Education Commons^™

Our Roots, Our Branches: Listening And Writing To Tell A School's Story, Michael Shay

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

In this unit, students will explore the identity of their school community through story. Students will examine why we tell stories, how stories are told, whose stories are told, and how the storyteller's identity and perspective shapes the story.

Students will engage with stories in print, artifacts, school data, and visuals to examine the history of their school. They will then explore how various stakeholders in the school's past and present give different perspectives about the school and important moments in its life.

The unit culminates with a performance task in which students prepare for and conduct interviews of multiple …

Understanding Poetry: 5th Grade Introduction To Writing Poetry, Samantha Bos, Jackie Jaramillo

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit introduces 5th grade students to 5 primary poetic forms: haiku, limerick, cinquain, narrative poetry, and free verse. This unit includes a brief review of similes and metaphors and can likely be adapted for younger or older students. This poetry unit is projected to take 13-14 class days, but it can be extended or reduced depending on the needs of the class. The final performance task is writing a poem that will be performed in a poetry slam.

Fiction/ Nonfiction Writing, Grades 1-2, Lisa Schmidt, Samara Sance

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

No abstract provided.

Picking Apart Plot (6th Grade), Amanda Aird

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This is an examination of plot, first as a reader, and then as a writer. There are both reading and writing components in the activities. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the plot elements (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, turning point, falling action, and denouement) from their definitions to their functions in a story. Additionally, students will learn how to map a plot line, how a reader's mood is tied to the plot line, and how other fictional concepts (character, setting, conflict, theme, point-of-view, sensory language) flesh out the plot. Students will then transition into designing their own …

Personal Narrative Genre Study [4th Grade], Emily B. Delgado

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is intended to be a beginning of year introduction to the genre of personal narrative, with the purpose of equipping students with a solid understanding and strong examples of personal narrative writing in preparation for writing their own. Students will begin by identifying the purpose for writing a personal narrative and then uncover the components of a quality personal narrative through discussion and dissection of six mentor texts. After determining the elements of a personal narrative, students will then use those elements as guidelines for identifying and improving upon the personal narratives of others. This unit culminates with …

Who Am I? Using Personal Narrative To Reflect On Identity [6th Grade], Mollie Cason

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is intended to be taught at the beginning of the year as both an introduction to the writing process and as an opportunity to create a safe and welcoming classroom environment. In their performance task, students will examine the larger concept of identity and attempt to define their own identity by reflecting on past experiences in the form of a personal narrative. The unit walks them through the process of writing by creating a bank of brainstorming ideas, reading model texts as examples, and allowing time for editing and revision with peers. Students will establish a common writing …

Write Your Own Autobiography [6th Grade], Jeanine Capitani

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This is a unit meant to be done near the beginning of the school year after reviewing the writing process and discuss writing requirements for the year. Beginning with sharing the teacher’s autobiography gives the students a background on their teacher and helps them identify with the teacher. Writing a personal autobiography will allow students to share parts of their lives with their peers and to gain a better understanding of their own history and their goals for the future.

Reread, Rethink, Recycle [3rd Grade], Karen Morrison

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit integrates writing, media/technology and economics via collaboration differentiation. The goal is to publish a niche newspaper solely focused on going green. The unit opens with an analysis of the power of persuasion by exposure and examples. Students will then be learning researching skills necessary as they read books & navigate through websites about how to be environmentally friendly. The research and essays written will become the articles in the newspaper, the foundation. Students will be invited to learn a basic understanding of the parts of a newspaper, applying for a job and how to persuade for positions based …

Culture And Identity In Your Community And The World [6th Grade], Stephany Weaver, Anne Daly

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

“Culture and Identity in your Community and the World” is an interdisciplinary unit designed to stimulate questions about identity and culture and how those two things relate. This unit is meant to be taught at the end of the first semester and the beginning of the second semester. Students have already established an understanding of literary elements in fiction and will now be searching for those same engaging elements in non-fiction.

As the students read the memoir Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang in Reading, they will be studying the effects of culture and community on a single person’s identity …

Independent First Grade Writers, What? It Can Happen. Beginning Writing Workshop [1st Grade], Megan Nitcholas, Audrey Tan

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is designed as a beginning of the year unit in 1st grade writing. Students will have had very limited exposure to writing.

Students will be introduced to the writing workshop format and develop their confidence as beginning writers. Students will discover the power of writing as a tool for communication. Throughout the unit students will practice becoming independent writers. They will learn how to generate personally relevant topics. Through mini-lessons, students will learn that writing is an ongoing process and that their writing is continually evolving.

The unit will conclude with students demonstrating their learning through creating a …

Patricia Polacco Author Study [2nd Grade], Catherine Brackett

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Through the study of Thank You, Mr. Falker, Firetalking, The Thinking Quilt, Thundercake, Ginger and Petunia, My Ol’ Man, and The Limonade Club, this unit will allow students to grow as writers by studying an Patricia Polacco. The students will also learn to apply lessons addressed in literature to their own lives. Most importantly, the students will learn how their words and actions can either build a person up or tear them down. In the end, they will be asked to apply what they have learned to create a story or play that will help a bullying situation in a …

Ideas Trait: The Foundations Of Writing [3rd Grade], Carolys Gordillo

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Based on the 6+1 traits of Writing, the Idea Trait is the first element that students explore to brainstorm unique ideas to write about and improve details in writing. This 4 week unit focuses on ideas and content, the first trait which helps students develop their writing skills. Students will write a personal narrative about an ordinary activity that occurred during their summer vacation with a fun twist. The picture book Ted will be shared and will be discussed to get students thinking of how their ordinary activities during summer could become extraordinary if they had an imaginary friend. Over …

Making Writing Personal [6th Grade], Kathleen Fenske

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

In this unit, students will view nonfiction and fiction as a commentary on an author’s personal life and on society, particularly the life of a migrant worker. Students will also begin to view writing as a process and as a reflection of self. Students will begin the unit by delving into the following questions: How does literature reflect a culture or time period? What can we learn from the past? To what extent can fiction reveal truth? Should a story teach you something? Why write? Why share personal experiences in writing? What makes writing worth reading? Through these questions, students …

Writing Free Verse Poetry [3rd Grade], Annie Houston Winter

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This 3 week unit is designed to help students discover that poetry is meaningful and relevant to their lives. This unit will focus on using good word choice to create powerful images in their writing. Students will also gain the understanding that poetry is meant to be read aloud as they prepare for a class performance. Students will discover that they are poets as they write in their poetry notebooks and prepare a piece of poetry for publication in a class anthology.

Great Gatsby [11th Grade], Kathleen Fenske

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit focuses on exploring The Great Gatsby and how the time period and culture in which the novel is written plays a vital part in the author s overall message in the novel. One of the key understandings to this unit is how good literature makes a statement on culture, but great literature is timeless and universal and provides a lens to view our own lives and society. Through an examination of the 1920s culture, the students will be able to understand Fitzgerald s message about the 1920s. They will further examine this through a group project where they …