Plan a Narrative: Use Reflection and Descriptive Details | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G8:M3:U3:L10

Plan a Narrative: Use Reflection and Descriptive Details

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • W.8.3, W.8.3b, W.8.3d, W.8.5, L.8.1b, L.8.3a

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RL.8.10, W.8.4, W.8.6, W.8.10, L.8.6
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can determine the characteristics of an effective narrative interview. (W.8.3, W.8.4)
  • I can identify where a writer used reflection and relevant descriptive details to accentuate important aspects of the narrative for the reader. (W.8.3b, W.8.3d)
  • I can use pacing, sensory details, dialogue, and relevant descriptive details to make a pivotal moment in my narrative come alive. (W.8.3b, W.8.3d)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket
  • Work Time A: Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher (W.8.3b, W.8.3d)
  • Work Time B: Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 note-catcher (W.8.3b, W.8.3d, L.8.1b, L.8.3a)
  • Closing and Assessment A: Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment note-catcher (W.8.3)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner - W.8.3b (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Analyze a Model Narrative: Reflection and Description - W.8.3b (15 minutes)

B. Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Draft an Exploded Moment - W.8.3 (15 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Independent Research Reading: Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • W.8.3b – Work Time A: Students identify places in the model narrative interview where the writer used reflection to develop experiences and events of their upstander.
  • W.8.3d – Work Time A: Students identify places in the model narrative interview where the writer used relevant descriptive detail to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
  • W.8.4 – Work Time A: Students identify examples in the model narrative interview of how the writer developed and organized ideas for their purpose and audience.
  • W.8.3b – Work Time B: Students participate in a Language Dive to explore how the writer uses reflection to develop experiences and events of an upstander.
  • W.8.3d – Work Time B: Students participate in a Language Dive to explore how the writer uses relevant descriptive details to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
  • L.8.1b – Work Time B: Students participate in a Language Dive to analyze how passive voice is formed.
  • L.8.3a – Work Time B: Students participate in a Language Dive to analyze how a writer uses passive voice to achieve a particular effect.
  • W.8.5 – Closing and Assessment A: Students strengthen their writing by drafting their fictional upstander’s response to a question using description, pacing, dialogue, and reflection.
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become ethical people, showing respect as they discuss the experiences of Holocaust victims and survivors while developing their own upstander’s exploded moment. They also focus on working to become effective learners, persevering as they practice narrative writing techniques and draft their exploded moment of a significant event in their upstander’s life.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • In Work Time A, students may add complexity in the profile of their Holocaust Upstander to reveal more details about their upstander’s life and interaction with significant events, people, and places of the Holocaust by developing additional questions and responses for their narrative interview.
  • Consider printing out interviews of important historical figures or Holocaust survivors, so as students read transcripts of these conversations, they can deepen their understanding of this format of writing and look for examples of where the questions and answers exhibit pacing or description to explode an important event. Students can use these same transcripts to investigate how speakers use passive voice and the conditional or subjunctive moods to achieve particular effects.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In the previous lesson, students planned the responses of their fictional upstander’s interview. In this lesson, they will build on that foundation to focus in on one significant moment that propelled the upstander to act.

Support All Students

  • In the second half of this unit, students will write about a fictional rather than real upstander due to the potential danger of telling a story about a real person that isn’t true. Guide students to consider the real upstander stories they have read, and what those people experienced, as they write fictional upstander narratives.
  • Emphasize the importance of students being respectful to the real stories of upstanders and what Holocaust victims went through as they write their stories. Remind students that, while narrative writing is creative and can be fun, the time period they are writing about was horrific for the victims.
  • Presenting learning targets and directions in writing, orally, and if possible, accompanied by symbols will help students to understand the language within them. ▲
  • Record, or have students record, share-outs visually to reinforce oral discussion of important aspects of creating a fictional upstander. ▲
  • Note there is a differentiated version of Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher used in Work Time A in the separate Teacher’s Guide for English Language Learners. ▲
  • Students may need additional support with putting their ideas into writing. Sit with those students who require additional support with writing to help them actualize their ideas. ▲
  • Refer to the Characteristics of Upstanders anchor chart, and point students back to specific attributes they can develop in their upstander. ▲
  • Provide opportunities for students to orally rehearse aspects of their fictional upstander’s character as a way to help students process information from texts they have read prior to filling out their Upstander Profile: Interview Planner. ▲

Assessment Guidance

  • Throughout Closing and Assessment A, frequently review student work to ensure they are filling out their Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment Draft note-catcher with appropriate details and pacing as discussed in the mini lesson.

Down the Road

  • In Lessons 11–12, students will use the narrative interview plans created in Lessons 8–10 to draft their Upstander Narrative Interview.

In Advance

  • Prepare
    • Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 10
    • Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment Draft note-catcher
  • Ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 10 at each student's workspace.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous modules to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 8.I.A.2, 8.I.A.4, 8.I.B.6, 8.I.B.7, and 8.II.B.5.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson includes repeated routines and a familiar sequence of tasks as students continue to work with the model narrative and plan their own narrative for the End of Unit 3 Assessment. Students will look closely at the model narrative to understand how the writer has used reflection and descriptive details to provide a clear account of a fictional upstander experience. The lesson also includes a Language Dive in which students will explore a sentence from the model to analyze how narrative techniques are used to develop and convey experiences. In Closing and Assessment A of the lesson, students will focus their attention on drafting a specific moment in their narrative.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to move between the variety of tasks within this lesson. Give careful attention to reviewing the lesson agenda with the class to help students understand how each portion of the lesson builds upon the previous one. ELLs, especially, will benefit from being paired with supportive pairs and in home language groups to have meaningful discussions about the model essay and their own narratives.

Vocabulary

  • impetus (A)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Academic word wall (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen" (example for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 3, Lesson 7, Work Time B)
  • Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart (for teacher reference) (from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 5, Work Time B)
  • Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart (one for display: from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 5, Work Time B)
  • Vocabulary logs (one per student; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen" (one per student; from Module 3, Unit 3, Lesson 7, Work Time B)
  • Upstander Profile: Interview planner (one per student; from Module 3, Unit 3, Lesson 9, Work Time B)
  • Independent reading journal (one per student; begun in Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 6, Work Time B)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 10 (example for teacher reference)
  • Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher (example for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive Guide: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 Sentence Chunk Chart (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 note-catcher (example for teacher reference)
  • Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment note-catcher (example for teacher reference)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 10 (one per student)
  • Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher (one per student and one for display)
  • Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher ▲
  • Language Dive: Upstander Model: “Interview with Anna Jensen,” Page 1 note-catcher (one per student)
  • Language Dive: Upstander Model: “Interview with Anna Jensen,” Page 1 sentence chunk strips (one per group)
  • Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment note-catcher (one per student)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

Opening

A. Engage the Learner - W.8.3b (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 10. Prompt students to Turn and Talk about their answers to the entrance ticket. Cold-call students to share out their definition of the word impetus (the force that makes something happen or happen more quickly), and direct students to add the word to their vocabulary logs. Refer to the Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 10 (example for teacher reference), as needed.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as in previous lessons.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Analyze a Model Narrative: Reflection and Description – W.8.3b (15 minutes)

  • Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can identify where a writer used reflection and relevant descriptive details to accentuate important aspects of the narrative for the reader.”

  • Prompt students to retrieve their Upstander Model: “Interview with Anna Jensen,” and direct them to question 2. Read aloud question 2, as students follow along silently.
  • Invite students to Turn and Talk:

“How is the content of this response different than the content of Anna’s first response?” (In the first response, the writer used a lot of sensory details to paint a picture of what Anna was seeing and hearing during an important moment. In this response, Anna is thinking about this memory and how it made her feel at the time and how it makes her feel now. She is reflecting on the memory and its impact on her.)

“What are some of the sentence starters the writer used to convey that Anna is reflecting?” (“I was ashamed . . . ,” “I still remember . . .,” “I began to wonder . . .,” and “I could not ignore. . . .”)

  • Explain to students that one technique authors use in narrative writing to provide relevant information and accentuate important aspects of the story is reflection. In the model, the reflection helps the reader understand how this experience felt to Anna and what it made her do or think about.
  • Display and distribute the Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher, and model for students how to complete the first column in the first row. For ELLs and students who require additional support, Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher ▲ can be used to help guide students’ thinking with pre-filled information.
  • Prompt students to work with a partner and read questions 3, 4, and 5 in their Upstander Model: “Interview with Anna Jensen,” pausing to identify where the writer continues to embed reflection in Anna’s responses and noting that in the first column of their Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher. Use the Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher (example for teacher reference) as needed.
  • Use a total participation technique to share out responses with the group, and use any misconceptions as teaching points.
  • Explain to students that these are phrases they should consider using in their own planning and writing to help the reader understand their upstander’s experience in more detail.
  • Tell students that while Anna is reflecting, the writer also includes many relevant descriptive details in her responses. Explain that the writer does not include superfluous details, but carefully selects details that help the reader understand more about the setting, time period, and upstander’s experience. Read aloud question 3 and the response from the model narrative while students follow along.
  • Point out the words resisting and Jewish neighbors and explain that these words are specific to Anna’s experience and reveal more information to the reader about the Holocaust. They were chosen specifically by the writer.
  • Prompt students to work with a partner and reread the remainder of the model narrative, pausing to identify where the writer continues to add relevant descriptive details in Anna’s responses and noting that in the second column of their Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher.
  • Direct students to question 3 on their Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher, and prompt students to complete the practice writing task. Provide time for partners to orally rehearse any reflection or relevant descriptive details they will use in their response prior to writing.
  • Prompt partners to review their Upstander Profile: Interview planner, noting places where they could add descriptive details or reflection to their plan.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

For Lighter Support

  • N/A

For Heavier Support

  • Invite students who need heavier support to use Narrative Writing Practice: Reflection and Relevant Descriptive Details note-catcher ▲ This resource has prefilled information to help guide students’ thinking.

B. Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

  • Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can use pacing, sensory details, dialogue, and relevant descriptive details to make a pivotal moment in my narrative come alive."

  • Display the Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart. Ensure students understand how to use these questions, pointing out that the questions underlined on the anchor chart are questions that students should always ask when they dive into a sentence.
  • Refer to the Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart (example for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Reread page 1 of Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen."
  • Focus students on the sentence below:
    • At first I couldn't tell what was going on, but suddenly I realized that my friend the baker was surrounded by two German soldiers with swastikas stitched on their uniforms.
  • Use the Language Dive Guide: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 (for teacher reference) and the Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 Sentence Chunk Chart (for teacher reference) to guide students through a Language Dive conversation about the sentence. Distribute and display the Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 note-catcher and the Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 sentence chunk strips. Refer to the Language Dive: Upstander Model: "Interview with Anna Jensen," Page 1 note-catcher (example for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.
  • N/A

Closing & Assessments

ClosingLevels of Support

A. Draft an Exploded Moment - W.8.3 (15 minutes)

  • Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can use pacing, sensory details, dialogue, and relevant descriptive details to make a pivotal moment in my narrative come alive."

  • Tell students that in Lessons 9 and 10, they learned various narrative writing techniques for effective narratives. Explain that writers often use more than one narrative technique to write an effective piece. The writer of our model has used pacing, sensory details, reflection, dialogue, and relevant descriptive details.
  • Explain that they will now have the opportunity to practice these techniques as they draft the answer to the following questions from their Upstander Profile graphic organizer:

"What is the one specific event you will expand on in your narrative? Describe, briefly, how it propelled your upstander to act."

  • Remind students that they briefly planned this response already, but during this time they should work independently to create a complete draft of this exploded moment, while using effective narrative techniques. Explain that the response to this question should include their upstander's impetus to act.
  • Ask students to review their interview planner and entrance ticket and share with a partner:

"What moment will you choose to explode?" (Answers will vary.)

"How will it reveal your upstander's decision to act?" (Answers will vary.)

  • Direct students to gather their planning documents and use the Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment note-catcher to capture their draft, keeping the narrative techniques in mind as they write.
  • Circulate as students draft their exploded moment. As needed, prompt students with questions such as the following:

"When will you slow down the pace of your narrative?" (Answers will vary.)

"What sensory details will you include in this response?" (Answers will vary.)

"What precise details will you use in this response?" (Answers will vary.)

"Will you use reflection in your upstander's response to this question?" (Answers will vary.)

  • As time permits, invite students to revise their Narrative Writing Practice: Exploded Moment note-catcher, focusing on adding narrative techniques to their planner and any other areas of the plan that need revision.
  • Ask students to Turn and Talk:

"What habits of character did you practice while writing your exploded moment?" (Answers will vary, but may include that they practiced using compassion as they reflected upon the experiences of various upstanders and incorporated those experiences into their own writing.)

  • Invite students to reflect on the habits of character focus in this lesson, discussing what went well and what could be improved next time.

For Lighter Support

  • To reinforce punctuation usage, during Closing and Assessment A, invite students look for places to use commas or dashes to connect two independent clauses within the exploded moment they have drafted.

For Heavier Support

  • For continued practice with punctuation, during Closing and Assessment A, invite students to review a peer's exploded moment for comma usage. Students can highlight places where a comma is missing or where a comma has been used unnecessarily. This type of review will benefit not only the writer, but also the reviewer, as students will need to recall the rules of comma usage in order to effectively provide feedback.

Homework

Homework

A. Independent Research Reading

  • Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they may select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

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