Today I want to teach you that whenever you want to be better at something, it helps to keep pausing, looking back on your progress, and asking, ‘Am I getting better? What should I work on next? What will help me keep on getting better in big and important ways?’” | |
Bend 2 Session 7 : Gathering All You Know About Your Opinion “Today I want to teach you that writers collect all the evidence they can to prove their opinion. One way they collect evidence is to gather all that they already know.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 8 : Organizing and Catergorizing
“Today I want to teach you that writers of persuasive speeches organize their evidence. One way to do this is to figure out several possible ways to group (or to make categories) out of the evidence, deciding on one way that seems to work best. Once your evidence is grouped in a way that makes sense, it is easy to see where you have a lot of evidence and where you still need to gather more.” | |
Session 9 : For Example: Proving by Showing “Today I want to tell you about some advice that a famous writing teacher - Roy Peter Clark - gives to some of this nation’s best nonfiction writers. He says to them, ‘Always be sure you get the name of the dog.” He could have said, instead, ‘Be sure you describe the little black duck, the one with oil in its eyes.’ In other words, be sure you collect examples that can make your opinion come to life.” | |
Session 10 : By Considering Audience, Writers Select and Discard Material “Today I want to teach you that when you are writing to convince someone of your opinion, you only put in the best, most convincing evidence. One way to do that is to read each piece of evidence and ask, ‘Will this make the audience care?’” | |
Session 11 : Paragraphing to Organize Our Drafts “Today I want to remind you that a writer often gives himself or herself a few last minute things to keep in mind before launching into a draft. One guideline that some writers keep in mind is this. To write clearly, it helps to write in chunks, in paragraphs. Doing that - and noticing when you leave one topic and go to the next - helps a writer not only write in paragraphs, but also stay longer on a subtopic.” | |
Session 12 : Choosing Words that Sound Right and Evoke Emotion “Today, we’re going to do an inquiry into what makes a speech powerful and effective. We’ll ask the question, ‘What makes for a powerful and persuasive speech?’” | |
Session 13 : Letter to Teachers: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Assessing and Preparing for Mini Publication
“Today I want to teach you that if you want others to read your work and take you seriously, proofreading well is essential. Taking your time helps you catch all of your errors, but receiving help from a careful partner is equally important.” | |
Bend 3 Session 14 : Inquiry into Petitions “The question you’ll be exploring is, ‘What moves have you learned as speechwriters that you see other writers using in other kinds of opinion writing?’” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 15 : Becoming Your Own Job Captain “Today I want to teach you that writers keep themselves on track when they are working to meet a deadline. One way they do that is by making a work plan for their writing.” | |
Session 16 : Letter to Teachers: Gathering a Variety of Evidence: Interviews and Surveys “Today I want to teach you that writers use surveys and interviews to collect evidence to use in persuasive pieces.” | |
Session 17 : Revising Your Introductions and Conclusions to Get Your Audience to Care “Today I want to teach you that there are several strategies opinion writers rely on to help them create introductions that draw their readers into their text. These strategies include asking questions, telling a surprising fact, and giving background information. But opinion writers also make sure they introduce their text with a clear, focused thesis.” | |
Session 18 : Taking Stock Again: Goal Setting with More Independence “Today I want to teach you that it helps to pause sometimes and to look back at your progress as writers, asking, ‘Am I living up to the goals I set for myself? Am I getting better?’ and ‘What should I work on next?’ You can use checklists, charts, even personal goals to help you do this.” | |
Bend 4 Session 19 : Tackling a Cause “Today I want to teach you that when you are writing to make a real world difference, you ask, ‘Who can help me solve this problem?’ and ‘Who might be causing this problem?’ until you have thought of difference audiences and ways you can reach them.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 20 : Becoming Informed About a Cause “Today I want to teach you that to be convincing, you need to be as informed as you can be. One way to become more informed is to do some background reading and see how that reading changes what you already know and think.” | |
Session 21 : Letter to Teachers: Yesterday’s Revisions Become Today’s Drafting Strategies “Today I want to teach you that all the revision work you have ever done can now be brought forward in the process. So that you do it as you draft or as you reread the work you’ve written. Yesterday’s revisions become today’s drafting moves.” | |
Session 22 : Getting Our Writing Ready for Readers “Today I want to teach you that before your piece goes out into the world, it’s your last chance to make sure that your readers will take it seriously and be able to read every word you wrote.” | |
Session 23 : Celebration |
Accommodations and Modifications | |
Special Education |
|
Multilingual Learners |
|
Students At-Risk of School Failure |
|
Gifted and Talented |
|
Students with 504 Plans |
|
Assessments | |
Formative |
|
Summative |
|
Benchmark |
|
Alternative |
|
SUBJECT: Writing GRADE LEVEL: 3 UNIT TITLE: Literary EssayLENGTH OF STUDY: 19 Days LINK PACING GUIDE: Language Arts Pacing 2024 |
Unit Learning Goals |
Course Objectives ● Envision the characters in a story by noticing how characters act and talk ● Grow theories about characters by reading closely and making inferences while citing text evidence ● Learn lessons by stepping into the shoes of different characters |
Primary Materials | Supplemental Materials |
|
|
New Jersey Student Learning Standards |
Language :
Writing :
A. Identify audience, purpose, and intended length of composition before writing. B. Consider writing as a process, including self-evaluation, revision and editing. With adult and peer feedback, and digital or print tools such as a dictionary, thesaurus, and/or spell checker, find and correct errors and improve word choice.
Foundational :
1. Spell single syllable words with less common and complex graphemes (ough, augh; -old, -ind, -ost, -ild families). 2. Use a digital or print tools such as a dictionary or thesaurus to check spellings of unknown words. 3. Identify language of word origin, as noted in dictionaries. 4. Spell singular and plural possessives (teacher’s; teachers’). 5. Change y to i (cried) in words with suffixes, when required. 6. Spell regular two- and three-syllable words that: i. Combine all basic syllable types: closed, VCe, open, vowel team, vowel –r, Consonant-le. ii. Include common, transparent, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re-, pre-, sub-, un-, dis-, mis-; -able, -ness, -ful) and suffix -tion. 7. Spell common words in English, including regular and irregular forms.
1.Improve communication of meaning by replacing weak verbs with stronger ones, and common nouns with precise nouns. 2.Capitalize appropriate words in titles. 3. Choose and maintain consistency of tense, writing nouns and verbs that agree in tense. 4. Use common regular and irregular plural forms, writing nouns and verbs that agree in number. 5. Use appropriate pronouns with clear referents. 6. Use periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks appropriately. (e.g., commas and quotation marks in dialogue, and commas in addresses). 7. Combine simple sentences into compound sentences, using conjunctions and, but, or, yet, and so. 8.Paraphrase a main idea or event in order to vary sentence structure and word use. 9.Organize ideas into paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. |
Daily Targets | Instructional Activities- include links to resources |
Session 1 : A Guide To Bootcamp “Today I want to teach you that “Writers, readers often share ideas about stories they have read together. Then, they work together to gather evidence for an idea.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 2 : Repeating the Bootcamp with a New Claim “Today I want to teach you that Writers, readers often share ideas about stories they have read together. Then, they work together to gather evidence for an idea.” | |
Session 3 : Writers Draft More Than One Idea, Raising the Level of Their Work with Specific Text Evidence ““Writers, today I want to teach you that one way that essayists raise the level of their essays is by including summaries or exact lines from the story as evidence.” | |
Session 4 : Transitional Phrases Help Writers Frame their Evidence “Writers, today I want to teach you that essayists don’t just plop evidence into their essays. Instead, they lead into their evidence with transitional phrases, and then they elaborate on their evidence by explaining why it matters.” | |
Session 5 : Getting Ready to Publish by Self-Assessing “Today I want to teach you that | |
Session 6 : Peer Conferring and Mini-Celebration | |
Bend 2 Session 1 : Writers Collaborate to Come up with Ideas for Essays “Today I want to teach you that writers often collaborate to come up with ideas about character traits, character change, and lessons characters learn. Essayists choose an idea they can support with strong evidence.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Bend 2 Session 2 : Writers Use Mentor Texts to Get Ready to Draft “Today I want to teach you that one way writers remind themselves of the qualities of powerful essays is by studying mentor texts. Then they try to add some of these qualities to their own writing as they draft.” | |
Bend 2 Session 3 : Essayists Use Their Notebooks to Try Out Ideas for New Essays “Writers, today I want to teach you that essayists often return to their notebook to try out new ideas. For example, in addition to character traits, writers might consider characters’ relationships, character change, or lessons characters learn.” | |
Bend 2 Session 4 : Writers Use All They Know to Flash Draft at a Higher Level “Writers, when you draft an essay, remember you know ways to raise the level of your writing. These include rehearsing in the air, jotting a plan, using a checklist, or studying a mentor text.” | |
Bend 2 Session 5 : Writers Study Introductions (and Paragraphs) “Writers, I want to remind you that essayists often include a small introduction. One way to get better at introductions is to study a few introductions and consider what writers include in an introduction.” | |
Bend 2 Session 6 : Writers Revise by Pulling Evidence From Across the Text “Writers, one way to push yourself is to find evidence from different parts of the text. You might look at the beginning, the middle and the end of the story, pulling an example from each one. Or, you might think, ‘Is there another part of the story that might have an example for me to use?’” | |
Bend 2 Session 7 : Writers Provide Closure with a Conclusion (also in a Paragraph) “Today I want to teach you that in a conclusion, writers often restate their claim. They might also offer some extra thinking about: why they like the book, why the story is important, or a lesson the reader learns.” | |
Bend 2 Session 8 : Writers Edit, Self-Assess Their Own Growth, Celebrate “Writers, today I want to remind you that it’s important for writers to take time to reflect and celebrate their growth. One way to do this is to compare an earlier essay with a more recent one!” | |
Bend 3 Session 1 : Writers Take up Debate Positions to Argue with Passion “One way writers try out powerful claims is by debating. To do this, writers make an argument, take different sides of the argument, and they try to defend their positions.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Bend 3 Session 2 : Clubs Collaborate to Come up with Debate Positions “Debaters, today I want to teach you that you can come up with a bunch of positions that are worth debating about your texts. You can come up with ideas about characters’ traits, character change, character relationships, or lessons learned.” | |
Bend 3 Session 3 : Debaters Explain Why Their Evidence Matters! “Debaters, when you are trying to convince someone of the strength of your position, you don’t just hope that your evidence speaks for itself. You try to explain why your evidence matters.” | |
Bend 3 Session 4 : Debaters Frame Their Debates with Simple Introductions and Conclusions “Debaters, one way to increase the power of your argument is to add in a simple introduction and conclusion. These parts will give your argument added power.” | |
Bend 3 Session 5 : Final Celebration |
Accommodations and Modifications | |
Special Education |
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Multilingual Learners |
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Students At-Risk of School Failure |
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Gifted and Talented |
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Students with 504 Plans |
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Assessments | |
Formative |
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Summative |
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Benchmark | |
Alternative |
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SUBJECT: Writing GRADE LEVEL: 3 UNIT TITLE: Writing About ResearchLENGTH OF STUDY: 21 Days LINK PACING GUIDE: Language Arts Pacing 2024 |
Unit Learning Goals |
Course Objectives ● Raise the level of research-based information writing ● Emphasis the use of structure in writing about research ● Use collaboration, goal setting, and feedback to develop writing ● Advance ideas through the process of revision |
Primary Materials | Supplemental Materials |
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New Jersey Student Learning Standards |
Language :
Writing :
A. Introduce a topic clearly. B. Develop a topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, text evidence, or other information and examples related to the topic. C. Include text features (e.g.,illustrations, diagrams, captions) when useful to support comprehension. D. Link ideas within sections of information using transition words and phrases (e.g., then, because, also, therefore). E. Provide a conclusion related to the information or explanation presented.
Speaking and Listening :
Foundational :
1. Spell single syllable words with less common and complex graphemes (ough, augh; -old, -ind, -ost, -ild families). 2. Use a digital or print tools such as a dictionary or thesaurus to check spellings of unknown words. 3. Identify language of word origin, as noted in dictionaries. 4. Spell singular and plural possessives (teacher’s; teachers’). 5. Change y to i (cried) in words with suffixes, when required. 6. Spell regular two- and three-syllable words that: i. Combine all basic syllable types: closed, VCe, open, vowel team, vowel –r, Consonant-le. ii. Include common, transparent, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re-, pre-, sub-, un-, dis-, mis-; -able, -ness, -ful) and suffix -tion. 7. Spell common words in English, including regular and irregular forms.
1.Improve communication of meaning by replacing weak verbs with stronger ones, and common nouns with precise nouns. 2.Capitalize appropriate words in titles. 3. Choose and maintain consistency of tense, writing nouns and verbs that agree in tense. 4. Use common regular and irregular plural forms, writing nouns and verbs that agree in number. 5. Use appropriate pronouns with clear referents. 6. Use periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks appropriately. (e.g., commas and quotation marks in dialogue, and commas in addresses). 7. Combine simple sentences into compound sentences, using conjunctions and, but, or, yet, and so. 8.Paraphrase a main idea or event in order to vary sentence structure and word use. 9.Organize ideas into paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. |
Daily Targets | Instructional Activities- include links to resources |
Bend 1 Session 1 : “Today I want to teach you that information writers are observers. One way they learn more about topics is by taking something—an object, a photograph—and studying it closely, noticing the details. Then, they write long, saying, ‘I see… I notice… This reminds me of… I wonder…I think…’” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 2 : “Information writers write to grow their ideas. One way they do this is by studying videos about their topic with their minds on high, jotting notes about what they’re learning, and then writing long off their notes.” | |
Session 3 : “Information writers plan their writing by trying out multiple tables of contents. It can be helpful to think about kinds, parts, or ways when brainstorming chapters or sections.” | |
Session 4 : “Today I want to remind you that information writers are teachers. When you write an information book, you teach a unit of study on a topic, and it helps to rehearse by teaching others. Rehearsing helps you see what you know a lot about and what you need to research.” | |
Session 5 : “Today I want to remind you that everything you’ve learned about organizing a table of contents applies also to the work of organizing a chapter or any information text you write. Whenever you write an information text, start by making a mini table of contents—on paper or in your mind.” | |
Session 6 :
“Today, I want to remind you our unit is called Information Writing for a reason. It is made up entirely of information! The book you will be making is like a brick wall, and the bricks are pieces of information. You write by taking those chunks of information, your bricks, and then you lay those pieces of information alongside each other.” | |
Session 7 : “Today I want to teach you that one way information writers strengthen their writing is by collaborating with others. They share chapters with one another and think, ‘What do I know that I could add to this information? And where should I add that new information in?’” | |
Bend 2 Session 1 : “Today I want to teach you that information writers use all they know about planning one information book to help them write other information books. You can study that table of contents of one book thinking, “How many of these chapters could be the same for your second animal? Are there any you should revise?” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Bend 2 Session 2 : “Writers, today I want to teach you that when information writers draft and revise, they consider ways to add more, or elaborate. Information writers elaborate by studying mentor texts, taking note of all the different kinds of information that writers use to teach readers about subtopics.”
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Bend 2 Session 3 : “Today I want to remind you that when you write information books, you try to interest your reader. Readers love fascinating facts, and they love ideas, too. Writers make sure their writing contains both facts and ideas.” | |
Bend 2 Session 4 : “Today I want to teach you that writers play! Just like players in Minecraft build different worlds, it can help to try out your chapters multiple ways, to be creative, until you find the best way things could go.” | |
Bend 2 Session 5 : “Today I want to teach you that when researchers want to dig deeper into a topic, they push themselves to come up with questions they still have about their subtopics. Then, they use these questions to drive their research and come up with new insights for their writing.” | |
Bend 2 Session 6 : “Today I want to teach you that writers revise their introductions and conclusions to make them stronger by studying mentor texts.” | |
Bend 2 Session 7 : “Today I want to teach you that information writers improve their writing by breaking the information up into paragraphs to alert readers to a shift or change in topic.” | |
Bend 3 Session 1 : “Today I want to teach you that informational writers draw on all they know to help them plan their book in the strongest way possible. To do this, they consider a logical order for their chapters and they plan out how they’ll structure each chapter.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Bend 3 Session 2 : “Today I want to teach you that to create the strongest chapters possible, you have to use everything you know to help you draft. You can reread our charts, checklist, and your writing from earlier in this unit to help you make a plan and set goals.” | |
Bend 3 Session 3 : Suggested Lessons : Once students have started drafting their chapters, you’ll want to teach a minilesson to help them revise those chapters to make them stronger. To do this, you could draw on two sessions from The Art of Information: Session 10: “Writing, Reusing and Recycling in the Writing Process,” and Session 12: “Taking Stock and Setting Goals.” | |
Bend 3 Session 4 : “Today I want to remind you that information writers ask, ‘What text features will help readers learn more?’ They only include the most helpful text features. They think about what the chapter and text is mostly about, and then choose text features that pop out or highlight that information.” | |
Bend 3 Session 5 : “Writers, today I want to teach you that writing partners can be writing teachers. You can confer with your partner just like I confer with you, reading your partner’s writing and then giving them a compliment and a tip.” | |
Bend 3 Session 6 : Suggested Lessons : Editing for Sentence Structure OR Spelling Strategies | |
Bend 3 Session 7 : “Today I want to teach you that our writing about research has the power to make a big impact in our world. We can work to prepare our writing for publication.” |
Accommodations and Modifications | |
Special Education |
|
Multilingual Learners |
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Students At-Risk of School Failure |
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Gifted and Talented |
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Students with 504 Plans |
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Assessments | |
Formative |
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Summative |
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Benchmark | |
Alternative |
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OPTIONAL
SUBJECT: Writing GRADE LEVEL: 3 UNIT TITLE: Once Upon A Time : Adapting and Writing FairytalesLENGTH OF STUDY: 20 sessions, can be shortened LINK PACING GUIDE |
Unit Learning Goals |
Course Objectives ● Students will use familiar fairy tales to explore techniques of fiction writing such as writing in scenes, employing an omniscient narrator to orient readers, using story structure to create tension, and crafting figurative language to convey mood. |
Primary Materials | Supplemental Materials |
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New Jersey Student Learning Standards |
Language :
Writing : Speaking and Listening : Foundational :
1. Spell single syllable words with less common and complex graphemes (ough, augh; -old, -ind, -ost, -ild families). 2. Use a digital or print tools such as a dictionary or thesaurus to check spellings of unknown words. 3. Identify language of word origin, as noted in dictionaries. 4. Spell singular and plural possessives (teacher’s; teachers’). 5. Change y to i (cried) in words with suffixes, when required. 6. Spell regular two- and three-syllable words that: i. Combine all basic syllable types: closed, VCe, open, vowel team, vowel –r, Consonant-le. ii. Include common, transparent, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., re-, pre-, sub-, un-, dis-, mis-; -able, -ness, -ful) and suffix -tion. 7. Spell common words in English, including regular and irregular forms.
1.Improve communication of meaning by replacing weak verbs with stronger ones, and common nouns with precise nouns. 2.Capitalize appropriate words in titles. 3. Choose and maintain consistency of tense, writing nouns and verbs that agree in tense. 4. Use common regular and irregular plural forms, writing nouns and verbs that agree in number. 5. Use appropriate pronouns with clear referents. 6. Use periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, apostrophes, and quotation marks appropriately. (e.g., commas and quotation marks in dialogue, and commas in addresses). 7. Combine simple sentences into compound sentences, using conjunctions and, but, or, yet, and so. 8.Paraphrase a main idea or event in order to vary sentence structure and word use. 9.Organize ideas into paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. |
Daily Targets | Instructional Activities- include links to resources |
Session 1 : Adapting Classic Fairytales “The question we will be researching is : What does the author seem to be trying to do when he or she changes some things and not others?” “How will a study of someone else’s adaptions help me when I write my own?” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 2 : Writing Story Adaptations that Hold Together “Today I want to teach you that when writers plan how an adaptation of a story will go, they do two things. First, they decide on a change that they think will improve the story, and second, they make sure at the change leads to other changes so the whole story fits together. Often one big adaptation cascades like a row of dominoes through the writer’s adaptation of the fairytale.” | |
Session 3 : Storytelling, Planning, and Drafting Adaptations of Fairytales “Today I want to remind you that the real goal when you rehearse for writing a story is not to come up with something to say, but to make the story you will write much stronger. If you story-tell and act out your story, your rehearsal brings your story to life.” | |
Session 4 : Writers Can Story-Tell and Act Out as They Draft “Today I want to teach you that when you are writing, you can rehearse in the middle of writing as well as at the start of it. And specifically, when writing a fiction story that contains several small moments or scenes, it helps to story-tell or to act out each small moment before writing it - or at least to do this while writing it.” | |
Session 5 : Weaving Narration Through Stories “Today I want to teach you that writers of fairy tales use narration, or telling, in some important ways : to introduce the story, to stitch one scene to the next, and to end the story.” | |
Session 6 : Mirror, Mirror on the Wall : Assessment Using Self Reflection “Today I want to teach you that writers know that their writing gets better not only from what they do on the page, with their pen, but also from what they do off the page. And no work is more powerful than being a really tough critic of one’s own draft, rereading one’s writing and judging it against goals in such a way that the writer comes away with goals to live by, stars to steer by.” | |
Bend 2 Session 7 : Goals and Plans Are a Big Deal “Today I want to teach you that all good things are made twice. Once in the creator’s imagination, and once in reality. Writers plan not only their writing, but also their process for making a piece of writing.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 8 : Telling Stories that Make Readers Shiver “Today I want to teach you that fairy tales are written to be read aloud, or storytold, in ways that make listeners squeal and shiver. At the exciting parts, there are often repeated refrains that add to the tension. And throughout, the story is written so that listeners will feel what the writer wants them to feel, to see what the writer wants them to see.” | |
Session 9 : Revising Early and Often “Some students think you draft your whole piece. The truth is that serious writers, sophisticated writers, revise early and use those early revisions to lift the level of what they have yet to write.” | |
Session 10 : When Dialogue Swamps Your Draft, Add Actions “Today I want to teach you that if characters are having a conversation, it helps if they are making a salad - or doing some other accompanying action. Those actions can say as much as the dialogue.” | |
Session 11 : Painting a Picture with Words: Revising for Language “Today I want to teach you that writers revise their fairytales by using what they know about language to paint pictures in the minds of their readers.” | |
Session 12 : The Long and Short of It: Editing for Sentence Variety “Today I want to teach you that one way to create your own writing style is to experiment with different types of sentences when editing. This means that in addition to keeping an editing eye out for writing rules, writers edit to smooth out short or choppy sentences. Writers turn those sentences into smoother, more precise, and well-paced sentences.” | |
Bend 3 Session 13 : Collecting Ideas for Original Fairytales “Today I want to teach you that when trying to write fairytales, hard work matters, but hard work alone won’t produce a beautiful fairytale. What you need, above all, is the magic formula. The formula includes a character with traits and wants, and then a dose of trouble, then more trouble, and more. And then somehow, ta-da! - that’s the magic part - there’s a resolution.” | Everyday, Students will:
Everyday, Teachers will:
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Session 14 : Letter to Teachers: From “This is a Fairytale About” to “Once Upon a Time” “Today I want to remind you that writers learn from their own writing. Writers look back over previous pieces they’ve written, especially those in a similar genre, noting the processes and strategies they used to write those pieces. They ask, ‘What worked that I should do again? What didn’t work that I could rethink this time?’” | |
Session 15 : Tethering Objects to Characters “Today I want to teach you that writers sometimes focus on characters’ actions around an object that’s important to the character, which makes those actions more meaningful.” | |
Session 16 : Using Descriptive Language While Drafting “Today I want to teach you that writers live in the world of their stories and add tiny bits of description - of characters, setting, and objects - as they write. Sometimes they do that by writing a telling sentence, and then a showing sentence.” | |
Session 17 : Revising the Magic “Today I want to teach you that one way writers revise their writing is to reread, looking especially at the role of the magic in their stories. For a fairytale to work, the magic can’t be just sprinkled around willy-nilly, but needs to connect to the heart of the story. Magic usually pops up especially when the story’s trouble pops up.” | |
Session 18 : Revising for Readers “Today I want to teach you that writers show their readers how to read a piece by varying the pace of the writing - by altering whether a moment passes by quickly or slowly.” | |
Session 19 : Letter to Teachers: Editing with an Eye Out for Broken Patterns “Today I want to teach you that writers try to carry good writing across a whole piece. Writers look back over rough drafts, noting the places where a pattern of good writing is broken. They ask, ‘How may I edit my writing to mend the broken pattern and fix the mess-ups, keeping the good writing going?’” | |
Session 20 : Celebration |
Accommodations and Modifications | |
Special Education |
|
Multilingual Learners |
|
Students At-Risk of School Failure |
|
Gifted and Talented |
|
Students with 504 Plans |
|
Assessments | |
Formative |
|
Summative |
|
Benchmark | |
Alternative |
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