Narrative Writing: Drafting the End of My Narrative as Holly | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G2:M2:U3:L8

Narrative Writing: Drafting the End of My Narrative as Holly

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • W.2.3: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
  • W.2.5: With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
  • SL.2.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
  • SL.2.1a: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
  • L.2.1d: Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
  • L.2.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy).

Daily Learning Targets

  • I can draft the end of my narrative based on Holly's experiences from The Maiasaura Dig: The Story of  Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard. (W.2.3, W.2.5, L.2.6, SL.2.1, SL.2.1a)
  • I can revise my narrative to include temporal words.
  • I can edit my narrative to include irregular past-tense verbs correctly. (W.2.5, L.2.1d) (review)

Ongoing Assessment

  • During Work Time B, use the Narrative Writing Checklist to document students' progress toward W.2.3 and L.2.2 (see Assessment Overview and Resources).

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engaging the Learner: Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Independent Writing: Planning the End of My Narrative as Holly (15 minutes)

B. Independent Writing: Drafting the End of My Narrative as Holly (20 minutes)

C. Revising and Editing: Improving the End of My Narrative (15 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Pinky Partners: Sharing Our Work (5 minutes)

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:

  • This is the third of four writing lessons in which students go through scaffolded writing instruction to produce a narrative about discovering a fossil. In this lesson, students plan and draft the end of their narratives. Students revisit the idea that an ending includes actions that provide a sense of closure to their story. (W.2.3)
  • During Work Time C, students revise the end of their stories with the same focus as in Lesson 7: revising for temporal words. This gives students another opportunity to include temporal words in their writing. (W.2.3)
  • During Work Time C, students edit their writing specifically to ensure they have used irregular past-tense verbs correctly, as they did in Lessons 6 and 7.

How this lesson builds on previous work:

  • During Lessons 6-8, students recall Holly's experiences from The Maiasaura Dig: The Story of  Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard and use this as inspiration to produce a narrative about discovering a fossil. Students may refer to certain resources used in Lessons 2-5, such as the Narrative Planner: The Maiasaura Dig: The Story of  Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard anchor chart.
  • During Work Time A, students revisit the Narrative Booklet: Teacher Model they analyzed in Lesson 5 to remind them of the criteria that a strong ending of a narrative about fossils has.
  • Continue to use Goal 1-3 Conversation Cues to promote productive and equitable conversation.

Areas in which students may need additional support:

  • During Work Time B, consider providing sentence starters to students who are having trouble drafting the beginning of their narratives using the notes from their planners.
  • During Work Time B, consider pulling a small group of students who may need extra support during drafting. Consider having students act out their ideas. Or consider supporting students in drawing their ideas and using these drawings as scaffolding to help them write sentences.

Down the road:

  • In Lesson 9, students revise their narratives based on specific suggestions from the teacher using a Revising and Editing Checklist. Make sure to allow time to collect students' drafts after Lesson 8 and review before Lesson 9. Make a class set of copies of the Revising and Editing Checklist. Analyze student writing using the checklist: Check off criteria that students have included in their writing, and circle two criteria they should revise and/or edit to improve their narratives. Students should be given two specific suggestions, ideally one suggestion to revise their writing and one suggestion to edit their writing. See the Sample and Revising Checklist in Lesson 9 as a reference.
  • During Lessons 11-12, students complete the Unit 3 Assessment: they draft and revise a new narrative about discovering a fossil using a picture of a fossil as inspiration for their writing. Then students combine their writing with detailed drawings, and this becomes the performance task for this module.
  • In Lesson 15, students will share their performance task with a larger audience during the Celebration of Learning.

In Advance

  • In Lesson 9, students revise their narratives based on specific suggestions from the teacher using a Revising and Editing Checklist. Make sure to allow time to collect students' drafts after Lesson 8 and review before Lesson 9. Make a class set of copies of the Revising and Editing Checklist. Analyze student writing using the checklist: Check off criteria that students have included in their writing, and circle two criteria they should revise and/or edit to improve their narratives. Students should be given two specific suggestions, ideally one suggestion to revise their writing and one suggestion to edit their writing. See the Sample and Revising Checklist with Teacher Feedback in Lesson 9 as a reference.
  • Preview the writing instructions in Work Time A, B, and C to see how students are supported to plan, draft, revise, and edit the end of their narratives.
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

Consider using an interactive white board or document camera to display lesson materials.

  • Work Time A: Record several pairs of writing partners as they brainstorm ideas for an ending of their narrative to listen to later to discuss strengths and what they could improve on, or to use as models for the group. Most devices (cellphones, tablets, laptop computers) come equipped with free video and audio recording apps or software.
  • Work Time B: Students write page 4 of their Narrative Booklets using word-processing software--for example, a Google Doc.
  • Work Time C: Record several pairs of writing partners as they discuss revisions to listen to later to discuss strengths and what they could improve on, or to use as models for the group. Most devices (cellphones, tablets, laptop computers) come equipped with free video and audio recording apps or software.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 2.I.A.1, 2.I.A.2, 2.I.A.3, 2.I.A.4, 2.I.B.5, 2.I.C.10, 2.I.C.11, 2.I.C.12, 2.II.A.1, 2.II.A.2, and 2.II.A.3

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with opportunities to verbally process with a partner the way they want to communicate the end of their narrative before they begin writing. This peer negotiation is essential to language development, because it encourages both ELLs and native speakers to adjust their language to make it more comprehensible for their peer and to align it more closely with the language requirements of the end of the narrative.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to transform their notes from the planner into complete sentences that flow for the end of the narrative. See "Levels of support" below and the Meeting Students' Needs column for specific supports.

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • Invite students to expand their linguistic knowledge and ability by brainstorming synonyms or additional temporal words that might be helpful in their narrative ending. Encourage them to experiment with writing these temporal words, too. In addition, suggest that they discuss the present-tense versus the past-tense verbs in their narrative ending, and to plot on a timeline how the use of those verbs changes the timeframe of each action.

For heavier support:

  • Create note strips about Holly that could be included in the end of the narrative planner, and invite students to place the strips in the end section of their planner in Work Time A.
  • For Work Time C, consider marking two or three places in student writing where they might consider adding a temporal word and where there are past-tense issues. Alternatively, or in addition, consider providing the necessary temporal word or past-tense form and invite students to place them appropriately.

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): Developing spellers benefit from environmental support to sound out words in their writing. Some students may need explicit prompting to utilize environmental print when they cannot recall letter sounds or sight words. When modeling writing, emphasize process and effort by modeling how to sound out a word with tricky spelling and demonstrate how to utilize environmental print.
  • Multiple Means of Action & Expression (MMAE): As students give partners feedback in Work Time C, support planning by providing individual students with small sticky notes to attach to their pages. This helps students remember places where they want to add or make changes based on partner feedback.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): When students share their work with a partner, this is a good opportunity to foster community and support students to provide each other with positive feedback. Before students share their narrative, discuss strategies for how to give a compliment to a peer about her or his work by citing a specific example from the narrative.

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L): Text-Specific Vocabulary (T): Vocabulary Used in Writing (W): 

New:

  • sense of closure (L)

Materials

  • Narrative Planners (from Lesson 6; one per student)
  • Narrative Booklet: Teacher Model (from Lesson 5; page 4; one to display)
  • Narrative Planner: Teacher Model (from Lesson 5; one to display)
  • Compelling Narrative about Discovering a Fossil anchor chart (begun in Lesson 5)
  • Narrative Booklets (from Lesson 6; page 4; one per student and one to display)
  • Narrative Writing Checklist (for teacher reference; see Assessment Overview and Resources)
  • Revision Work Sample (from Lesson 7; one to display)
  • Irregular Past-tense Verbs anchor chart (begun in Lesson 2)
  • Pinky Partners Protocol anchor chart (begun in Module 1)

Materials from Previous Lessons

New Materials

Assessment

Each unit in the K-2 Language Arts Curriculum has one standards-based assessment built in. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Engaging the Learner: Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

  • Invite students to bring their Narrative Planners and sit next to their writing partner in the whole group area.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and read them aloud:

"I can draft the end of my narrative based on Holly's experiences from The Maiasaura Dig: Story of Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard."

"I can revise my narrative to include temporal words."

"I can edit my narrative to include irregular past-tense verbs correctly."

  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What do you notice about these learning targets?" (They are almost the same as our learning targets from yesterday and the day before.)

  • Confirm that students will work toward the same targets today as they draft the end of their narratives.
  • When using total participation techniques, minimize discomfort and/or perceived threats and distractions by alerting individual students that you are going to call on them next. (MME)
  • For ELLs: Ask students to recall and describe one way that they worked toward the learning targets in the past two lessons.

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Independent Writing: Planning the End of My Narrative as Holly (15 minutes)

  • Remind students that, for this narrative, they are imagining that they are Holly the paleontologist from The Maiasaura Dig: Story of Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard.
  • Tell students that before they can draft, or write the end of their narratives, they will work with their writing partners to plan what they are going to write.
  • Use the routine established in Lessons 6 and 7 to guide students through planning the end of their narrative:
    • Read aloud page 4 of the Narrative Booklet: Teacher Model while two student volunteers act it out.
    • Invite students to Think-Pair-Share with their writing partner:

"What does the end of this narrative include?" (You included actions you took after you found the fossil.)

    • Define and explain the importance of the phrase sense of closure (an ending that wraps up what is happening in the narrative).
    • Remind students how you planned your ending using the Narrative Planner: Teacher Model.
    • Refer students to the Compelling Narrative about Discovering a Fossil anchor chart and invite them to Think-Pair-Share with their writing partner:

"What will you include in the end of your narrative?" (Responses will vary.)

    • Release students back to their workspaces to begin planning using their Narrative Planners.
  • After 6-7 minutes, invite students to bring their Narrative Planners back to the whole group area.
  • To support self-regulation and independence when giving students a warning before the transition, provide a clear routine for what to do with unfinished work and utilize a visual timer. (MME)
  • For ELLs: Invite students to mark the pages that encompass the ending of The Maiasaura Dig: Story of Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard and to take turns retelling the ending in small groups.
  • For ELLs: Consider inviting students to continue the color-coding strategy by highlighting the criteria and their entries in the narrative planner to correspond with the text in The Maiasaura Dig: Story of Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard.

B. Independent Writing: Drafting the End of My Narrative as Holly (20 minutes)

  • Tell students that now that they have planned the end of their narratives, they are going to draft them.
  • Remind students that narrative writers don't just copy exactly what is on their planners. They think about how to make their ideas flow. Tell students you want to remind them of this by reading your notes from your planner and your model side by side.
    • Using the Narrative Planner: Teacher Model, read aloud the fourth column.
    • Using the Narrative Booklet: Teacher Model, read page 4.
  • Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What do you notice about the ending of my narrative? What details did I include?" (You included actions, like you ran to get the quarrymen who helped at the end the story. You said you couldn't wait to see what the creature looked like!)

  • If productive, cue students with a challenge:

"What if I remove the actions, like running to get the quarrymen or telling them to help me get out the sea monster? I'll give you time to think and discuss with a partner." (The story might not feel like it is finished, or we might not know why or how it finished.)

  • Confirm that you included an action that helps end the story, and you also included thoughts you had. Tell students that they can also include a detail like this at the end of their story to make their writing flow.
  • Tell students that is their turn to be narrative writers! They are going to use the notes from their Narrative Planners to think about how to end their story using actions and how to make their ideas flow.
  • Use the routine establish in Lessons 6-7 to guide students through writing the end of their narrative:
    • Invite students to Think-Pair-Share with their writing partner:

"What will you write for the end of your narrative?" (Responses will vary.)

    • Display page 4 of the Narrative Booklet and remind students of the separate spaces for writing (which they should do first) and sketching.
    • Remind students to skip lines.
    • Transition students to their workspaces to begin writing.
    • Consider using the Narrative Writing Checklist to gather data on students' progress toward W.2.3, L.2.2a, and L.2.2d.
  • After 12-13 minutes, invite students to bring their Narrative Booklets back to the whole group area.
  • For students who may need additional support with fine motor skills: Provide supporting tools for independent writing (e.g., pencil grips, slanted desks, or alternate writing utensils). (MMAE)
  • For ELLs: Emphasize that "making the ideas flow" in the ending of the narrative means creating an ending that includes an action that easily makes sense to the reader and connects in some logical way to the middle. To this end:
    • Consider inviting students to consult their narrative planner, and then first write (or discuss what they will write) in home language groups before they begin writing in English.
    • Remind students that practicing the ending verbally before writing it can help them write in a way that makes the ideas flow.
    • As students write, invite them to identify "what else they can say" or "what else they said" in their narrative to help make the ideas flow.
  • For ELLs: Follow up on the color-coding process by inviting students to use different colors to highlight or underline the sentences in their narrative booklet to correspond to the language in the criteria, their narrative planner, and The Maiasaura Dig: Story of Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard.

C. Revising and Editing: Improving the End of My Narrative (15 minutes)

  • Give students specific, positive feedback on drafting the end of their narratives. (Example: "You included actions that helped provide a sense of closure to your story!")
  • Direct students' attention to the Compelling Narrative about Discovering a Fossil anchor chart and read the fourth row aloud.
  • Tell students that, just like they did yesterday, they will now revise and edit their writing.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and reread the second one aloud:

"I can revise my narrative to include temporal words."

  • Remind students why writers include temporal words in their writing as needed.
  • Display the Revision Work Sample from yesterday's lesson and remind students how to revise their writing to include temporal words:
    • Reread your writing aloud to your writing partner.
    • See if there is a place where a temporal word would help the reader know what was coming next in the story.
    • Look at the temporal words in your Narrative Planner.
    • Try out a couple different words.
    • Choose the best one, and add it to your writing.
  • Invite students to begin working through these steps with their writing partner. Encourage students to use the temporal words box in their Narrative Planners as a resource.
  • After 6-7 minutes, refocus whole group.
  • Tell students that they will now edit the end of their narratives.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning targets and reread the third one aloud:

"I can edit my narrative to include irregular past-tense verbs correctly."

  • Remind students that this is the same learning target they worked toward in the past two lessons to edit their writing.
  • Direct students' attention to the Irregular Past-tense Verbs anchor chart and encourage them to use this anchor chart as a resource as they work with their partner.
  • Invite students to edit the end of their narratives for irregular past-tense verbs on page 4 of their Narrative Booklets with their writing partners.
  • After 5-6 minutes, refocus whole group.
  • Provide differentiated mentors by purposefully selecting writing partners. Consider meeting with the mentors in advance to encourage them to share their thought process, citing evidence from their writing, with their partner. (MMAE)
  • For ELLs: Before students begin editing the irregular past-tense verbs in the ending of their narrative, invite them first to identify all of the verbs in their ending by underlining them.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Pinky Partners: Sharing Our Work (5 minutes)

  • Invite students to give you an air high-five for their hard work today as writers!
  • Tell their students that they are going to use the Pinky Partners protocol to share their work with a partner other than their writing partner. Remind them that they used this protocol in Lessons 6 and 7, and review as necessary using the Pinky Partners Protocol anchor chart. (Refer to the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol.)
  • Direct students' attention to the Compelling Narratives about Discovering a Fossil anchor chart and tell them they should use the criteria in the fourth row to give kind and specific feedback.
  • Guide students through the protocol, encouraging them to use the following sentence starter:

"You did a good job of _____."

  • Ask students to return to their seats in the whole group area.
  • Tell students that they will finish these narratives tomorrow!
  • To foster a sense of community and provide options for physical action after students have shared, invite the class to join you in a special applause (e.g., silent cheer, raise the roof, firecracker, hip-hip hooray). (MMAE, MME)
  • For ELLs: Provide a model and 1 minute of think time before partners begin sharing their feedback.

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