Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text

W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
Overview of Unit: In this unit, the goal is for the third grade students to learn the tools of revision. The tools of revision this unit will focus on include adding, removing, and moving details, and substituting words, phrases, and/or details. We want our students to be able to reread what they have written and see where they need to use these revision tools. Through mini-lessons, teacher modeling, and practicing, the students will be able to continue to move through the writing process. They will be working with previously made drafts and revising them. For the two-week slice of our unit, our focus will be on teaching the students the tools of adding in the revision process. Tools 1. 2. 3. students will add to their tool belts include: Adding interesting words to support their ideas by adding juicy/descriptive words to strengthen their writing. Adding details to make sentences and the overall text more interesting to readers. Using teacher and peer feedback to strengthen their writing.

Essential Questions to Guide Instruction and Focus on Tools in Students Tool Belts in This Unit: How does adding words, phrases, or details make the text more engaging for readers? How can I make nonfiction more interesting for the reader by using revision tools? How do I use feedback from others (teachers and peers) to help me revise my own writing? Mentor Texts to Help Students Add Tools to Their Tool Belts in This Unit: About Penguins (A Guide for Children) by Cathryn Sill

o We chose this book because it is a great non-example of how we do not want our students to write. In the unit, we will use this book to compare it to the other informational text about penguins. We also plan to use this book to help the students practice revision. Each student will eventually get a copied page of the book where they will have to add (tool that we want to add to tool belt) to it to make it more appealing to its readers.
A Penguin's World by Caroline Arnold

o We chose to use this book as a mentor text because we plan to use it to compare with the other book About Penguins. This book is an informational text full of life and the author uses words that intrigue the reader. This is a great book to show kids how writing should look and how informational text does not have to be boring.
Alligators (Life in the Wild) by Monica Kulling

o We chose this book because it adds details to make the book more exciting. I also like how they added something personal into the book to create empathy towards its readers. The author also adds humor, lightening the mood of an informational book on alligators.
Bats Love Night by Nicola Davies o It is an informative story for grades K-3 with a lot of vivid descriptions about pipistrelle bat, its navigation skills, and the hunt for food. This book has a great variety of sentences. The author explains how a bats senses of hearing and smell are the most important to its survival, and how the bat cares for its babies.

Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text

Approximate Timeline for This Slice of the Unit: 2 Weeks Dates CCSS Objectives: I CAN Evidence of Student Learning Instruction & Materials What are the enduring understandings How will I know students have How will I use the I/We/You model of that students will construct? constructed understanding? What will instruction to scaffold students in What are the tools they will add to or students write, say, create, produce constructing rich understanding? use from their tool belts as that will evidence their learning and How will I break the unit down into weeks readers/writers and critical thinkers? allow me to provide feedback? How and days? What materials and resources What are the essential questions that will students reflect on their own will I use to scaffold this? will guide our work? learning? W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and

Week 1 Mon.

editing.
W.3.5 With support from my teacher, I can hook my reader by adding an engaging title. Students will create an engaging title that will hook the reader. I: Read non-example mentor text versus good example mentor text to students. (About Penguins versus A Penguins World) We: Discuss the differences between the two texts. (Engaging verses boring). We: Create a title that is more engaging for the text About Penguins. You: They will work on creating an engaging title to their draft. I: Read page 6 from Bat Love The Night by Nichola Davies. I: Will give examples of descriptive words for a bat, such as beady eyes, pixie ears, and thistledown fur. I will explain that juicy/descriptive words are adjectives and that they make the sentence more descriptive and exciting for readers. This will paint a picture in the readers minds. You: Students will notice and name juicy words from the examples. I: Start an anchor chart that has some examples of juicy/descriptive words. We: Will work together to notice descriptive words and add more examples of juicy/descriptive words to anchor chart about bats. We will refer to page 24 of Bat Love The Night by Nichola Davis for more

Tues.

W.3.5 With support from the teacher, I can practice adding juicy/descriptive words to a text to make it more interesting for readers. W.3.5 I can add juicy/descriptive words to my draft.

Students will create an anchor chart of juicy/descriptive words. Each student will create a list of juicy/descriptive words that relate to his/her draft. Each student will use the list created to start adding words to their drafts.

Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text examples: coat-hanger feet, velvet scrap battling. You: Students will create their own list of juicy/descriptive words. I: Places an informational paragraph about bats and models adding juicy/descriptive words in the paragraph, on a ELMO to project to the students. You: Students will start adding to their drafts using the list they created as a guide. You: Students who need more time will continue working on their lists. You: Students will continue adding to their drafts using the list they created as a guide. I: Model to the class by pair sharing with a student how to skim through a draft and how to notice and highlight previously added words. I will explain how adding descriptive words creates a more precise image in the readers mind. You: Students skim through draft and highlight previously added words. You: Students will share highlighted words with their partner. You: Students will look through highlighted words and ask Do the added words make my writing better? We: Teacher will give feedback in a conference setting. We: Teacher will scaffold students in places where they need more instruction. I: Use an example of a students draft to introduce Two Stars and a Wish strategy. I: I will identify the Two Stars as the two parts in the draft that include

Wed.

W.3.5 I can add juicy/descriptive words to my draft.

Thurs.

W.3.5 I can pair share with a partner and explaining the juicy words I added and why. W.3.5 In a conference with my teacher, I can get feedback on the revisions I have made.

Each student will create a list of juicy/descriptive words that relate to his/her draft. Each student will use the list created to start adding words to their drafts. Students will highlight the juicy/descriptive words in their drafts and share with their partners. Students will talk with their teacher and get feedback on their drafts.

Fri.

W.3.5 In a conference with my teacher, I can get feedback on the revisions I have made.

Students will talk with their teacher and get feedback on their drafts. Students will talk with their

Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text W.3.5 I can give and receive feedback with my partner on our revisions. partner and share their thoughts and ideas. juicy/descriptive writing. I: Use Think Aloud model to show how those two parts engage readers by creating a picture in their minds. I: Model effective dialogue when giving feedback on students drafts; what is appropriate versus not appropriate. We: Model with a student to show how feedback should look and sound in the classroom. We: In a whole class setting, students will work in partners and find two stars and a wish in each others drafts. I will call on students to bring the work up to display on the ELMO and show where the drafts included two stars and a wish. We: Teacher will give feedback in a conference setting You: Students will choose a new partner and find two new stars and a wish for that peer.

Week 2 Mon.

W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and

editing.
W.3.5 With support from the teacher, I can add details to a text by turning 1-star sentences into 3-star sentences. (will send a picture of an anchor chart that we are basing this off of) Students will create an anchor chart on making 3-star sentences I: Teacher will create an anchor chart displaying how a 1-star sentence can become a 3-star sentence. Examples: 1-star sentence = I see a duck. 2-star sentence = I see a yellow duck. 3-star sentence =I see a yellow duck swimming in the pond. I: Teacher will use an Elmo projector to display a page from About Penguins. She will model how to turn the sentences on the page from 1-star to 3-star sentences. We: Using pages from the book About Penguins, we will add sentences to the anchor chart. As a class, we will turn the 1-star sentences into 3-star sentences. You: Using photocopied pages from About

Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text Penguins, students will make the sentences more descriptive and engaging (3-star). Tues. W.3.5 I can write detailed sentences that will teach my readers more about my topic. (Example: Penguins are from an icy cold continent called Antarctica. Versus. Penguins are from Antarctica.) Students will turn 1-star sentences into 3-star sentences to strengthen their draft. I: Borrow a students draft and display it on the ELMO. I: Show how to find a 1-star sentence in the draft and highlight them. We: Have students give examples of how they could make the sentence better to help it develop into a 3-star sentence. You: Students will find 1-star sentences in their drafts and highlight them. You: Students will revise their drafts and turn their highlighted sentences into 3-star sentences. I: Demonstrate how to properly add 3-star sentences into a students draft. I: Use the Think-Aloud strategy to help students better understand why it is important to have 3-star sentences in their text (to keep readers engaged and interested; to help readers create a clear image in their minds). We: Give students five minutes to try to look for a place they can insert a 3-star sentence. Call on volunteer to bring up their draft and explain why their new sentence should be inserted in that spot. We: The whole class will help the volunteers create a 3-star sentence that will fit in that spot. You: Students will find places in their drafts that they feel need 3-star sentences; they will mark the spots with a star. You: Students will work in pairs to create new 3-star sentences that will be inserted to their drafts. You: If time allows, students will work

Wed.

W.3.5 I can write detailed sentences that will teach my readers more about my topic.

Students will create new detailed sentences and plug them into their drafts.

Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text individually to finish inserting new 3-star sentences to their drafts where they placed a star. I: Demonstrate what I want the partner feedback to look like. Partners feedback should not be personal or negative. I will Think-Aloud as I give feedback on a students work. I: Examples of feedback using a students work: -This sentence seems to be a 2-star sentence and as a reader, I wish I knew more. Could you add in any details to this sentence? -I am a little confused on what you are trying to say in this sentence. Is there any way you could make this clearer? I: I will read a piece of my writing that lacks details to the class. I will ask the students for feedback. As I am getting feedback, I will demonstrate to students the proper way to receive it. It is important that the students know that their partners are only trying to support and help them, and not to criticize. I: I will demonstrate how to keep my eyes and ears on the students as they give me feedback. We: Have two volunteer students come up to the front of the classroom to demonstrate what partner feedback should look like. As the student is reading through his/her draft, the partner will share his feedback to the writer. The writer should be practicing opening their ears and keeping their eyes on the reader. I will guide the students if they are struggling. You: Students will pair up and read their drafts. The students will begin to give and

Thurs.

W.3.5 I can pair share by working with a partner by reading my draft aloud and getting feedback. W.3.5 In a conference with my teacher, I can get feedback on the details I have added.

Students will read their draft aloud to their partner to get new feedback on their draft. Students will talk with their teacher and get feedback on their drafts.

Grade 3, Unit: Animals Around The World-Revising Informational Text receive feedback. We: Teacher will give feedback on the students drafts in a conference setting, pulling one student at a time. I: I will demonstrate how to revise an example draft using peer feedback. I: I will show how to fix the revisions that need to be made. If I disagree with certain feedback, I will discuss it with the student who gave it to me. I: I will demonstrate how to ask me questions if they need further explanation or feedback. We: I will invite a student to put his/her work on an ELMO. We will revisit the first few places in the draft that has peer feedback. If the student does not understand the feedback, we will practice asking the partner for a deeper explanation. If the student needs more help, I will allow him/her to ask me questions about the feedback. You: Students will revise their drafts using the feedback that they have received from their peers and teacher.

Fri.

W.3.5 I can revise my draft using the feedback that I have received on the details that I have already added.

Students will make changes to their draft from the feedback they have received from their peers and teacher.