Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 1 Imagining Stories from Ordinary Moments

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1 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 1 Imagining Stories from Ordinary Moments Minutes Teacher Behavior Teaching Point: Use an anecdote about how you write fiction stories to tell students that fiction writers get ideas from real life. Use examples from professional work as well as your own writing to show how fiction is best with elements of truth in them. Mine your own notebook for ideas that you can share. Ideas that are true but could be slightly altered to have fictional elements. Often ideas that have a little tension in them are easiest. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Use Notebooks to Plan possible stories. Read an element where you planned your fiction story to show how we plan. Sharing writing with class Students help you to change your true stories into stories that have elements of fiction in it. (note: we are not looking for fantasy stories, we are looking for realistic fictional stories) Students mine their own notebooks for ideas that can be turned into fiction. Students select one and start to plan what they will alter to make the story a juicy fiction story. Not fantasy story. Students share some of their story ideas and plans.

2 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 2 Imagining Stories we wish existed in the world. Teaching Point: We get ideas for fiction by thinking of books we wish existed in the world. Point out we each hope to find ourselves in the pages of books. Elements of who we are as people in the characters we choose to read or look for in books. Show how you would create a character with unique characteristics of yourself (heritage, living, work, family, values, quirks, challenges faced etc). Continue adding to list that began day 1 of How to find ideas for fiction. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Share struggles with characters. This is another way of finding story ideas. We can think about issues we face in our lives (give story) and create a story about a character that deals with this in an outcome we approve of. Teaching students to be story tellers. Talk about the kinds of characters (realistic characters) that they like to read about and the kind of characters that they wish they could read about. Students think about creating characters who mirror themselves or face issues that they have faced or think they can solve. Students draft character descriptions and stories about the characters. Students share some of their story ideas and plans with their partners.

3 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 3 Developing Believable Characters Teaching Point: Fiction writers rehearse by writing thinking on the page about their character. Today kids will look over all their entries and select the story idea to develop into a published piece. Characters drive stories. External and Internal features of a character are important and need to match. Show how traits and actions go together. Highlight how you determine what the main goal for the characters is and then let this guide how the character and story develop. Show list from pg 32 on developing characters. Together develop your character. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Building Character s Self-View. Reminding students to think about how the characters they are making feel about themselves and how that impacts their actions/story. Talk about how characters have both good and not so good traits to make them seem real. If characters are too good to be true, how can the character seem more realistic (complicated) by having some aspect be both good and bad for the character? Participate in developing your main character. Practicing the strategies of character development that you are modeling. Students begin writing drafts of their characters. Including traits, motivations, thoughts, possible actions, goals. Share their stories and think about how their characters are well rounded. Plan with tables or partners for how to make the characters more complicated.

4 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 4 Giving Characters Struggles and Motivations. Teaching Point: Writers must think about their characters desires and their struggles to fulfill their desires. Teach kids that we root for characters who we want to succeed as we watch them struggle towards their goal. Read published text about a character who faces struggles, encounters difficulties. Use it to demonstrate how an author conveys dramatic scenes. Use this to create some scenes of struggles for the model story you are working on as a class. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Sharing a scene that shows a character s traits. This is a showing not telling example. Participate in developing the scenes for the class story. Students begin writing about their characters wants and the struggles they go through to get this or not get this. Review the elements of good writing from previous units and how they can use things they have learned in previous lessons to help them today.

5 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 5 Plotting the Story Mountain Teaching Point: Writers use a plan, story mountain, to plan the scenes of their story. They aim to intensify the problems of the character. Teach kids that once we know what the character s goals are and what struggles he will have, we put that into a plot. Plan a possible story mountain for the class story. Students work in table groups to come up with scenes to put on the story mountain for the class story. Review a published work (maybe a making meaning read aloud) for elements of plot. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Finding story mountains in published work. Teach kids that if they are stuck they can look to published work for ideas of how to move a story forward or get started. This isn t copying it is finding a model. Talk about other revision strategies students already know and how they can fit. Also, remind students they have tools like list, timelines and flow charts which might help them plan. Students write their own story mountains. You may want them to write the scenes on something moveable like post its or note cards so that they don t erase all the time. Share mountains with peers.

6 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 6 Show Don t Tell: Planning and Writing Scenes Teaching Point: Fiction is composed of scenes, or drama, and that sometimes a line of dialogue or small action an ignite a dramatic scene. Teach kids that writers organize their draft around scenes. It might be that the draft is several different pages, 1 for each scene. These will be connected during revision later. Demonstrate the difference between summary and scene by telling a familiar tale in contrasting ways. Introduce dialogue as a key element of fiction. If you are students need reminders of what goes into a scene look at pg 83 Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Revise, Revise, Revise. Encourage children to reread what they have already written to see if it needs any revision. This teaches students that it is ok to revise as we go. Select 5 students to tell others to act out the scenes from their stories. Talk about revising and working hard, even though the next day you will revise again. Give sports, dance, etc practice analogy of practicing plays or routines for a big game or recital, then using what was practiced on that big day. Students story tell a scene from their stories to a partner. Students write their own scenes using revision and dramatic action to keep the scenes interesting and not a summary of events. Act out scenes.

7 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 7 Feeling and Drafting the Heart of your story Teaching Point: Teach students that as they write they should worry less about writing and more about focus on reliving the drama and empathy with the character This is a discovery draft. It is written after we have planned. It is often written fast and furiously as we rush to capture the feelings of our characters. Demonstrate how to go from envisioning to enacting to drafting with one scene from your class story. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Matching writing with story mountains. Keeping in mind the overall game plan as we write. Students participate envisioning the scene form the class story and try to feel the story as you write it. Students begin their drafts. Focusing on writing as if they lived what they are writing. Select 5 students to tell others to act out the scenes from their stories. Revising Leads. It is easier to revise earlier and often then waiting til the end to revise because each revision changes a little piece of the story. It is like building blocks that stack and depend on each other. The early experiences of the character shape the end. Share snippets of what is written with a partner.

8 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 8 Studying Published Text to Write Leads Teaching Point: Teach students that by revising leads we revise our entire stories Teacher Note: revising early in the beginning of the drafting serves the purpose of allowing you time to slow the kids down, helps you to get to confer with more kid when they are not fully committed to the path they are on and allows minor revision in thinking early on to prevent end products that need massive (and frustrating) reworks. Revise early, revise often prevents the dreaded DAY OF REVISION Study familiar leads of published fiction. Remind them of things they learned earlier. Group revise a lead (students) or the class story lead. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Using Dialogue Deliberately. Talk about how some kinds of dialogue don t move a story forward. Students partner talk about what they notice in the model text and how to incorporate that into their own text. Students begin writing different leads for their story. Students think about what the next part of the story would be if they chose one lead over another. Share leads with a partner and discuss the consequences for the next part of the story.

9 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 9 Orienting Readers with Setting Teaching Point: Let children know that writers need to show the setting in a story that readers don t feel disorient. You need to set the scene for actions and dialogue so that the reader can see what the background is (like in a movie or a play where you can see the place behind the people who are talking.) Look at two scenes, one with dialogue one with dialogue, action and setting. Add or develop setting into the class story. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Using Mentor Texts in Revision Look at text and write down the sentence that an author uses and then the strategy that they are employing. To help guide your own writing. (This could be a mini lesson itself for some strategic or beginning classes) Students listen for the setting in each others work. Students talk about the impact that the added elements have on the understanding of the words. Students help you add setting elements to the class story. Students add setting to their stories so that they are weaving action, thought and dialogue through the story. Share a portion of your piece with your partner and have them listen for the setting and tell you what is it and how they know.

10 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 10 Writing Powerful Endings Teaching Point: Writers search for endings that tie up loose ends, answer questions and bring the story s meaning home. Share an example that illustrates what you know about good endings. Ask students to help you draft an ending to the class story that you are writing. Talk about how to resolve the problems and what the final meaning of the story will be. Go over list of Key Questions Fiction Writers consider in revising endings on pg 136 Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Partnering in Revision. Getting another perspective for your own story. Students help you create an ending to the class writing. Students draft endings to their work. Talk with partners and try to answer their own questions in their stories. Share one of the students writing that you think has a powerful ending. Discuss what the chosen author has done and then look over their own text briefly to reflect on what element from the list they have included.

11 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 11 Revision: Rereading with a lens Teaching Point: Writers revision by looking at their writing through a different lense. They know the revision really means re-vision to see differently. We alternate constantly between revision and writing. Model with the class text how you will revision by rereading with a specific lens. For example: I m going to read to see if I have really conveyed our message in this story or have I summarized events Demonstrate that you can alter the text by adding or subtracting to make sure that the goal was met. Have students read a model text with the lens of the Cardboard Character Alert. They will discuss ways to change/improve. Students help you by listening to you read and trying to determine if your purpose was met. Students will also read a text you provide and analyze it for the realness of the character. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Revising the Story s Sound (Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency). Another lens they might use is the Sound Check lens. Share the list on pg 151 of ways to re-see our stories. Share some places revision has occurred and why the choice was made. Students re-read their stories with specific lenses so that they can go deeper with revision.

12 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 12 Making A Space For Writing Teaching Point: Talk about how you set up the space for writing. What you put in the space to help inspire you. Review the writers notebook, procedures, classroom charts as places the can help to inspire a writer. Students talk to their partner about what they have put in their notebooks and personal writing spaces to help them as a writer. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: use conjunctions to communicate with complexity. Teach about using special kinds of transition words to move stories forward: Words such as meanwhile, therefore, however and although. Share some places revision has occurred and why the choice was made. Students continue to revise and finalize their drafts. Focus specifically on transitions, connecting the scenes together and the language that they are using.

13 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 13 Using Mentor Texts to Flesh Out Characters Teaching Point: All writers read, first to open the power of the story, and later to learn how writing is made. Demonstrate this with model text that serve both purposes. Demonstrate how these text impact your final revisions in your class text. Students talk about the elements that they hear in the text both elements that help the reader and ones that help the writer. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Naming an author s techniques. Ask students to think about naming techniques that will help them as writers, rather then saying examples from a text. Students look at their own writing and try to apply some of the elements from the mentor texts that they have read today. Students continue to revise and finalize their drafts. Focus on incorporating elements from mentor texts.

14 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Essay Writing Book 4 Lesson # 14 Editing with various lenses Teaching Point: Reread a final draft, before publication, with an editing lens. Look for misspellings, word choice or sentence problems. Looking at your own class text, practice using the editing lens to make a final draft. Students help you edit the class text. Mid-workshop Teaching Point: Editing with attentiveness. Students edit their drafts and begin working on publishing.