EEU 390

Dr. Bestwick

Rationale

Rebecca Spangenberg

Rationale

This unit entitled Narrative Writing is designed for 4th grade. The unit
will integrate many academic disciplines such as reading, writing, art and
music while teaching students about narrative writing with specifics such
as brainstorming, authors craft and figurative language, setting
development, character development, plot development and the
organizational structures of writing.

Students will do a variety of activities to enhance their learning. First

the students will be introduced to a narrative writing booklet, which will
organize their thoughts and work throughout the unit. They will be given
an introduction to narrative writing and then learn how to brainstorm for
a topic to write about using a graphic organizer and group feedback. Next
the students will learn different authors crafts and figurative language,
which they will then search for in a book scavenger hunt. The next topic
the students will learn about is character development. Students will be
asked to be character detectives to determine the physical appearance,
behavior or personality, and speech of a character. These are just a few
of the characteristics that will be developed in this lesson. The next
lesson will encompass setting development and how to use descriptive
language to convey what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and
tasting as a character. Students will be introduced to setting
development and then the information will be reinforced by a game
where the students will be given a season and a graphic organizer that
contains boxes for each of the five senses. Once the students have
described their season, they must have their season guessed by the
other students in the classroom. They will be required to use the
descriptive language that they encountered throughout the unit. The next
topic to be covered will be plot development consisting of learning
exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The final
lesson to be taught in this lesson, before the review and the test, will be
on the sequence of events and organization of the narrative essay by
incorporating a bold beginning, magnificent middle, and extraordinary
ending.

This unit is relevant to students as it fosters creativity in students and

helps them develop strong organizational writing skills. Students will
encounter writing in all areas of life, whether they continue onto college
or just write for fun. Children are the future, and some of these students
could become authors, editors, publishers, or even lawyers- all of which
require strong narrative writing skills.

This unit addresses many standards for fourth grade language arts.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standard,
CC.1.4.4.B, which states that students will be able to identify and
introduce the topic clearly. My students will be able to identify the topic
they will write their narratives about through a brainstorming technique
using a graphic organizer, and introduce that topic clearly by writing a
small moment about that topic. According to Pennsylvania Department
of Education Standard, CC.1.4.4.CA, which states: Determine the
meaning of words and phrases as they are used in grade-level text,
including figurative language. My students will learn to distinguish
between different figurative languages through a book scavenger hunt
activity, where they will be required to find a specific authors craft in
each book given to them. During this lesson, my students will also meet
the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standard CC.1.4.4.Ca, which
states that the student should be able to, develop the topic with facts,
definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and
examples related to the topic. Students will learn how to use quotations
and other information, such as authors crafts, to develop their writing
topic. According to Pennsylvania Department of Education Standard,
CC.1.3.4.C, which states that students should be able to describe in
depth a character, setting or event in a story or drama, drawing on
specific details in the text. My students will accomplish this through a
thorough character development lesson, which they will investigate the
physical appearance, behavior, and the speech of the characters in their
narrative writing piece. This same standard will be used the following
day to teach setting development to the students. According to
Pennsylvania Department of Education Standard CC.1.2.4.E, which states,
use text structure to interpret information (e.g., chronology, comparison,
cause/effect, problem/solution) based on specific information in the text.
My students will learn the chronological order of a narrative in parts
including the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action,
and the resolution. They will identify these parts of a narrative through a
matching game where they will be required to pair a specific paragraph
of a story to its correct element (for example: exposition) in the narrative.
According to Pennsylvania Department of Education Standard
CC.1.4.4.Pa, which states, organize an event sequence that unfolds
naturally, using a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage
the sequence of events. My students will learn to organize an event
sequence that unfolds naturally by identifying and creating a bold
beginning which contains a hook, a magnificent middle that utilizes
transition words, and an extraordinary ending that provides a resolution
for the story.

When the unit is complete, the students will be able to write a personal
narrative that contains strong character and setting developments that
they are personally familiar with, expounded on using figurative language
and whose plot is organized sequentially.