3rd Grade Explicit Personal Narrative and Realistic Fiction Writing Curriculum

Description

Are you ready to get stellar results through an explicit, systematic, and scaffolded approach to writing instruction? This structured 3rd-grade personal narrative and realistic fiction writing unit is filled with all the writing lessons, prompts, and activities you’ll need to teach these two types of narrative writing – personal narrative and realistic fiction.

The best part? It’s completely done for you – just click and teach.

With this curriculum, we literally take your hand and walk you through, step-by-step, teaching writing each day.

The first 4 weeks of this curriculum focus on teaching students personal narrative writing, and the second 4 weeks focus on realistic fiction narrative writing.

Teaching writing will seriously become the easiest, and most joyful, part of your day.

So say goodbye to teacher overwhelm, and hello to your newfound confidence as an amazing teacher of writing.

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A unique feature of the personal narrative portion of the unit is that experience-based teaching is used. Experience-based means students engage in a common experience and then write personalized stories about what happened. This experience-based approach provides you, the teacher, with common student experiences to structure your teaching around and ensures ALL students have experiences to write about.

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This Standards-Aligned writing curriculum is the perfect way to teach your third graders how to write personal narrative and realistic fiction writing pieces.

This unit sets ALL learners up for success. It’s written in an organized, systematic format that helps students gradually learn how to write both personal and realistic fiction narratives.

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WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY ABOUT TEACHING WRITING?

While there is a massive amount of research on best practices in reading, that is not the case with writing.

A few books we recommend you read if you want to learn more about best practices in writing instruction using evidence-based strategies are:

The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler
The Writing Rope by Joan Sedita
Best Practices in Writing Instruction by Steve Graham, Charles A. MacArthur, and Michael Hebert
What we do know is that writing is an extremely complex skill that requires time and solid instruction. (Graham et al., 2012)

Additionally…

Writing should be taught systematically and explicitly.
Writing instruction should be carefully scaffolded.
Our curriculums provide teachers with DAILY scripted lessons that are explicit, systematic, and scaffolded. Students are so successful because of the explicit instruction, gradual release of responsibility, and daily writing practice where they implement the skills taught.

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WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THIS RESOURCE?

40 DIGITAL LESSON PLANS – No need to search for your lesson plans or spend an enormous amount of time reading them each day. We have them right on the slides, making your teaching life stress-free.

Digital Lessons Include:

· “I Will” Statements – To keep students laser-focused on the objective of the day. We use “I will” statements instead of “I can” statements as they hold the students more accountable

· Writing Chats – To introduce topics and build background information and vocabulary

· Watch Me Slides – For the teacher to show the objective through thinking aloud and modeling

· Our Turn Slides – For students to practice the new skill with you

· Your Turn Slides – For students to independently practice the skill learned

PRINTABLE PAGES – After each writing skill has been explicitly taught and practiced, students are held responsible for their learning by engaging in a writing assignment aligned to the day’s learning target. Extra printable pages have been included to offer you quick and easy resources to differentiate assignments for your students.

OBSERVATION CHECKLISTS – Great for formative assessment! As you walk around and observe students, record your findings. This easy-to-use checklist helps you remember who is meeting targeted standards and who needs extra help. This is a helpful tool to refer to when planning for parent-teacher conferences.

INFORMATIVE WRITING RUBRIC – This handy resource is perfect for grading informative papers and discussing goals and progress with students and parents.

COLORFUL WRITING POSTERS – To display in your classroom and give students the support needed

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HERE IS A GLIMPSE OF THE FOCUS FOR EACH WEEK:

WEEK 1 – Introduction to Personal Narrative Writing

(Note: To introduce personal narrative writing to students, the teacher will guide them step-by-step as they help a “writer” write a personal narrative from their point of view.)

Zoom in to a small moment
Begin with a hook and introduction of characters, setting, and initial event
Include details and temporal words in the middle
End with a sense of closure
Write a story title

WEEK 2 – Create a Writing Plan and Use it to Write a Personal Narrative

Create a class writing plan (after common experience)
Include vivid actions
Include adverbs and adverbial phrases
Revise and edit

WEEK 3 – Strengthen a Personal Narrative by Including Details

Describe your feelings and thoughts
Use dialogue

WEEK 4 – Self-Generated Personal Narrative Writing Topics/Continue to
Strengthen Writing

Generate writing topics
Use sentence variety
Revise and edit
Peer edit
Bonus Lesson: PublishWriting

WEEK 5 – Introduction to Realistic Fiction Writing

Identify differences between realistic fiction and other fiction
Identify parts of realistic fiction writing
Begin with a hook and introduce characters, setting, and initial event
Include temporal words and a story plot
End with a resolution and closing

WEEK 6 – Given a Story Plot or a Prompt, Plan and Write a Realistic Fiction Story

Create class realistic fiction story plan
Include step-by-step actions, vivid verbs, adverbs, and adverbial phrases
Show feelings, instead of just telling

WEEK 7 – Given a Prompt, Write a Realistic Fiction Story

Include Adjectives
Include Dialogue and thoughts

WEEK 8 – Include Information Learned About a Given Writing Topic to Strengthen a Realistic Fiction Story

Read an informational article and take notes
Write realistic fiction story, including information from notes
Revise and Edit
Peer Revise and Publish

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WHY EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR WRITING?

It’s simple… IT WORKS!

Explicit instruction (also called direct instruction) works for all writers…not just the stronger ones. It’s a strategy that allows teachers to scaffold learning by giving structured, sequenced lessons targeting specific skills or standards. It’s teacher-led, with a gradual release of responsibility to students. This method truly allows all students to succeed.

If you are thinking that this doesn’t sound like Writer’s Workshop, you’re right. It’s not. Years ago, we implemented Writer’s Workshop in our classrooms, but it didn’t work for us… or our students.

The biggest problem was that it was very difficult to manage and keep students on track. It was also a planning nightmare trying to find mini-lessons to match our students’ diverse needs. And to make matters worse, when we gave mini-lessons, students didn’t necessarily practice the targeted skill because they were at different stages of the writing process.

We were disappointed and frustrated, and we knew we had to do something different. We decided to put structure and intentionality into our teaching. We clearly state what students will be working on, give thoughtful instruction through modeling and discussion, and provide time to practice as we observe and guide. It is so simple to manage and gives students the support they need. The result? Student writing as we’ve never seen. This method truly works!

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WHO IS THE RESOURCE FOR?

❤️ Third-grade teachers looking for a strong, yet easy-to-implement, writing curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and fun for kids.

❤️ Special Education Teachers who need to teach students the basics of personal narrative and realistic fiction writing using a direct instruction approach.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Do students complete a writing assignment each day?

Yes, students engage in a writing activity each day. The assignments are highly engaging and help hold students accountable for their learning.

Does this follow a Writers’ Workshop model?

No. Students are explicitly taught a writing skill each day, and then they practice the skill taught. Our curriculum is based on the Science of Writing – what has been proven to work!

Can this be used with Google Slides?

Yes! We have included a link to a Google Slides version of the teaching slides.

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WHAT TEACHERS LIKE YOU ARE SAYING:

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“This has changed how I teach writing completely! My students love the layout, I love the way it breaks down the steps to create independent writers, and we all love that it is a reasonable lesson with fun and engaging topics! ” -CINDY S.

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“So incredibly well done. Takes the stress away from planning and preparing all writing lessons. My kids love them.”

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“Writing is tricky. Teaching today’s writing standards is even trickier. I love the clear step-by-step process that builds skills and understanding in these units. This has the anchor charts, the slides, lessons, and the printables I need to show, practice, and allow them to do. By the time we get to the “doing on their own”, they are confident that they can do it “all by themselves.” And they can!” -WINIFRED