Third Grade - Anderson School District Three

Unit Essential Question: How can we count on each other to build a community
of readers and writers?
This three week launch unit is designed to introduce students to the rituals and
routines of Reading and Writing Workshops and to the rigor of the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS). The three week unit allows for reteaching to mastery and
time to establish routines in the classroom. Within this unit, you will need to assess
all students using Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessments. This workshop
structure will provide students with time for daily, uninterrupted, independent
reading and writing combined with small group work and conferring. Using the
theme, ”I Will Always Be a Friend”, teachers will work with students to establish the
routines and procedures that will be necessary for building a classroom community.
Students will learn that they can count on their teacher to provide a structure and
support for learning through whole class and small group work, partnerships, and
individual conferences on their journey to achieve the Common Core learning
targets. They will learn that they can count on each other while speaking and
listening as they hold conversations. In addition, this theme connects to the science
and social studies standards included in the first three weeks. Although science and
social studies content is not explicitly taught in this launching unit, the content
which will be taught during another part of the day can easily be tied to this theme.
The connections between Reading, Writing, Speaking-Listening, and Language
standards as well as connections to the theme will be made throughout the unit.
To support your teaching this year, it would be very helpful if your students have a
Reader’s and a Writer’s Notebook. You will want to keep a Reader’s and a Writer’s
Notebook to use as a model in mini-lessons. The lessons will include ideas on how
to develop the notebooks.
This unit is not designed to go in-depth with the standards; the purpose is to
familiarize students with the routines and procedures that will be necessary in order
for students to successfully meet the Common Core standards. Students will be
introduced to the Speaking and Listening standards that will lead them to success
in collaborating with peers and adults. Subsequent units will include more thorough
instruction of the standards and provide instructional ideas/strategies for meeting
them.
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
Listed below are the standards that students will be introduced to during this unit.
Students are not expected to master these standards in three weeks! The
expectation for mastery of all the standards is the end of the year.
Reading Literary (RL) and Reading Informational (RI)
Key Ideas and Details
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring
explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring
explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA3.RL.3.10
By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas,
and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently
and proficiently.
Reading Foundational (RF)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4
Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.3.4.A
Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
Writing (W)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
Language
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Speaking and Listening
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups,
and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on
others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1.a
Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly
draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore
ideas under discussion.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1.b
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).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1.c
Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and
link their comments to the remarks of others.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.1.d
Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.4
Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate
facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
SUGGESTED STUDENT OBJECTIVES








Discuss and demonstrate responsibilities of Reading and Writing Workshops.
Set up a Reader’s and a Writer’s Notebook and begin to use them
independently.
Choose just right books.
Gain stamina in reading and writing.
Identify the characteristics of literary and informational texts.
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what a text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Begin to ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of key
details in a text.
Tell a story or recount an experience.






Participate in collaborative conversations with partners.
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions.
Come to discussions prepared.
Understand the three purposes for writing.
Produce seed ideas for narrative and informative/expository writing.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when writing.
BALANCED ASSESSMENTS
INFORMAL
OBSERVATIONS/
DIALOGUE AND
DISCUSSION
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSES
PERFORMANCE
ASSESSMENTS
SELF-ASSESSMENTS

 Sticky notes done







Teacher
observation
during
classroom
discussions,
student work
time, and
closing activities
Conferences
Reader’s
Notebook
Writer’s
Notebook
Anecdotal notes
Running records
during guided and
independent
reading and writing
 Written responses
to lesson topics
 Writing and
reading surveys

End of unit
performance task
Rubric for
workshop
expectations
completed by the
teacher

Rubric for
workshop
expectations
completed by the
students
Narrative
checklist
Unit Performance Task:

Provide the students with this scenario: We have learned how to follow the rules
and procedures for Reading Workshop. Your teacher is going to be gone next
week. Write a letter to the substitute telling her what she can count on the class
to do during Reading Workshop. (Students may not have been introduced to
letter writing conventions in first grade. Don’t hold them accountable for this.)

As you read the text “Learn to Swim,” mark it by underlining the important ideas
in the text and circling the details and examples that support why it’s important
to learn to swim. Write any inferences you have, using your background
knowledge, the text and photographs in the margin.


OR
2. As you read the text “Learn to Swim,” use the graphic organizer to write
what the text says with details and examples and what you can infer using your
background knowledge, the text and the photographs that support why it’s
important to learn to swim.

Text Says in My Words
Details and Examples in
the Author’s Words
Inferences I Can Make
SUGGESTED WORKS
As always, we encourage you to preview all texts on these lists before sharing
them with your students. We gathered suggestions from many sources. You
may feel that some texts are more suitable than others for your particular
students. E = exemplar CCSS text
LITERARY TEXTS
Suggested Literary Text Set

The Stories Julian Tells (Ann Cameron and Ann Strugnell) (E)

More Stories Julian Tells (Ann Cameron and Ann Strugnell)

Grandfather’s Journey (Allen Say)

Tea with Milk (Allen Say)

Song and Dance Man (Karen Ackerman and Stephen Gammel)

Snowed in with Grandmother Silk (Carol Fenner and Amanda
Harvey)

Annie and the Old One (Miska Miles and Peter Parnall)

Through Grandpa’s Eyes (Patricia Maclachlan and Deborah
Kogan Ray)

Knots on a Counting Rope (John Archambault, Ted Rand, and
Bill Martin, Jr.)

The Memory String (Eve Bunting and Ted Rand)

Tops & Bottoms (Janet Stevens) (E)

Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe (Vera B. Williams)

“The River Bank” in The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)

Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! (Kathleen V. Kudlinski
and S.D. Schindler) (E)

Ancient Rome and Pompeii: A Non-fiction Companion to
Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House Research Guide
14) (Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce, and Sal Murdocca)
(E)

14 Cows for America (Carmen Agra Deedy, Thomas Gonzalez,
and Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah) (E)

So You Want to Be President? (Judith St. George and David
Small) (E)

Ah, Music! (Aliki) (E)

Mad as a Wet Hen!: And Other Funny Idioms (Marvin Terban
and Giulio Maestro)
Social Studies Texts

P Is For Palmetto: A South Carolina Alphabet (Crane)

Net Numbers: A South Carolina Number Book (Crane)

SOUTH CAROLINA What's Great About State (What's So Great About This
State) (Jerome)

Lowcountry A to Z (Strickland)

The Midlands Child (Simmons)
Launching Reader’s Workshop Texts
I Hate to Read!- (Marshall & Delessert)
The Best Book to Read- (Bertram & Bloom)
Goldie Socks and the Three Liberians- (Hopkins)
The Best Place to Read- (Bertram & Bloom)
A Quiet Place- (Wood)
The Best Time to Read- (Bertram & Bloom)
Read All About It- Laura and Jenna Bush
Born to Read- (Sierra)
Wild About Books- (Sierra)
Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind- (Finchler & O'Malley)
The Incredible Book Eating Boy (Jeffers)
Launching Writer’s Workshop Texts
Author (Lester)
You Have to Write (Wong & Flavin)
Rocket Writes a Story (Hills)
ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS
Words Their Way
PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
 A Curricular Plan For Writing Workshop, Grade 2. (This resource with ideas for teaching the
Common Core writing standards can be purchased from Heinemann.)
http://heinemann.com/products/E04305.aspx)

A Curricular Plan For Reading Workshop, Grade 2. )This resource with ideas for teaching the
Common Core reading standards can be purchased from Heinemann.)
http://heinemann.com/products/E04304.aspx

http://tc.readingandwritingproject.com/public/themes/rwproject/resources/curriculum_calend
ars/2011-2012/reading/2nd%20Grade%20Reading%20Unit%2001.pdf (You will find the Third
Grade Reading Curricular Calendar from The Reading and Writing Project. Many of the ideas for
the launching unit came from this resource. You will find additional ideas for building a
community of readers that you may want to include in your next unit.)

Pinnell, G. S., & Fountas, I. C. (2007). The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8:
Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support.Heinemann.

http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/workshop-materials.html (This site contains
many excellent resources including examples of classroom charts and student writing.)

http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/reader%27s%20notebooks.htm (Reader’s
Notebook ideas)

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2009/11/readers-notebook

http://bit.ly/Nh9Nw0 (Scholastic has posted many of Jeff Wilhelm's popular handouts for
establishing "think-aloud" routines and other metacognitive habits with students.)

Writer’s Workshop: The Essentual Guide by Ralph Fletcher

A Writer’s Notebook by Ralph Fletcher

How Writers Work by Ralph Fletcher

Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner

The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser

Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2009). The café book: Engaging all students in daily literacy
assessment & instruction. Stenhouse Publishers.

Launching the Writing Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide in Photographs by Denise Leograndis

Reading With Meaning by Debbie Miller

Power Reading Workshop: A Step-By-Step Guide by Laura Candler

The Common Core Lesson Book, K-5 Working with Increasingly Complex Literature, Informational
Text, and Foundational Reading Skills by Gretchen Owocki
VOCABULARY
Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop, mini-lesson, work time, closing, fluency, stamina, standard,
collaborative, conversation, literary, informational, comprehension, recount, revise, edit
SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE
Lesson 1
Reading:
Lesson 2
Reading:
Lesson 3
Reading:
Lesson 4
Reading:
Lesson 5
Reading:
Setting the
Stage For
Reading: What
Do Readers
Do?
Introduction to
Reading
Workshop
Structure and
Building
Stamina
How to Buzz
Effectively –
Creating
Agreed-Upon
Rules for
Speaking and
Listening
Getting to
Know Our
Classroom
Library and
Books We Plan
to Read
Choosing Just
Right Books
Lesson 1
Writing:
Lesson 2
Writing
Lesson 3
Writing
Lesson 4
Writing
Lesson 5
Writing
Setting the
Stage For
Writing: What
Do Writers Do?
Introduction to
Writing
Workshop
Structure
Writers Write
From Their
Hearts
Introduction to
Writer’s
Notebook
Writers Get
Ideas from
Other Authors
Lesson 6
Reading:
Lesson 7
Reading:
Lesson 8
Reading:
Lesson 8
Reading:
Lesson 10
Reading:
Part 1 –
Finding Our
Reading Spots
Literary and
Informational
Texts
Coming
Attractions:
Genres,
Genres,
Genres!
Reading is
Thinking
Keeping Track
of Our Thinking
(Strategies for
Using Post-it
Notes)
Lesson 6
Writing:
Lesson 7
Writing:
Lesson 8
Writing:
Lesson 9
Writing:
Lesson 10
Writing:
Part 1 - What
Do I When I
Think I’m
Done?
Writers Spell
the Best They
Can and Move
On
Widening
Writing
Possibilities
Developing a
Seed Idea
Co-constructing
a Rubric-What
Are the
Expectations
for the
Workshop
Time?
Part 2 – What
Does Work
Time Look
Like/Sound
Like?
Part 2 - What
Does Work
Time Look
Like/ Sound
Like?
Lesson 11
Reading:
Reading
Partnerships:
Sharing Our
Thinking
Lesson 12
Reading
Lesson 13
Reading:
Lesson 14
Reading:
Lesson 15
Reading:
Reading is
Thinking:
Asking
Questions
About
Literary Texts
Reading is
Thinking:
Asking
Questions
About
Informational
Texts
Keeping Track
of Reading:
Using a Book
Log and
Reader’s
Notebook
Completing the
Performance
Task
Lesson 11
Writing:
Lesson 12
Writing:
Lesson 13
Writing:
Lesson 14
Writing:
Lesson 15
Writing:
Revision
Toolbox
Writing for
Readers:
Narrative
Writing PreAssessment
Unwrapping
the Narrative
Standard:
Planning
Unwrapping
the Narrative
Standard:
Planning
Using
Conventions
*Please note - the point of an anchor chart is to anchor the teaching and learning that is happening in
your classroom, so they should be reflective of the work that you and your students are doing. Don’t
feel obligated to use the same wording or even the same charts that are shown here - these are just
examples of charts. Also, these charts come from a number of sources - professional books, workshops,
curriculum documents, fellow teachers, and the need to solve a problem in the classroom!
UNIT LESSONS
Reading Lesson 1: Setting the Stage For Reading: What Do Readers Do?
Materials

Chart paper for “What do readers do?” chart

Read aloud relating to reading such as Read aloud relating to reading such as
by Best Book to Read by Debbie Bertram, Wild About Books by Judy Sierra

Standard displayed- ELACC3SL1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and
texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

If this lesson is done before expectations for sitting in the meeting area have
been established, you will want to take the time to establish these
procedures with the students and list them on a chart. It is important for
students to be involved in creating the expectations. It might be similar to
the one below.
Our Needs for Reading Time
 Sit where we can see and not be
bothered
 Quiet to hear




Good listening behavior
Eyes on speaker
Speaker needs to talk so everyone can
hear
Follow procedures for coming to the
carpet

This is the first reading session – students will be introduced to the Reading
Workshop structure on Day 2. This lesson differs from the format of other
lessons because there is not a work time in which students read.

This lesson idea came from Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller. It is not
necessary to have the book for this lesson. If you would like further
information, refer to pages 29-31 in Reading with Meaning.

Students will have opportunities to discuss ideas with partners during the
Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop mini-lessons. You may want
students to “turn and talk” to someone next to them for the first few days of
school. Then consider assigning “peer” or talking partners, and have partners
sit next to each other when coming to the meeting area.
Opening

Call students to the meeting area. The purpose of the lesson is to find out
what students already know about the habits of readers and set the stage for
reading. You will begin a class chart that will be added to throughout the
week as students learn more about the habits of readers. Students will also
be introduced to the Speaking and Listening Standard ELACCSL1:
I can have and understand conversations with all kinds of people.
I can successfully participate in discussions.. I believe this is a class of
students who want to learn all about reading. Is that true? I love to teach children
all about reading, so this is going to be perfect. I’m thinking you all know a lot of
things about reading already. Let me show you what I mean. (Choose either
question 1 or 2 to ask the students)
1. Think about somebody you know who loves to read. Can you get a
picture of that person in your head? Good. Now, this person you know
who loves to read, what do you see him or her doing? What do you
know about this person as a reader?
2. Students, you learned about reading in second grade. I know you have
learned a lot about what readers do. What do you know about yourself
as a reader? What do you do when you read?

Guide students in providing responses. (ex. Readers… have book clubs, go to
the library, reread books, sound out words, read out loud, etc). As students
respond, record their responses on a chart with the heading, “What do
readers do?”

Tell students that over the next few days you want them to be investigators
and watch carefully for people who are readers and notice what they do.
Provide time each day throughout the week, perhaps at the start of each
day, to ask students what they noticed readers doing and add to the chart.
This ongoing list will allow students to become familiar with habits they
already have as readers as well as habits that they will learn throughout the
year. During this launching unit the teacher will model the habits of readers
and share why readers do this. Students will begin practicing what readers
do.

Discuss with students that the class is a community of readers. They will all
be practicing the habits of readers and helping each other become stronger
readers. Tell students that in your classroom community this year, they will
have many opportunities to talk to each other and help each other learn.
Show them the Speaking and Listening Standard I can have and
understand conversations with all kinds of people. I can successfully
participate in discussions. Ask students to work with you to put the
standard in their own words or to replace key words with synonyms so there
is a clear understanding of its meaning. (It is helpful to circle the nouns and
underline the verbs.) For example, I can have and understand
conversations with all kinds of people. I can successfully participate
in discussions.
You would guide students in coming up with examples for understand,
conversations, all kinds, people, participate, discussions. It is helpful to write
the synonym(s) on sticky notes and post them on the actual standard.
Another suggestion is to have students provide a gesture for the nouns and
verbs to help them remember the meanings. This engages students and
provides a clear understanding of the vocabulary.

Tell students that you now want them to practice this standard as they talk
to a partner about one of the habits on the chart that they do as readers.
Show students how to sit knee to knee and eye to eye.

Ask students to turn to a partner and tell him or her something on the chart
that he or she does as a reader or something he/she sees other readers
doing.

Tell students you are going to read them a story and you want them to think
about how important reading is to the character(s) in the story. Select and
read a book such as Best Book to Read by Debbie Bertram , Wild About
Books by Judy Sierra or another read aloud that relates to reading. Ask
students to turn and talk to a partner about what they noticed about the
readers in the text. Discuss the habits of the readers/characters in the
books.
Work Time

This lesson does not have a defined work time because this portion of
Reading Workshop has not been introduced. (Students will be introduced to
their work time responsibilities in the next lesson.)
Closing

Praise students for how much they already know about readers! Remind
students to be on the lookout for what readers do so they can share what
they notice the following day. Review the Speaking and Listening standard
and tell them they will be participating in collaborative conversations
throughout the rest of the day!
Writing Lesson 1: Setting the Stage for Writing: What Do Writers Do?
Materials

Writing survey (located in launch unit at the end)

Chart paper for “What do writers do?” chart

Read aloud -Author by Helen Lester, You Have to Write by Janet S. Wong
and Teresa Flavin, Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills or another book in
which the character is a writer
Opening

We discussed what readers do, now we are going to think about what writers
do. To help us think about what writers do, we are going to read a story.
Choose a read aloud to read to students which involves the character writing
a story or sharing an experience as a writer. Author by Helen Lester is an
excellent choice because it talks about her journey as a writer. (Other
possible read alouds include You Have to Write by Janet S. Wong and Teresa
Flavin or Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills). Tell students that as you read,
you want them to think about the struggles the author had to go through as
well as the accomplishments of the author. After reading the story, you may
say something like, “There are so many things we can learn from the
character and his/her journey to become an author. We learned that writing
may be hard sometimes and our ideas may not come right away. When we
keep at it and work to make our writing the best it can be, we are real
writers.

Discuss what writers do. Ask students to think about what they did as writers
last year. (This will be a great formative assessment to indicate what
students remember about writing.) In addition, discuss what the writer in the
story you read did when he/she experienced success as a writer. Create a
chart with the students’ responses. You will add to this chart throughout the
unit as students continue to learn about and practice what writers do. Listed
below are sample charts.
What do writers do?
They make lists.
They write every day.
They add pictures.
They go back to their writing to make it
better.
They read a lot.
They get ideas from other writers and
the world around them.
Work Time

Tell students that you want to find out about their writing lives so you are
going to give them a survey to help you get to know them as writers. (This
survey is located in the launch unit resource folder.) Ask students to go to
their seats. Before you give students the survey, model completing the
survey using a document camera or whiteboard. Read each question and
think aloud about how you would answer the question. Jot down some of
your ideas. For example, if you were answering question number two on the
survey, you might mention specific times when you write lists, letters, etc.
Give each student a copy of the survey. You will need to guide students
through completing the survey by reading one question at a time and giving
students an opportunity to respond before moving on to the next question.
Closing

Review the Speaking and Listening standard you “unwrapped” with students
in the reading session. Ask students to talk about their writing lives with a
partner by sharing one of the answers to the questions on the survey.
Review with students that they are a community of writers who all know a lot
about writing already! They will have the opportunity to grow as writers this
year and share their writing with their classmates.
Reading Lesson 2: Introduction to Reading Workshop structure and
Reading Stamina
Notes

This lesson introduces students to the Reading Workshop structure. Although
there is not time set aside during this lesson to complete a reading survey,
you may want to ask students to complete the reading survey (located in the
launch unit resource folder) or a survey similar to this after Reading
Workshop or at another time. This will allow you to find out more about
students’ reading lives.

http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/Reading%20Workshop.
htm (This is a great site for teachers who want more information about
Reading Workshop.)
Materials

Baskets of books on each table containing at least 4-5 books for each child in
the group (These books should represent a range and variety of levels and
genres.) Use LLI scores to determine the range of levels to put in the
baskets. Select books from your classroom library or book room.

Chart paper or whiteboard for writing the structure of Reading Workshop
(You may want to create this chart prior to the lesson.)

Chart paper for creating a bar graph showing the amount of time students
read independently each day (sample below)

Standard displayed - I can have and understand conversations with all
kinds of people. I can successfully participate in discussions.

Reading survey (optional)
Opening

Call students to the meeting area. We have been getting to know each other
and working on building our classroom community during our time together
so far. Yesterday, we started a chart “What do readers do?” Did anyone see a
reader do something that we need to add to our chart? (Add any new habits
to the chart.)

Today we are going to start something new which will be an important part
of our community too. We will have opportunities to talk to partners during
our time together, just like we did yesterday. Show and review the Speaking
and Listening standard ELACC3SL1:. I can have and understand
conversations with all kinds of people. I can successfully participate
in discussions. Ask students to work with you to put the standard in their
own words or to replace key words with synonyms/gestures so there is a
clear understanding of its meaning.

Introduce the unit theme, You Can Count on Me, with the class. (How can we
count on each other to build a community of readers and writers?)

Each day, you will be able to count on me to provide a special time together
in our room called Reading Workshop. This is a time when we will read and
practice what we are learning about reading. It is a time to enjoy books and
grow as readers. Many teachers choose a signal (playing music, shaking a
rain stick, ringing a bell, etc) to let students know it is time to go to the
meeting area for Reading Workshop. Let the students know what your signal
will be.

Write “Reading Workshop” on a chart or SmartBoard notebook (something
that can be displayed while students become familiar with the rituals and
routines of your classroom). Beneath the title add: We can count on…
Sample Chart
Reading Workshop
We can count on…
Mini-lesson – shared reading, read aloud, procedures,
skills, and strategies
Work Time – independent reading, small groups,
conferences
Closing – reader’s chair, partner share, group share
*If you do literacy work stations or Daily Five during the work time, add this to the
chart.
*You may want to include photos on your Reading Workshop chart – of students
sitting in the meeting area, students reading independently, students sharing
during the closing, etc.

As you discuss each part of the workshop, add to the chart what students will
be doing.
Mini-lesson- shared reading, read aloud, procedures, skills, and strategies (We
learn something that will help us grow as readers.) – Explain to students that you
will also be introducing them to standards during the mini-lesson. You may want to
give a short explanation to let students know the meaning of “standards”.
Practice Time– independent reading, small groups, conferences… (We practice
what we are learning about reading.) Point out that you will also be working with
students to find out what they know about reading (running records).
Closing – reader’s chair, partner share, group share (We share our thinking about
what we read or learned as readers.)

Explain that today students will practice the whole workshop structure,
beginning with a read aloud. Choose any read aloud relating to the theme
(see suggested titles in the Suggested Works section of the unit). A Sick Day
for Amos McGee by Phillip C. Stead is an excellent choice because it
illustrates the importance of routines and how they can support daily work
within a community. Discuss what you will count on students to do during the
mini-lesson portion of the workshop (sit quietly, listen, think, etc.).

Tell the students that the purpose for reading today is to enjoy the book and
think about how it relates to the theme, You Can Count on Me. How do the
characters count on each other?

After reading the book, discuss how the book relates to the theme. Discuss
the importance of students being able to count on each other to follow the
routines and procedures. In addition, talk about out how important it will be
for you to be able to count on them. If you are reading A Sick Day for Amos
McGee, point out that when the students become so comfortable with these
routines, they won’t need to get on a bus to find you if you have a sick day!
Refer back to the standard, and point out how the students just practiced the
standard when you had your large group discussion about the text, A Sick
Day for Amos McGee.

Tell students that they are now going to practice the second part of Reading
Workshop, the work time component. Remind them that you will count on
them to practice reading quietly and independently and they can count on
you to circulate around the room and talk to a few students about their
reading. Before releasing students, model going to the table, choosing a book
from the basket, and reading quietly. Point out that if students finish reading
the book they chose, they can reread it or choose another book from the
basket.

Tell students that reading independently will help them build their reading
muscles and stamina (the energy and strength that allows somebody to do
something for a long time) so that they can become stronger readers.
Challenge students to read quietly for at least five minutes! (Many teachers
begin a bar graph charting the amount of time students read independently
each day. This is a great way to integrate math and show students how they
are building reading stamina!) The sample charts below came from
http://www.julieballew.com/A_Literate_Life/Photos/Pages/Anchor_Charts.ht
ml.
Work Time

Have students practice leaving the mini-lesson area quietly, choosing a book
from the baskets for independent reading, and reading independently. The
teacher will move around the room to briefly talk to students about their
books, get to know them as readers, and assess who may need support.
Closing

Introduce students to the signal you will use for transitioning from
independent time to the closing (music, rain stick, etc.) Discuss expectations
for transitioning to the meeting area, and ask students to come back to the
group area.

Remind students that during the closing portion of the workshop, they will
share their thinking and what they learned as readers. Ask students to turn
and tell a partner what they learned about Reading Workshop. Point out the
positive behaviors you noticed students exhibiting during the work time
portion of the workshop and that you realize you will be able to count on
them to continue this positive behavior every day. Refer back to the essential
question, and tell students that the class is already beginning to build a
community of readers!

If you are using a graph to show students how they are increasing their
reading stamina, show students the graph, and indicate how much time
students read. Challenge them to read even longer the next day!
Writing Lesson 2: Introduction to Writing Workshop Structure
Notes

The following clip is housed on You Tube and is meant as instruction for
teachers unfamiliar with the writing workshop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PNCEDxT88&feature=related
Materials

Writing paper

Chart paper for writing the structure of Writing Workshop (You may want to
create this chart prior to the lesson.)

Standard displayed –ELACC3SL4: I can give a report or share a story or
experience with important details to help others understand by
speaking clearly and at an appropriate speed.
Opening

Call students back to the meeting area. This morning, we learned how
Reading Workshop will help us grow as readers. Now, we are going to learn
how Writing Workshop will help us grow as writers.

Remind students of the unit theme, You Can Count on Me. (How can we
count on each other to build a community of readers and writers?)

Each day, you will be able to count on me to provide a special time together
in our room called Writing Workshop. This is a time when we will learn what
writers do and practice writing.

Write “Writing Workshop” on a chart or SmartBoard notebook (something
that can be displayed while students become familiar with the rituals and
routines of your classroom). Beneath the title add: You can count on…

Write each part of the workshop on the chart and talk briefly about what the
students will be doing during each component. (You may choose to create
the chart before the lesson and refer to the chart as you discuss the Writing
Workshop structure.)
Mini-lesson- Writing Workshop will begin each day with a signal to come to the
meeting area for a mini-lesson. (Tell students what the signal will be.) The minilesson will usually last around 10-15 minutes. You can count on me to teach you
something about writing, like how writers get their ideas or how they make their
writing better. I will count on you to come to the meeting area calmly and ready to
listen carefully and participate in discussions.
Practice Time– After the mini-lesson you will have time to write. You can count on
me to confer, or talk to some of you about your writing each day. I will count on
you to write the whole time without interrupting group work or conferences.
Closing – When you hear the signal again, you will know that it is time to come
back to the meeting area for the closing. We will have about 5 to 10 minutes at the
end of the work time for some people to share their writing. I will count on you to
use the Speaking and Listening standards with each other, listen respectfully, and
be ready to tell the person sharing what you noticed he/she did in his/her writing.
Sample Chart
Writing Workshop
You can count on…
Mini-lesson
* procedures, process, craft
* shared, modeled, or interactive writing
*use of mentor text
Work Time
*independent writing (planning, drafting,
revising, editing, publishing)
*guided writing
*conferences
Closing/Sharing Time
*author’s chair
*partner share

Tell students that today they are going to practice each part of Writing
Workshop. Ask students to return to their seats and tell them they will
practice coming to the meeting area for a mini-lesson. Summon students to
the meeting area. You may choose a ritual to signal students, such as a
quote or chant about writing, shaking a rain stick, ringing a bell, or music.
(You may wish to choose the same signal you introduced during Reading
Workshop.) Students practice coming to the meeting area as many times as
it takes for them to transition smoothly.
Mini-lesson

Review the expectations for students during the mini-lesson portion of
Writing Workshop. Begin with telling students that all writers have stories to
tell and that they are going to get to tell stories from their lives to partners.
Tell them that before they tell their stories, you are going to take a look at
another standard for Speaking and Listening so they will know what is
expected of third graders when they tell stories.

Show and review the Speaking and Listening standard ELACC3SL4: I can
give a report or share a story or experience with important details to
help others understand by speaking clearly and at an appropriate
speed. Discuss the meaning of the standard. It is helpful to circle the nouns
and underline the verbs and help students understand the meaning of
unfamiliar words such as relevant and coherent by providing synonyms.
Writing the synonyms and posting them next to the vocabulary will support
students’ understanding.

Share a story with students about your life. (Choose something routine such
as a trip to the store, giving your pet a bath… so students get the idea that
stories come from things that happen to them every day.) Point out how you
included appropriate facts and relevant descriptive details and spoke audibly
in coherent sentences as you told a story about something that happened to
you.

Ask students to think about something in their lives, something that
happened to them (going to the store, playing with a friend, playing a
game…). Invite students to take turns telling their stories to their partners.

Remind students that today and every day when they want to write stories,
one strategy or tool they can use is to think of something that happened to
them. Tell them that they will have time to begin their stories during writing
time today. Remind students of the expectations for writing time. Send one
group of students to their seats at a time, pointing out how the students are
going quietly to their seats, getting paper, thinking about what they told their
partner, and beginning to write.
Work Time

Students will go to their seats and write their stories. This is a formative
assessment. This is your opportunity to observe the writing behaviors of your
students. Point out that writers need to build stamina for writing just as
readers do and that you will be watching to see how long they can focus on
writing. Continue to focus on building writing stamina throughout the unit.
Closing

Using the agreed-upon signal, call students back to the meeting area. Explain
that they will now practice the closing portion of Writing Workshop. You may
choose to ask students to share the stories they wrote with partners. Review
with the students what they learned about Writing Workshop today.

Collect the students’ stories. You may choose to give them back to students
later so they can continue writing, or keep them for a beginning of the year
writing sample. You will give students a prompt during week three as a
narrative pre-assessment.
Reading Lesson 3: How to Buzz Effectively – Creating Agreed-Upon Rules
for Speaking and Listening
Materials

Baskets of books on each table containing at least 4-5 books for each child in
the group (These books should represent a range and variety of levels and
genres.) Use spring LLI scores to determine the range of levels to put in the
baskets. Choose books from your classroom library or book room.

Chart paper with the heading “Our Agreed-Upon Rules for Speaking and
Listening”

Poetry The Rudes (or an enlarged version of the poem)

Display the standard – ELACC3SL1: I can have and understand
conversations with all kinds of people. I can successfully participate
in discussions. Add a. 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).
Opening

Revisit the theme, You Can Count on Me! Remind students of the workshop
structure and tell them that you will count on them to practice what they
learned yesterday when they go through each part of the workshop structure
today. Before beginning the lesson, ask students if they noticed any habits of
readers that need to be added to the chart, “What do readers do?”

Tell students that today, they will help create rules that will help them when
they talk with partners about their reading and thinking. Point out that this is
very important because when they talk to a partner they will grow each
other’s thinking! Ask students if they have encountered any problems when
they were talking to a partner (partner not listening, not paying attention,
talking too quietly…).

Display and review the Speaking and Listening standard that students were
introduced to on Day 1 ELACC3SL1: I can have and understand
conversations with all kinds of people. I can successfully participate
in discussions.. Tell students that today you are going to introduce them to
another part of the standard - a. 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). Explain that “agreed-upon rules” means that students
will have to come up with the rules for discussions. If students said that they
encountered problems when talking with a partner, point out that the
agreed-upon rules they are going to create will allow them to have better
conversations with their peers. Display the blank chart and write a heading
such as, “Our Agreed-Upon Rules for Speaking and Listening” at the top.

Role play having a conversation with another adult or a student.
We are going to think about the rules we need to have when we share our
thinking and discuss books with each other. Now watch me as I have a
conversation with ____ about the book we read. (Choose a book that you
have read to the students.) Watch for behaviors which would help our
conversation and other behaviors which would not help our conversation.
Demonstrate some inappropriate listening and speaking behaviors (fidgeting,
getting up, changing the subject, etc). Discuss with students what they
noticed and how the behaviors prevented you from having a productive
conversation. Then demonstrate appropriate behaviors, especially how to
listen to comments made by the other person and respond to them, building
from them, and basing your own comments on what was just said.

Guide students to come up with a list of agreed-upon rules for speaking and
listening, and list these rules on the chart. The chart may be similar to the
one below. (This anchor chart will be displayed and referred to throughout
the year.)
Our Agreed-Upon Rules for Speaking and Listening

Sit knee to knee when talking to a partner.

Look at the speaker.

Talk one at a time.

Think about what the speaker is saying.

Talk about the topic or text (stay on topic).

Tell students that they are going to practice these rules as they talk to a
partner about a poem.

Display the poem, The Rudes. (This poem is also written on the following
page). Tell students that you are going to read the poem together and give
them an opportunity to turn and talk to a partner to share their thinking. Tell
them that you are going to read the first stanza and then ask them to talk to
a partner about how well the Rudes are following our agreed-upon rules.

Continue reading the poem, giving the students opportunities to turn and talk
to partners. Ask a few students to share what their partners told them.
(Asking students to share what their partners said instead of what they said
makes them accountable for listening.)

Discuss the “agreed-upon” rules that the Rudes did not follow and how you
would not be able to count on them in your classroom community!
Rudes
The Rudes don’t know or even care
When they are getting in your hair.
They interrupt when you are talking;
Their behavior is absolutely shocking!
They pinch, they hit;
They scratch, they spit.
They don’t play fair when they are “it.”
The Rudes, they are so terribly rude!
They open their mouths when their food’s half-chewed.
They pick their noses in public places;
They stick out their tongues and make ugly faces.
They bite, they fight;
They seem to delight
In showing you how to be impolite.
Rudes love to eat soup, but how they slurp!
There’s never “excuse me” whenever Rudes burp!
They don’t remember a “thank you” to say
When you give them a gift on their special day.
Rudes stare, they swear;
They seldom share.
They make fun of you and pull your hair.
They’ll call you names like stupid and dumb.
You know, Rudes are really quite troublesome!
And that’s not all! Listen carefully now:
Rudes try really hard to get you somehow
To join their club
And be a Rude;
If you say “no”, you’ll be pursued.
They’ll try their best to get your attention.
To them, rude behavior is a nifty invention!
They’ll teach you all the tricks of the trade
So you can march in their Rude parade.
They’re crude, they’re shrewd;
They want you as a Rude.
Will you join their club? Will you be a Rude?
Babs Bell Hajdusiewicz
Work Time

Review the expectations for independent reading. Tell students their
purpose for reading today is to really think about what is happening in the
book they are reading (literary text) or what they are learning
(informational text) so they can talk to a partner about what they read.
Praise them for the amount of time they spent reading during
independent time yesterday, and challenge them to increase their stamina
and build their reading muscles. Set a new goal for independent reading
time.
Closing

Call students back to the group area. (If you are using a graph to record the
amount of time students read independently, point out how long students
read, and record the time on the graph.)

Review the agreed-upon rules, and remind students to follow them when
they talk to a partner. Have students turn and talk to a partner about a book
they read during independent reading time. Tell students that today, they
just practiced another habit that readers have – they talk to others about
books. Add this to the “What do readers do?” chart started on Day 1.

Give students a chance to reflect on how well they followed the agreed-upon
rules. Ask them to identify other times during the day when it will be
important to use the “agreed-upon rules.”

Tie the lesson to the theme, reminding students that they will be able to
count on the Reading Workshop structure each day, and you will count on
them to follow the procedures you taught them during each part of the
workshop and the agreed-upon rules.
Writing Lesson 3: Writers Write from Their Hearts
Notes

Lesson 4 introduces students to a Writer’s Notebook. If the notebook you
choose for students to use does not have pockets, you may wish to introduce
students to writing folders today. They will need a place to store the heart
maps they create.
Materials

Blank heart maps for students or paper for student to create their own heart
maps (launch unit resource folder)

A sample of the teacher’s heart map

The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli (or another personal narrative read-aloud)
Opening

Signal students to come back to the meeting area. Today during our reading
time together, we created agreed-upon rules for speaking and listening. We
are going to practice these rules during our writing time as we share ideas
for writing with each other.

Tell students that today you are going to help them discover where writers
get ideas for their stories. Let them know that you are going to read a book
to help them think about how writers “wake up their stories” or get ideas.
Read a story to spark students’ ideas for writing. It could be any personal
narrative in which the author has written about an experience that happened
to him/her. (The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli is a great choice because the
character is a little girl who is looking for ideas for her story, and her mother
tells her that the best stories come from the heart.) After reading the story,
discuss where the author may have gotten the idea for the story.

Tell students that a writing community is made up of writers who share and
listen to each other’s stories and ideas. Point out that writers often write
about the people, pets, and places that are in their hearts.
The people in your heart can be family members, friends, or anyone else who
makes you feel special and loved. When you think about the places in your heart,
picture places that you love to be, places that are fun, and places that make you
feel comfortable and safe. It could be a vacation place or at home.
Tell students that they are going to create a heart map to help them remember the
special people and places they can write about. Show students your heart map and
share the people and places that are close to you. (You may also choose to model
and invite students to include “things they do in their spare time” and “favorite
memories” on their heart maps.)

Tell students that you want them to use the agreed-upon rules for speaking
and listening to share the people and places in their hearts with a partner.
Review the Speaking and Listening standard and the agreed-upon rules that
students created.

Ask students to sit quietly and think about the kinds of things they might put
on their heart maps. Have them turn to a partner and share three things that
they will put on their heart maps. Remind students that they will include
many more things.

Before sending students to their seats, review the expectations for
independent time.
Work Time

Students begin designing their heart maps. Teacher circulates and confers
with students as needed.
Closing

This would be a great day to introduce the author’s chair. You will want to
develop a system to ensure that every voice has an opportunity to share in a
one or two week period. One option is to create a visual to display in the
share area. This might simply be a chart with students’ names with a place to
put a checkmark when students share. Another option is to put Popsicle
sticks with student names in a can and draw out one or two names each day.
(If a child chooses not to share, choose another child.)

Before inviting 2-3 students to share their heart maps, review the agreedupon rules for speaking and listening. Explain that the students who sit in the
chair have a very important role, but the audience’s role is just as important.
Discuss audience etiquette for listening to the speaker.
Reading Lesson 4: Getting to Know Our Classroom Library and Books We
Plan to Read
Notes

There are two parts to this lesson.
Part 1: Getting to Know Our Classroom Library (The content of this
lesson is dependent on the
organization structure utilized by the classroom teacher and the routines and
procedures pertaining to the library that the teacher wishes to implement in her
classroom.)
Part 2: Getting to know a Book Before Reading
Materials

Baskets of books on each table containing at least 4-5 books for each child in
the group (These books should represent a range and variety of levels and
genres.) Use spring LLI scores to determine the range of levels to put in the
baskets. Select books from your classroom library or book room.

A classroom library organized in a variety of ways, by level, by genre, by
author, by subjects, etc.

Chart paper (You will create an anchor chart, “How to Preview a Book”.)

Books for modeling how to preview a book
Opening

We have been learning about and studying what readers do. (Point out the chart
created on Day 1 and add any new ideas to the chart.) Yesterday we learned
that readers talk to others about what they read. Today I am going to teach you
what readers do to get ready to read. We will continue to practice the agreedupon rules that we created yesterday. Let’s review them before we get started.
(Review the posted Speaking and Listening standard a. 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) and the agreed-upon rules that students created.)
Part 1

If your classroom library is not your regular meeting area, you may want to
meet in the library area of your classroom for this part of the lesson, since you
will be talking about the organization of your classroom library.

Explain to the students that you organized all of the books in the classroom
library in a way that makes them easy to find and put back in the right place.
Demonstrate how the library is organized (author, genre, topic, level, etc.) and
discuss how the books are stored and/or labeled. Model how you would choose a
book and use the organization system to help you. Show how you would put a
book away, using a book you have on hand, and demonstrate what you would
think of/look for to know where the book should go when finished.

Ask students to think about a book or type of book they might want to find.
Invite them to turn and talk to a partner about the strategies they might use in
order to find that book in your classroom library.

Tell students that tomorrow they will get an opportunity to go to the classroom
library to choose books to read, so you want them to remember what they
learned about how to find books.
Part 2

We learned how our library is organized, now we are going to think about how
readers choose the books they read and how they get ready to read them.

Tell students that when readers go to a bookstore or the library, they look at
certain things to help them find books that are interesting. Readers can look at
certain features the authors and publishers put in the books to make people
interested. By looking at these features, you will get an idea of what the book
will be about and whether or not you might want to read it. Let’s look at these
features together.

Choose a book, and model how you look at the title, front illustrations, back
blurb, excerpts of reviews, awards, etc. and discuss how each helps a reader
know a little more about the book. Begin an anchor chart, “How to Preview a
Book” and add these features to the chart.

Model and point out that readers can also read the table of contents to see what
the titles are for the chapters, flip through the book to look for any pictures to
see how the book is organized, and read the first page to get an idea of what
the book will be about. Add these ideas to the chart.

Ask students to decide if they are interested in reading the book you previewed
in your demonstration. Ask them to turn and tell a partner if they would want to
read this book and share why or why not.

Tell students that now that they are in third grade, they will get to make the
decisions about the books they read just as grown up readers do. Point out that
today and whenever they are reading they can preview the book to determine if
it is interesting. This will also help them get ready to read, because they will be
familiar with the book. Tell students that during their work time, they will choose
a book from the basket at their table and preview it before reading. If they
decide it is not interesting, they can put it back in the basket and choose
another one. Remind students that they are working on building stamina during
independent reading time. Challenge them to read for a longer amount of time
than they did the previous day.
Work Time

Students choose books to read from the baskets on their tables, preview
them, and begin reading. The teacher will observe students, noting which
ones are really taking time to preview the books they are reading and how
students are spending their independent reading time.
Closing

Before calling students back to the group area, tell them you want them to
bring back one of the books they previewed and started reading.

Call students back to the group area. (If you are using a graph to record the
amount of time students read independently, point out how long students
read, and record the time on the graph.)

Review the chart, “How to Preview Books”. If you noticed a student doing a
great job of previewing a book, point out what you noticed this student doing
and ask him/her to share how that helped him/her as a reader. Tell students
that you want them to talk to a partner about the features they looked at
when they previewed the books. They will share how previewing the book
helped them decide if the book was interesting and helped them get ready to
read. Remind them to follow the agreed-upon rules they created on Day 3 as
they talk to a partner.

Tie the lesson back to the theme, You Can Count on Me by telling students
that you will now be able to count on them to choose books that interest
them by previewing the books first.
Writing Lesson 4: Introduction to the Writer’s Notebook
Notes

The following short clip gives teachers an overview of the Writer’s
Notebook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQEonEcBpaQ&feature=relmfu/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQEonEcBpaQ&feature=relmfu

Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter is a great book to read
aloud prior to the lesson. It is about a girl who keeps a Writer’s Notebook.
There is no wrong way to organize notebooks!
Decide which type of notebook you want your students to have for their Writer’s
Notebook (composition book, spiral notebook, 3-ring binder, two-pocket folder,
etc.).

It could be divided into sections with a tab divider for each section (Works in
Progress, Conference Notes, and Writer’s Tools or Writing Topics, Practice
Pages, and Conference Notes/Reflection).

It could be a 3-ring binder; hole punch a two-pocket folder, and include it in
the binder. (As depicted in the website
http://teacherweb.com/SC/bells/madden/apt4.aspx).

Amiee Buckner in Notebook Know-How suggests her students begin their
daily entries in the front of their notebook working page by page to the back;
while at the same time they are asked to write the mini-lessons and
strategies taught during Writing Workshop starting in the back of the
notebook and working their way to the front.

Whatever the notebook set up you would like in your students’ Writer’s
Notebook, model yours the same.

Decide how you want your students to maintain their notebooks. Where do
you want to keep them? Will the students personalize the cover? How often
will children write in them? Will they take their notebooks home? In addition,
you will want to teach them other procedures such as dating each entry and
skipping lines.

The following links provide information about Writer’s Notebooks:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/936.cfm
http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/Writer's%20Notebook.htm –
(You may choose to show the notebook before and after pictures to the students.)
Materials

Your Writer’s Notebook with completed stories/entries to share

Some type of notebook for each child (marble composition notebooks work
well)

Chart paper for creating the chart, “In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…”

A Ziploc bag for each student
Opening

Begin by sharing the following (this is just a sample, please use wording that
is most comfortable to you to support the purpose of the lesson): So far, the
activities we have been doing in Writing Workshop have helped you start
living like a writer. You learned that writers tell their stories to others and
writers get ideas from their hearts - the special people and places in their
lives. As you start living life as a writer, you will notice that all of a sudden,
you see things like you’ve never seen them before. You listen for sounds and
words that strike you. You wonder about things and question why things are
the way they are. When you live life as a writer, you may develop a little
voice in your head that says, “Write that down.‟ When it happens, you’ll want
to write down your ideas and thoughts, so you don’t lose them. You want to
capture and write your ideas in a place where you can come back to them
again and again. This very special place to keep your ideas is called your
Writer’s Notebook. It is a very important tool that writers use. Today you will
write in your very own writing notebook and practice living as a writer.

Tell students that they will use this notebook throughout the year to collect
ideas and practice what they learn about writing. They can keep and record
observations, note things they wonder about, record memories and family
stories that can become the seeds that grow future writings.

Show students the Writer’s Notebook you are keeping. If you have been
keeping a Writer’s Notebook, show the different types of entries you have
made. If you are just starting in your notebook, tell the students you will
model for the class how you will begin and maintain your notebook.

Begin a chart: “In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…” Let students know the
expectations such as writing the date before each entry. You will continue to
add to this chart as you introduce new strategies for writing in the notebook.
In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…

write stories about the people and places in our hearts.

We used the heart map to help us think of the special people and places in
our lives. We are going to use our maps to wake up stories in our minds. I
am going to show you how I choose a special person from my heart map and
think of something I did with this person. Then I will tell you my story. Model
choosing a special person from your heart map.

Tell students that before you tell your story, you are going to look at the
Speaking and Listening standard introduced previously to make sure you
include what is expected. Show and review the Speaking and Listening
standard ELACC3SL4: I can give a report or share a story or
experience with important details to help others understand by
speaking clearly and at an appropriate speed. Discuss the meaning of
the standard and provide synonyms for unfamiliar words such as relevant
and coherent.

Model thinking aloud about some things you did with that person, choose one
idea, and then tell a story about your time with that person.

Model setting up a page in your Writer’s Notebook. Write the date at the top.
Begin with a sketch of your story. (Make sure you emphasize that a sketch is
a quick drawing and that the majority of writing time should be spent
writing.) Then begin writing a few lines of your entry, demonstrating how to
skip lines and showing the students how you can write the story you just
told! Add “write stories about the people and places in our hearts” to the
chart.

Tell students to get out their heart maps and choose one person on the map.
Ask them to think of something they did with that person –a story of a time
with that person. Ask students to take turns telling their stories to their
partners. Remind them to make sure they are including relevant and
descriptive details and speaking audibly. Remind the partner who is listening
that it is his/her job to listen. If something does not make sense or if he/she
thinks the storyteller has left something out, the listener will need to ask
his/her partner for clarification.

Tell students that whenever they need an idea to write about, they can think
of a time they had with a special person. Encourage students to write a short
entry in their notebooks, telling the story they just shared with a partner. Tell
them they can sketch first, if it will help them. Remind them to write the date
at the top of their entry.
Work Time

Students will write and the teacher will circulate around the room and
observe students as they are writing. Meet with students who seem stuck,
and remind them they can write the story they just shared with a partner.
Closing

Ask a few students to share something they wrote in their notebooks.
Share how you have personalized your notebook (e.g., pictures, quotes, colored
paper, special lettering). Inform students that tomorrow they will personalize their
notebooks, so their homework for tonight will be to gather items to bring to school
for this special activity (see below for sample letters to send home). So for
homework, they may want to bring in pictures, photos, ticket stubs, quotes they’ve
collected, favorite poems, invitations, newspaper clippings, small objects, etc. to
include in their notebooks.
IMPORTANT HOMEWORK! As writers, we are ready to start using
our notebooks! We need to decorate them to make them very
special. Tomorrow we will be decorating our notebooks, so this
evening I want you to think of materials you can bring in to
decorate the covers and backs of your notebooks. The materials can
be anything from special pictures, fabric, magazine cut-outs,
handmade decorations, ribbon, to awards— basically anything that
has meaning to your life. Your notebook will be very personal, so
your cover should reflect you. Put your materials in the Ziploc bag I
give you and bring it to school tomorrow. This will be an exciting
passage as we move into establishing more habits of the “writerly‟
life!
Find Three Artifacts from YOUR LIFE!
Raid your junk drawers, your closet, or your room.
Look for items that bring back memories: ticket stubs, pictures,
postcards, or even candy wrappers. Anything that represents YOU!
**Remember, you are going to be taping/gluing these things into
your writer’s notebook. Get permission before you bring items to
school!
Due:________
Reading Lesson 5: Choosing Just Right Books
Materials

Baskets of books on each table containing at least 4-5 books for each child in
the group

Individual “book bags” or containers for students to store their just right
books. Containers may be magazine boxes, plastic tubs, book bags from the
school supply store, or simply a gallon Ziploc bag labeled with the student’s
name. (A Cobb teacher shared that her school purchases book totes from
www.discountmugs.com and the item is "Tote 35”.)

Blank chart for writing characteristics of Just Right books (You may want to
prepare the chart ahead of time.)

Display the standard – ELACC3RF4: I can fluently read and understand
books at my level well.
Opening

Yesterday you learned about the books we have in our classroom library. You
also learned how to preview books to see if they are interesting and to help you
get ready to read. Today you are going to learn how grown up readers (like they
are, now that they are in third grade) make decisions about how their reading
lives will go. One of the decisions readers make is the types of books they read.

Show students the Reading Foundational standard ELACC3RF4: I can
fluently read and understand books at my level well. It is recommended
that the standard be displayed for students to see it as discussed. Ask students
to work with you to put the standard in their own words or to replace key words
with synonyms so there is a clear understanding of its meaning. It is helpful to
put the synonym(s) on sticky notes and post them on the actual standard.
Explain that readers can’t just pick up any book and read it with accuracy,
fluency, and understanding – they must choose books that are just right for
them!

You might say to students, “Today I want to teach you that readers try on books
like one might try on a shirt, checking to see if this book fits, if it is just right.
We use the five-finger rule (more than four words they can’t read on a page of a
third grader’s book with a hundred words would definitely mean the reader is
not reading with 96% accuracy). We also know that a book should be a smooth
read, that when reading aloud we should read like we are talking smoothly.
Readers find books that are interesting and make them feel strong as readers.”

Tell students that they can choose a book that is an old favorite or a new book
that they are interested in reading. Once you choose your book, read a few
pages. Could you read it smoothly? Did you “read it like you talk?” Did you get
stuck on more than four words on a page?

Demonstrate for students how good readers choose a just right book. You might
say, “I am going to pretend that I am shopping for just right books. Watch how
I choose my books and notice how I decide if the books are just right.” Model
how you choose a book that you are interested in and then demonstrate giving
the book a try to see if it is a smooth read. Make sure you think aloud about
what happened in the section you read, demonstrating that you understood the
text.

Ask students to turn and talk to a partner about what they noticed you doing
when you chose just right books. Ask students to share their ideas and make a
class chart called: Choosing a “Just Right” Book. (This will be posted so that
students can refer to it when they are choosing books.) Some teachers
introduce students to the phrase, I PICK, to help students remember the criteria
for choosing just right books.
Choosing a “Just Right” Book
I – I choose a book.
P - Purpose – Why do I want to read this book?
I - Interest – Does this book interest me?
C - Comprehend – Do I understand what I am reading?
K- Know – Do I know most of the words?
Do I read with fluency and accuracy?

Tell students that you will be giving them each a container in which to put their
just right books. Let them know that when they go to independent reading
today, they will choose a few books from the basket to put in their containers.
While they are reading, you will call groups of students to the classroom library
to shop for just right books.
Work Time

Students will select just right books to read from the baskets on their tables
while waiting for you to call them to the classroom library to shop for books.
Closing

Let’s share some things you noticed about yourself as readers today. (Ask
students to discuss these questions with a partner and then call on a few
students to share.)

How did you know your books were just right?

Did anyone find a book that was not just right? How did you know this
was not right for you?

How did your just right books help you read fluently, accurately, and with
understanding?

Summarize the lesson by revisiting the standard and reviewing that choosing
just right books will help students become stronger readers who read with
fluency, accuracy, and understanding. Tie this back to the theme, You Can
Count on Me by telling students that from now on, you will count on them to
choose books that are just right for them! If you are using a graph to record
the amount of time students read independently, record the time on the graph.
Many teachers set up a schedule for students to exchange books. These
sample charts came from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
(http://tc.readingandwritingproject.com/).
Additional resources for lessons involving choosing just right books:
http://60hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/FrameNotebookRead.htm
Writing Lesson 5: Writers Get Ideas from Other Writers
Notes
If you asked students to bring items in to decorate their notebooks, a good time to
do this would be for morning work so that you don’t take up the writing time. If
children have not had an opportunity to decorate their notebooks, you may want to
take a little time prior to this lesson to let students decorate their notebooks.
Materials

Writer’s Notebooks

Heart maps

Read aloud to spark ideas for writing such as Fireflies by Julie Brinkloe

Chart started the day before - In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…’ (You will add
to the chart during the lesson.)
In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…

write stories about the people and places in our
hearts.

write about ideas we get from other writers.
Opening

Review that yesterday students learned about the special tool writers use –
the Writer’s Notebook. Refer to the chart you began yesterday. Praise
students for the wonderful stories they told and began writing. Tell them that
today they will continue to tell and write stories.

Tell students that since they will have another opportunity to tell a story to a
partner you are going to review the Speaking and Listening standard
ELACC3SL4: I can give a report or share a story or experience with
important details to help others understand by speaking clearly and
at an appropriate speed.
Discuss the meaning of the standard.


Tell students that you are going to share with students another way writers
come up with ideas for their stories. Writers get ideas from other writers.
Add this to the “In our Writer’s Notebooks we can” chart.

Read a mentor text such as Fireflies. (Typically, you will NOT read a book
during Writing Workshop. You will read it during your read aloud time and
then revisit it to make your teaching point. Since the purpose is to spark
ideas, it is appropriate to read it here.

After you finish, say to students, “This book reminds me of a time in my life
when…” Tell a short story that is connected to the mentor text. Point out how
you included the appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, and
spoke audibly.

Model writing the story you shared using your Writer’s Notebook. Add the
date, and don’t skip pages. Just write the first few sentences and explain that
you would add the rest of your story to complete the notebook entry. Tell
them you won’t do that now, because you want to hear their ideas.

Ask the students to turn to their partners and tell a story about something
that this book reminds them of. If they struggle with relating to this book,
they may choose a person or place on their heart maps and tell a story about
it. Remind students to make sure they include the relevant and descriptive
details, and speak audibly. Add “write ideas we get from other writers” to the
chart.

Tell students that when they go to write today, they can either continue
writing the story they started yesterday or write the story they shared with a
partner today. If they decide to do that, they will write the date on the next
line and continue writing. If they choose to write the story they told a
partner, they will go to a new page and write the date. Share the decision
you would make, and begin modeling how you would continue your story or
begin a new story.

Remind students that whenever they are not sure what to write about, they
can look at their heart maps and think about a time with a special person or
at a special place or write about ideas they get from other writers.
Work Time

Students will continue writing the stories they started yesterday, or begin
a new story about a time in a place they listed on their heart maps.
Closing

Use the agreed-upon signal and gather the students back in the meeting
area. Invite a few students to share their notebook entries.

Practice your ritual for students putting away and getting out their Writer’s
Notebooks.
Reading Lesson 6: Finding Our Reading Spots and What Does Work Time
Look Like/Sound Like?
Materials

Map of the classroom on a large poster or chart

Small Post-it notes

Students’ bags/boxes of “just right” books

Chart paper (You will be creating the chart: What does independent reading
look like and sound like?)

Display the standard – ELACC3RF4: I can fluently read and understand
books at my level well. Add a: Read on-level text with purpose and
understanding
Notes
Before asking students to come back to the meeting area, give each student a
small Post-it note, and tell each student to write his/her name on the Post-it note
and bring it back to the group area. They will place it on the floor next to them in
the meeting area until you are ready to use them.
Opening
Part 1

We have learned so much about what readers do so far this year! Last week
you learned what readers do and how readers get ready to read – they
choose “just right” books and they preview books before they read. Today,
you are going to learn what readers do so they can really focus on what they
are reading.

Review the standard that you introduced on Day 5 ELACC3RF4 I can
fluently read and understand books at my level well.: Point out
indicator a: Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
Explain that you will be talking more about “on-level text” later and that you
will give them examples, but today you will be focusing on reading with
purpose and understanding. Explain that readers cannot read with purpose
and understanding if they can’t concentrate or focus on what they are
reading. In addition, they will not be able to read accurately and fluently if
they can’t focus!

Ask students if sitting close to other readers at their tables has distracted
them or prevented them from focusing. Tell them that sometimes readers
don’t like to sit at tables. They like to choose a special reading spot. There
are many different places for readers to enjoy their books. Some readers like
to sit at tables and other readers enjoy sitting on the floor. Some readers like
to sit near other readers, and some readers like to find spots where they are
all alone so they are not distracted by other readers. In Reading Workshop,
readers get to make their own decisions. Today you will each decide where
you would like to read. Think about yourself as a reader. Are you the kind of
reader who likes to sit at a table or on the floor? Today you need to make
that decision.

Show the students a map of the classroom that you have already sketched
out. Make sure that you included the tables and all of the possible spots
students could read. Tell students to think about a spot that might be just
right for them. Let them know if you agree that they have selected good
reading spots, you’ll let them place their Post-it notes on their chosen spots
on the map. Be sure to emphasize that the map can, and will, be changed if
needed – and that being in a reading spot is a privilege. Let them know that
if they do not get their first choice today, you will give them an opportunity
to choose new spots at another time during the year. Call on students, one
at a time, to choose a spot. (Consider pulling Popsicle sticks with students’
names on them so that they perceive the selection as fair and random.) They
will place their Post-it notes on the map to indicate their spots, get their book
bags/boxes of “just right” books, and go to their spots.
Part 2

When students have had about 5 minutes to read in their new spots, ask
them to leave their books in their spots and come back to the meeting area.

Ask students if their new reading spots helped them focus so that they could
comprehend/understand what they were reading. Point out that sometimes
just having a reading spot is not enough. Readers need to respect other
readers during independent reading time.

Tell students that readers must spend the whole time focusing and practicing
during independent time so that they can become stronger readers. One of
the things that will help us grow as readers is to focus on what we are
reading the whole time. While readers are reading, they are thinking about
what is happening in the book or what they are learning about. If our
principal came into the room and saw people really focused and reading to
themselves, what do you think that would look like and sound like? Think
about what the students in our classroom who were focusing in their new
reading spots looked like and sounded like. Let’s create a chart together to
help us think about what independent reading time should look like and
sound like. If students are having a difficult time coming up with ideas,
choose a student to go to his/her reading spot and model what it looks and
sounds like. Record students’ responses. It may look similar to the chart
below.
What does independent reading look like and sound like?
It looks like…
It sounds like…


It is quiet.

The teacher may
be talking quietly
to another student
about reading.

Students are staying in
their reading spots.
Students are previewing
books before they read.

Students’ eyes are on the
books.

Students are reading
books from their book
bags.

Students are rereading
books.

Students are thinking.
What is the
purpose?

It expands our
vocabulary.

It helps us
understand
and learn.

Ask students to turn and talk to a partner about one thing they will do to
make sure they are focusing while reading.

Ask students to go back to their reading spots and continue reading, making
sure they look and sound like what you wrote on the chart.
Closing

Review with students what independent reading should look like and sound
like, and ask students to turn to a partner and share what they did during
independent reading time to make sure they (and other students) were able
to focus in order to comprehend what they were reading. Tell them that you
will review this chart tomorrow and keep it posted so they will remember
what you will count on them to do each day during independent reading
time. If you are using a graph to record the amount of time students read
independently, record the time on the graph. Point out how much students’
stamina is increasing!
Writing Lesson 6: What Do I Do When I Think I’m Done? What Does
Writing Time Look Like/Sound Like?
Materials

Chart paper to create the chart, “What do I do when I think I’m done?”

Chart paper to create the chart, “What does Writing Workshop look
like/sound like?”

A writing piece that the teacher has started writing

Writer’s Notebooks

Display the standard – ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit my
writing with the help of peers and adults.
Opening

We’ve begun gathering ideas so that you will always have something to write
about. Today I’m going to teach you what writers do when they think they’re
done.

Display the standard ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit my writing
with the help of peers and adults. Tell students you are going to focus on
just the first part, “With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus
on a topic…” Explain that they have started focusing on a topic when writing
in their notebooks. Explain that during Writing Workshop the expectation is
for them to always be working and focusing on a topic, and you are going to
show them how they can do this today.

Show students a piece that you have begun writing. Have it written on chart
paper or use a document camera so that everyone can see it. You may say
something like, “Here is the story I started yesterday. I finished it last night.
Now I think I’m done! However, I’m not done. When writers write, they have
things they can do when they think they are done. They can add to the
picture/sketch, add to the writing, start a new piece, or go back to an old
piece.”

Create an anchor chart with these steps on it. See the samples below.
What do I do when I think I’m done?
I can add to the picture.
I can add to the writing.
I can start a new piece.
I can go back to an old piece.

Think aloud how you could add more to your writing and model for students
how you would do that by either adding on to the end of your story or going
back and inserting more information.

Writers, close your eyes. Imagine you are writing and drawing. Imagine you
are done. Oh, now remember this mini-lesson. Ask yourself, Can I add to my
picture? Can I add to my words? If not, imagine starting a new piece of
writing or going back to another piece of writing.

Open your eyes. Today and every day no one will say, “I’m done.” I will hang
this chart up today and keep it in this spot to remind you of the choices you
have when you think you are done.

Tell students you will keep the chart up in the room so that when they think
they are done they can refer to it to remember what choices they have.
Remind them to go back and reread the piece they started the day before
and decide their next step for writing.
Work Time

As students are writing, circulate around the room, noticing the choices
students are making when they think they are done. Confer with individual
students.
Mid-Workshop Teaching Point

Compliment students for what you are noticing them doing (going back and
rereading their piece, adding more to the picture or story, starting a new
piece…). Tell them that you want them to help you create a chart to help
them focus and remember what their independent writing time should look
like and sound like, just like you did in the reading mini-lesson. Create a
Looks Like/Sounds Like chart with students. See the sample below.
Writing Workshop
Looks Like

Writers writing

Writers sharing tools

Writers thinking
Sounds Like

Writers using one inch
voices or working quietly

Teacher and students
talking about writing
Closing

Call students back to the meeting area. Ask students to turn and tell a
partner what they looked like and sounded like during the writing time as
well as what they did when they thought they were done.

Review the standard. Discuss how finding something to do when students
think they are done and following the expectations for what Writing
Workshop should look and sound like helped them focus on a topic.
Reading Lesson 7: Literary and Informational Texts
Materials

15 – 20 literary and informational books which span a variety of genres

Include two books on the same topic, where one is a literary text and the
other is an informational text. (Choose books relating to trees such as The
Giving Tree and an informational book about trees. Another option would be
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and Bats by Gail Gibbons. Stellaluna also relates
to the theme, You Can Count on Me.)
Opening

Yesterday we each found our reading spots and determined what
independent time should look like and sound like so we can focus on our
reading. Today we are going to learn more about the types of books readers
choose to read during their independent reading time.

Ask students if they know the difference between literary texts and
informational texts. As students respond, lead them to a deeper
understanding of these two broad categories. Chart students’ responses
using a Venn diagram (see sample below).

Show the literary and informational texts on the same topic you selected
prior to the lesson. Read enough of each book so that students can see that
one is an informational text, and the other one is a literary text. Ask students
what they notice about the way each text is organized. Review the Venn
diagram, and add additional characteristics of each type of text. Point out the
way each text is organized and the predictable characteristics and features
they can count on when they read each type of text. (Literary texts are
organized by beginning, middle and end and include story elements such as
characters, setting, problem, and resolution. Informational texts are
organized around specific topics and main ideas and often include text
features such as captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, and indexes as
well as images.) Discuss the similarities and add them to the chart.

When readers read a literary text, they can use what they know about this
type of text to make predictions about what they expect to happen in the
story. Readers can also use what they know about informational texts to help
them make predictions about the kinds of things they expect to learn.
Display and review the standard you showed students the day before
ELACC3RF4: a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
Discuss how knowing the characteristics of literary and informational texts
will help them read with purpose and understanding.

To reinforce the lesson, hold up different books in a variety of genres, one at
a time. Flip through a few pages so students can see how it is organized as
well as the images or text features in the book. If students think the book is
informational, they are to show you a thumbs-up sign. If they think it is a
literary text, they are to point their thumbs down. After showing each book,
ask students how they know it is a literary or informational text. Continue
this process with a few more books until you feel that students have an
understanding of each type of text.

How will knowing the differences between literary and informational texts
help us understand and make predictions about what we will read? Turn to
your elbow partner and discuss.

You may wish to include this optional activity to help students better
understand why knowing the features of each type of text will help them
make predictions as they read. Show students a popcorn packet with the
word popcorn blacked out. What is in here? How did you know that? I don’t
see the word popcorn any place on the packet. Students will give responses.
You were able to predict that popcorn was in the bag because you knew the
features of a popcorn packet. That is exactly the same way knowing the
features of literary and informational texts will help you. You can predict
what you expect to happen in the text, or predict what you expect to learn.
You will also know if it is a text you want to read or if it will provide the
information you need.

During the work session, students will read independently. Tell students to
determine the type (literary or informational) of text they will be reading
before they start reading, and predict what they expect the text to be about
or what they expect to learn. After reading, they will check to see if their
predictions were accurate.
Work Time

Students go to reading spots and read books from their book bags/boxes.

Teacher will confer with individual students to formatively assess students’
understanding of the characteristics of literary and informational texts. Ask
students to classify the books they are reading and show the evidence that
enabled them to classify each book as a literary or informational text.
Closing

Ask students to sit knee to knee with their partners and share a book title
and the classification – either literary or informational. Each student will
share one or two characteristics which makes the book a literary or
informational text with his/her partner. Close the lesson by asking students,
“What did you learn about yourself as a reader today?”
Writing Lesson 7: Writers Spell the Best They Can and Move On
Materials

Chart paper for creating the chart, “When I don’t know how to spell a word, I
can…”

Writer’s Notebooks

Teacher’s Writer’s Notebook or chart for model writing
Opening

Yesterday we learned that during independent writing time, writers are
always working. They are either thinking, working on a piece, adding more to
a piece, or beginning a new piece. I noticed that sometimes students are
concerned about spelling all of the words correctly.

Display the standard ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit my writing
with the help of peers and adults. (You will focus on just the first part,
“With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic…”)
Explain that when writers stop often to worry about their spelling, they lose
focus.

Today I am going to teach you what writers do when they don’t know how to
spell a word. They spell the best they can, and move on, or use resources in
the room. Point out that this is very important because you will be counting
on them to solve their own writing problems since you will be busy conferring
with individuals or groups of students.

Model writing a few lines of a story of your choice. When you are writing,
choose a few “tricky” words. Model how you say the words slowly and stretch
out the words so that you can write the sounds that you hear. Let students
know that they can go back and fix their spelling later and that they will get
more work done by spelling the best they can and moving on.

In your demonstration, show students that if you think a word does not look
right after stretching it out, you can circle it so that you can go back to it
later and use the dictionary to check the spelling.

In addition, model the other strategies you want students to use. This may
include how to spell unknown words from known words. For example, if you
can spell “look”, you can spell book, took, cook, etc. Model using the word
wall and other resources to help you spell.

Ask students to turn and tell a partner what they can do if they do not know
how to spell a word.
Ask a few students to share what their partners told them. As they are sharing,
create a chart such as the one below.
When I don’t know how to spell a word, I can…

say the word slowly and write the sounds I hear.

check the word wall.

read the room (use resources on the walls).

try writing it another way.

circle it and move on.
Work Time

Students will continue writing about a topic of their choice.

Teacher will confer with individual students.
Closing

Signal students back to the meeting area.

Choose a few students who applied the mini-lesson to share their stories. Ask
them to share what they did when they did not know how to spell a word.
Review the chart and tell students that now they have strategies to help
them spell the best they can and move on.
Reading Lesson 8: Coming Attractions: Genres, Genres, Genres!
Notes
This lesson is a preview of genres. Children are not expected to LEARN genres
during this lesson. The purpose is to introduce children to genres and to let them
know the expectation that they will read from many genres.
Materials

Small cups of popcorn (one for each student)

Basket of books which spans a variety of genres.(Use the books you used in
the previous lesson or books students read in kindergarten and first grade so
they will be familiar.)

Genre posters or chart paper to create your own genre posters

The links below offer genre posters. The posters from
http://www.sanchezclass.com/home.htm contain pictures of books that may
be familiar to third graders. You will also find additional genre posters at
these sites.

o
http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/genres.htm
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Action%20Adventure.pdf
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Realistic%20Fiction.pdf
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Mystery.pdf
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Fantasy.pdf
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Informational.pdf
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Poetry.pdf
o
http://www.sanchezclass.com/docs/Genre%20Poster%20%20Traditional%20Literature.pdf
Choose one of the poems below to use with this lesson.
Adventures with Books
Author Unknown
Books are ships that sail the seas
To lands of snow or jungle trees
And I'm the captain bold and free
Who will decide which place we'll see
Come let us sail the magic ship
Books are trains in many lands
Crossing hills or desert sands
And I'm the engineer who guides
The train on its exciting rides.
Come, let us ride the magic train
Books are zoos that make a home
For birds and beasts not free to roam
And I'm the keeper of the zoo
I choose the things to show to you
Come, let us visit in a zoo
Books are gardens, fairies, elves
Cowboys and people like ourselves
And I can find with one good look
Just what I want inside a book
Come, let us read!
For reading's fun
OR
Books to the Ceiling
by Arnold Lobel
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My piles of books are a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
Opening

Review with students what they learned previously about the characteristics
of literary and informational texts by referring to the chart you created with
them the day before. Tell students that today they will learn even more
about different types of texts. Read one of the poems above to the students.

An important part of becoming a reader is reading many different kinds of
texts. Texts include books, newspapers, magazines, stories, and poetry. You
also find many types of texts on the Internet. The categories of literary and
informational texts are very broad. Books are further classified into more
specific categories called “genres”.

Pass out small cups of popcorn. Let’s think about when we go to the movies.
I eat popcorn, and I decided to share some with you today. I always want to
get to the movie in time to see the previews. Do you? What are previews?
What is the purpose of the previews? Previews tell us what is coming. We are
going to PREVIEW some of the genres of literary texts today. Let’s see if you
already know some of them. I bet you do.

Begin with the poem you read to students. Point out that the poem is an
example of the poetry genre. Ask students what they notice about the poem
(rhyming words, repetition…). Show students the poetry genre poster or
begin creating a poster of the characteristics of poetry.

Choose a book from the basket which represents one of the genres you wish
to preview. Use the genre poster or create a poster for that genre. Explain
the characteristics of the genre. Mention examples of books the students
may have already read that fit into that genre category or offer suggestions
from the classroom library. Repeat this process with the other genres you
choose to preview.

Display and review the standard ELACC2RF4: a. Read on-level text with
purpose and understanding. Discuss how knowing the characteristics of
each genre will help them read with purpose and understanding.

To check for understanding, ask students to work with a partner. You will
give each partnership a set of genre response cards representing the genres
you previewed, such as the ones below. Ask students to spread the cards out
face up. Hold up a text and describe it briefly. Ask students to turn and talk
about how they would classify the book or selection. Ask them to touch the
appropriate genre card. Have them discuss the reasons for their choice.
Quickly check on each partnership’s choice before moving on to the next
book.
Book Genre Response Cards
Fantasy
Realistic Fiction
Informational
Mystery
Poetry
Traditional Literature
Work Time

Students will go to their reading spots and read books from their book
bags/boxes. Ask them to try to determine the genres they are reading.

Teacher will confer with individual students. Ask each student to identify the
genre he/she is reading and to share the evidence that enabled him/her to
classify the book.
Closing

Children will return to the meeting area. Preselect two to three children to
share the genres they were reading and the evidence that enabled them to
classify the books. Remind students that you will be focusing on genres
throughout the year and learning more about them. Discuss how knowing
those genres will help them predict what they expect to happen in the text or
what they expect to learn. Close with the question, “What did you learn
about yourself as a reader today?”
Writing Lesson 8: Widening Writing Possibilities
Notes
The curriculum map requires students to participate in routine writing (summaries,
writing-to-learn tasks, response to a short text or an open-ended question). This
lesson will help set students up for this.
Materials

Writer’s Notebooks

Chart paper for creating the chart, “What do writers write?”
Opening

Display the standard ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit my writing
with the help of peers and adults. (Focus on just the first part, “With
guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic…”

Remind students that they’ve been focusing on topics from their hearts and
getting ideas from other authors to write true stories. Tell students that
today you are going to teach them that there are more kinds of writing than
just stories.

Review the reading lesson about genres. In reading we learned that authors
write books from different genres. They do not just write stories. Some
authors write fantasy stories, while others write realistic fiction or mysteries.
Other authors write poetry or informational books. Let’s make a list of some
of the things authors write. Ask students to help you create a list.
Sample Charts
What do writers write?

List

Letter

Story

Poem


Play

Thank You Note

Summary

Book Review

Responses to questions

Informational Piece (Directions, How-to,
All-About, Articles…)
Tell students that they will have opportunities to do many of the types of
writing they listed on the chart, but today you want them to think about
possibilities for informational pieces they could write. Point out that when
writers write informational pieces, they often choose topics they already
know a lot about. Tell them that today in their notebooks they will create an
“expert” list.

Model writing an “expert” list in your Writer’s Notebook. Turn to the next
page in your notebook and write, “I’m an Expert.” Think aloud about what
you know a lot about or what you could teach someone. Make a list of those
ideas in your notebook. Choose one idea and orally tell students what you
would write or begin writing a few sentences in your notebook. Review some
of the characteristics of informational books that you listed on the Venn
diagram in the Day 7 reading lesson.

Ask students to think about things they know a lot about and could teach
someone. Ask students to turn and talk to a partner about their ideas.

Add to the chart, “In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…”
In our Writer’s Notebooks we can…


write stories about the people and places in our
hearts.

Write about ideas we get from other writers.

write about what we know (expert list).
Tell students that today you want them to make an “expert” list in their
notebooks. They may choose to write an informational piece about one of the
ideas, or they could continue working on a story they began previously.
Work Time

The students will create an “expert” list in their notebooks and then work on
writing about a topic of their choice.

The teacher will circulate around the room and support students as they
create their “expert” lists and begin writing.
Closing

Signal students back to the meeting area. Review the standard and the fact
that writers can develop different types of writing about a topic. Ask a few
students to share their “expert” lists or an informational piece based on a
topic from the expert list.
Reading Lesson 9: Reading is Thinking
Materials

Extended text appropriate for “think alouds” (The Stories Julian Tells by
Cameron or another book related to the theme)

Chart paper for creating the chart, “Reading is Thinking”
Opening

Review with students what they have learned so far as readers. Tell them
that today they are going to continue to focus on what readers do.

Review the fluency indicator that was introduced previously ELACC2RF4a.
Read on-level text with purpose and understanding. Tell students that
today the focus will be on understanding what they read.

Write the heading, “Reading is Thinking” on a sheet of chart paper. Ask
students to discuss with a partner the kinds of thinking they do while
reading. Ask students to share what their partner told them, and record
their responses on the chart. (See the sample chart below.) Introduce the
extended text you chose to go with the theme, You Can Count on Me. This
lesson refers to The Stories Julian Tells by Cameron, but you do not have to
use this book.

Tell students that as you are reading the book you are going to share some
of the thinking you do. Let them know that you will be thinking about the
characters because that is one of the things readers think about when they
are reading literary text. Readers figure out who the characters are and learn
as much as they can about them. This helps us better understand the story.
Tell them that as you read, you want them to think about which character(s)
the other characters can count on.

Read aloud the first few pages of the first chapter, and then stop to share
your thinking. In particular, include how you make a movie in your mind to
picture what’s happening, what you notice about how the characters behave,
think, and feel, what you are learning about the characters, and questions
you have about parts you don’t understand or unfamiliar words. After
stopping a few times to demonstrate your thinking, read another portion of
the text and then ask students to turn and talk to a partner and share their
thinking. Continue reading until you are finished with the first chapter.

Review with students the kinds of thinking they saw you doing and the kinds
of thinking they did with their partners. Add new ideas to the chart.
Sample Chart
Reading is Thinking
When we read we…


make movies in our minds about what’s happening in the book.

make predictions about what might happen next.

notice how the characters behave, think, and feel.

ask questions about parts we don’t understand or unfamiliar words.

reread parts we don’t understand to clear up confusion.

use clues in the text to figure out the meaning of new words.
Ask students which character they think can be counted on and why. (It will
be important for students to give specific examples in the text to support
their thinking.) If reading The Stories Julian Tells, students might respond
that Julian and Huey will be able to count on their dad because he is working
very hard to prepare a pudding for them to enjoy. They might also say that
Julian can count on Dad because he is a good father who teaches them a
lesson instead of punishing them. Point out that you are going to continue
reading The Stories Julian Tells throughout the unit and that you would like
to keep track of their thinking about the characters to determine which ones
can be counted on. Prepare a chart similar to the one below to track the
students’ thinking about the characters as you are reading the extended text.
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
Which characters can be counted on?
Character
Evidence From the Text
Julian

Huey

Dad


Page
Number/Chapter
Tell students that today and every day when they are reading, they must be
thinking about what they are reading! Tell students that you want them to
notice the kinds of thinking they do today when they read their own books
independently.
Work Time

Students will read independently.

Teacher will confer with individual students and ask them to share the
thinking they are doing as they are reading.
Closing

Review the standard – and tell students they are going to share the thinking
they did to read with purpose and understanding with a partner. Revisit the
chart, Reading is Thinking and remind them that you want them to do this
kind of thinking every time they read!
Writing Lesson 9: Developing a Seed Idea
Materials

Students’ Writer’s Notebooks (Students will bring their notebooks to the
group area for the mini-lesson.)

Teacher’s Writer’s Notebook

Post-it notes

Introduce and display the standard – ELACC3SL1c: I can ask questions to
help me understand discussions, stay on topic and to help me to
connect my ideas with other people's ideas.
Opening

We have been doing a lot of writing in our notebooks. The purpose of our
notebooks is to help us get ideas for writing. Today I am going to teach you
how to use your notebooks to find a seed idea. You will take this idea and
turn it into a draft.

Display and discuss the standard ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit
my writing with the help of peers and adults. Explain to students that
they will be able to count on you to confer with them during Writing
Workshop time to give each student guidance and support. Let them know
that they will have opportunities to share their writing with peers to get their
feedback. Point out that they will learn more about revising and editing in a
few days.

If you have not yet shared your procedures for conferring, this would be a
good time to do so. Explain that the student’s job will be to talk about his/her
writing and the teacher’s job is to help the student grow as a writer. You
might let them know they can count on you to ask questions such as the
following:
o
What are you working on as a writer?
o
What kind of writing are you creating?
o
What are you doing to make this piece of writing work?
o
What will you do next?
o
How will you go about that?

Identify the notebook as a source for ideas to write about. Refer to entries as
"seeds." Students will choose and begin to nurture a seed. Compare your
notebook to the pre-writing stage and explain that today’s lesson is to move
forward in the writing process and work toward the drafting stage.

Discuss the idea of a seed (how a plant seed is like a writing seed). We will
find a seed in our notebook and grow it into an important piece of writing.

Model for students how you look through your notebook and heart map to
find possible seeds. Using a Post-it note, mark the seed that could become a
draft. Move the Post-it to another page if a better seed presents itself. Think
aloud how the final seed was chosen. Stress that it must be meaningful and
one which the writer can write a lot about. Tell students that you will take
one of your ideas and turn it into a story or informational piece. You may
choose to share something in your notebook that you started writing about
and show students how you add to it to make it into a draft.

Connect to the reading lesson in which you created a Venn diagram
comparing and contrasting informational and literary texts. Point out that if
they are writing an informational piece about something they know about,
they will want to include characteristics of informational writing. If they want
to write a narrative, they will include characteristics of literary text. (Point
out that a personal narrative may not have a problem and resolution, it
might just be a sequence of events.)

Many teachers choose to have students draft outside of their notebooks.
They keep the notebooks for gathering ideas. Some teachers choose to have
their students use pages from a yellow legal pad or other drafting paper.
Another option is to create booklets of 5-6 pages with a small box for
sketching at the top. This allows students to write across pages and
encourages them to produce more writing. Determine where students will
write and store their drafts (writing folder, pocket of 3-ring binder…).

Ask students to watch you as you begin your draft. Point out that it is
important to skip lines so the writer has room to go back and add more or
make changes. Ask students to look through their notebooks or heart maps
for an idea they want to turn into a draft and mark it with a Post-it note.

Before inviting students to orally share their stories or informational ideas
with a partner, display and introduce the last part of Speaking and Listening
Standard 1- ELACC3SL1c: I can ask questions to help me understand
discussions, stay on topic and to help me to connect my ideas with
other people's ideas.
Explain any unfamiliar words, and let the listeners know that it is their job to
ask the speaker questions if there is something they don’t understand.
Work Time

Students will begin drafting their pieces. The teacher will confer with
students who are having difficulty getting started. If there are more than a
few students in this category, consider gathering them for a guided writing
group/group conference to guide them in getting started.
Closing

Call students back to the meeting area. Review the standard ELACC3W5: I
can plan, revise and edit my writing with the help of peers and
adults.

Tell students that you are going to select a few students to share what they
have written so far. Explain that the other students will be offering guidance
and support. Ask them to listen for what the authors did well. (It really helps
to display the students’ work using a document camera if you have one
available.) In addition, review the Speaking and Listening standard
introduced during the lesson and remind students to ask the writers
questions if they need clarification.
Reading Lesson 10: Keeping Track Of Your Thinking (Strategies for Using
Post-it Notes)
Notes

You will use the extended text you began reading yesterday. Although this is
the last mini-lesson that uses the extended text, you will want to continue to
read the text during a read-aloud time at another time during the day and
continue to track the characters in order to determine which ones can be
counted on and why (evidence from the text).
Materials

Post-it notes

Chart paper for creating the charts, “Post-it notes can be used to mark…”
and “Reading is Thinking”

Students will be jotting during the mini-lesson, so they will need to bring
pencils and a clipboard to the meeting area.
Opening

You are already growing as readers and thinkers! Yesterday we started
reading our extended text, The Stories Julian Tells, and discussed what we
noticed about the characters and which characters the other characters can
really count on. Today we are going to continue reading The Stories Julian
Tells, and I am going to show you how to keep track of your thinking so you
can remember and talk about all of your ideas.

Review the standard ELACC2RF4a. Read on-level text with purpose and
understanding. Tell students that sometimes readers use Post-it notes to
keep track of their thinking and to help them understand the text. Point out
that this will also help them when they are sharing their thinking with a
partner.

Let students know that as you are reading, you will demonstrate how you
stop and use Post-it notes to jot down your thinking. Begin reading the next
chapter in the extended text. Stop and discuss some thoughts at various
points, perhaps a question, something you noticed about the character, a
prediction…). Write each thought on a Post-it note as you briefly discuss it.
Place the Post-it note on the page corresponding to that thought. You may
wish to set up guidelines with your students as to where to place the Post-it
notes on each page. You may also wish to set up “rules” about using the
Post-it notes (such as not for notes to one another) and set up procedures
for getting and storing notes within the classroom. Another important
consideration is taking Post-it notes out of the book when the book is
finished. (You may wish to have students carefully take out their Post-it
notes and place them on a page of their Reader’s Notebook, which will be
introduced later.)

Tell students that you are going to let them give it a try. (It would be
helpful if you could display a page or two of the text you plan to share with
students when they write down their thinking. This could be done by using a
document camera or by scanning or copying the page/pages you plan to
use.) Read a portion of the text and ask students to jot down their thinking.

Tell students that you are going to give them an opportunity to discuss their
thinking with a partner, but before you do, you want to introduce them to
another part of the Speaking and Listening standard to help them have even
better conversations. Introduce them to indicator b: Build on others’ talk in
conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
Discuss what this means. Demonstrate what this would look like by asking a
student to share his/her Post-it note and model building on the student’s
idea and linking your remarks to his/her idea. Invite another student to build
on the idea that the student shared.

Ask students to turn to a partner and take turns sharing their thinking.
Remind students to build on their partner’s idea before introducing a new
thought. Discuss some of the thinking the students wrote down on their
Post-it notes. Create a chart such as the one below to guide students when
they are using Post-it notes independently.

Ask students if anyone did some thinking about who the characters were
able to count on. Discuss which characters they now think can be counted on
and the evidence in the text that makes them think that. Add their ideas to
the chart you started the day before (“Which characters can be counted
on?”).

Remind students that whenever they want to keep track of their thinking,
they can jot down their thoughts on a Post-it note and go back to it later.
Collect students’ Post-it notes, and keep the Post-it notes you used during
your demonstration. You will use these in the next lesson. You may want to
put the students’ Post-its on a chart such as the one below.

Give each student a few Post-it notes, and invite them to jot down their
thinking when they are reading independently. Remind students that they
can jot down questions they have, something they noticed about the
characters, a prediction, or something important that happened.
Work Time

Students will bring their book bags/boxes to their independent reading spots.
Observe students as they read and jot down their thinking. Confer with a few
students.
Closing

Ask students to bring their books with Post-it notes back to the reading area.
If you noticed students jotting down their thinking on a Post-it note, invite a
few of those students to share their thinking.

Invite students to turn and talk to share their thinking about the books they
were reading (using their Post-it notes if they recorded ideas on them).

Revisit the standard and discuss how jotting down their thinking helped them
read with purpose and understanding. Ask students the question, “What did
you learn about yourself as a reader today?”
Writing Lesson 10: Co-constructing a Rubric – What Are the Expectations
for the Workshop Time?
Notes
The rubric made in today’s lesson should not be done ahead of time and handed
out. The point of this lesson is for students to co-construct the rubric together with
the teacher so they have ownership. This assessment can be used by the students
and the teacher at the end of the unit. A class will be unable to move forward with
the rigor of the Common Core until the expectation of behavior and effort are set
and practiced.
Materials

Chart paper – or any equipment used to project and write a class expectation
rubric (example: document camera, computer attached to whiteboard, etc)
Opening

Tell students that they have been doing a great job coming to the meeting
area, listening to a lesson, going back to their seats, writing, and then
sharing. Point out that this is the structure of the routine, called Writing
Workshop, which was introduced on Day 2.

You have learned the responsibilities that I can count on you to follow to
make our classroom a community that works together. One of the ways we
can make sure we remember to follow these responsibilities is to develop a
rubric.

Display the blank rubric with the heading “You Can Count on Me During
Writing Workshop” on chart paper or on a paper projected under the
document camera or projected on the screen. You will also divide it into three
sections and label them Mini-Lesson, Work Time, and Closing.

Ask students to turn and talk to a partner about the responsibilities they
have learned for each component of the workshop.

Begin with the Mini-Lesson section and ask students to share the
responsibilities they discussed with partners. Write in three or four points
that address the important behaviors you will be looking for throughout the
year. Make sure you include expectations that address the Speaking and
Listening standard presented so far. Continue this process with Work Time
and Closing. Keep in mind that this is a working document and ideas will be
added as needed. Add only the expectations in which you have discussed
thus far or adjust criteria for your particular needs.
This is a sample. Include the language your students use and the
expectations you have discussed.
You Can Count on Me During Writing Workshop
Mini-Lesson
I come to the
meeting area
quickly and quietly.
I sit quietly and
keep my hands to
myself.
Meets
Standards
Approaching
Standard
Needs
Instruction
(I always do
this.)
(I sometimes do
this.)
(I need to work
on this.)
I follow the agreedupon rules for
discussion.
I build on others’
talk in
conversations.
I ask questions as
needed.
Work Time
I go quietly to my
spot and get
started right away.
I am focused and
write the entire
time.
I put forth my best
effort.
When I think I’m
done I begin
writing something
new, or add to a
piece I am working
on.
Closing
I come quickly and
quietly to the
meeting area.
I listen to the
speaker.
I give feedback to
the writer.
Tell students that they can use this rubric to make sure they are following the
responsibilities during Writing Workshop.
Work Time

Students will work on their writing as the teacher either confers with
individuals or brings together a small group with similar writing needs for
support.
Closing

Ask a couple of students to share their writing. Ask students to review the
responsibilities on the rubric and reflect on how they did. Ask them to turn
and talk to a partner about how well they did and how they would rate
themselves. Make additions to the rubric if necessary.

You may wish to print a copy of the rubric for each student and give it to
them at the beginning of the next Writing Workshop. You will want them to
fill it out at the end of this unit.
Reading Lesson 11: Reading Partnerships – Sharing Our Thinking
Materials

Prior to teaching the lesson, determine reading partners. Consider pairing
students together who are reading at similar reading levels so they can
read/discuss the same books at times.

Students’ independent reading books

Post-it notes

Chart paper for creating the chart, “Reading Partnerships”
Notes
The focus of this lesson is introducing students to partnerships in which they share
their thinking about the books they read during independent time. Daily
opportunities to discuss reading and thinking during a partnership time after
independent reading will give students an opportunity to practice and apply the
Speaking and Listening standards and deepen their comprehension of texts. There
are many additional mini-lesson possibilities for teaching students about what they
can do during their partnerships. Resources include The Daily Five by Gail Boushey
& Joan Moser and Unit One – Taking Charge of Reading from the Reading and
Writing Project.
http://rwproject.tc.columbia.edu/public/themes/rwproject/resources/curriculum_m
aps/c_2nd_grade/2nd_grade_reading_unit_1.pdf Reading for Real by Kathy
Collins is another excellent resource
Opening

In our last lesson, you learned how to use Post-it notes to keep track of your
thinking. Today
we are going to begin something special that will happen during the last five
minutes of our work time each day. You will each get a reading partner and you will
get together with the same partner each day to share your thinking. You will not
keep the same partner all year, but you will keep the same partner for a while.

Review the Speaking and Listening standard ELACC2SL1a, b, and c and
remind students that they will practice these expectations when working with
a partner.

Review with students what they learned about using Post-it notes in the
previous lesson. Tell students that one purpose of using Post-it notes is for
them to keep track of their thinking. Another purpose is to be prepared for
talking to a partner.

Use one of the Post-it notes in which you recorded your thinking in the
previous lesson and a Post-it note in which a student recorded his/her
thinking using the book read during independent time. These will be used to
model the expectations for partner work. (You will choose a student prior to
this lesson and ask him/her to bring the book he/she was reading in the
previous lesson and the Post-it note used to record his/her thinking.)

Tell students that they are going to be researchers. Their job is to watch you
and the student as you discuss what you read. You will model what you want
students to do in partnerships (Sit elbow to elbow, listen, follow agreed-upon
rules, build on each other’s ideas, and ask questions for clarification). During
your conversation, share your Post-it note and your thinking about your
book. You may choose to use some of the suggestions below in your
demonstration. Ask the other student to share his/her Post-it note and
his/her thinking about the book he/she read.
o
This part is important because…
o
This part makes me wonder…
o
This part surprises me because…
o
As I read this part I realized…

When you have both finished sharing, tell the student with whom you are
demonstrating that since your partnership time is not up and you are finished
with your discussion, you can read a few pages of your books to each other.
Demonstrate doing this. When you have finished your demonstration, ask
students to tell you what they noticed you and your partner doing.

Ask students to tell someone next to them what they noticed as they
researched what you and your partner did. Create a chart similar to the one
below.
Reading Partnerships
Readers:

sit elbow to elbow.

share Post-it notes and ideas about what they are reading.

share their thinking.
o
This part is important because…
o
This part makes me wonder…
o
This part surprises me because…
o

As I read this part I realized…

follow agreed-upon rules.

build on each other’s conversation.

read a part of the book to a partner.
Ask students to turn and tell someone next to them what they will do during
partner time today. Tell students that partners don’t just show up to partner
time without any ideas – they get ready for partners by thinking about ideas
and jotting a few of them down while they read. Review some of the things
they might jot down on their Post-it notes.
Work Time

Give students time to read independently and then invite students to get
together with their partner for about five minutes. (You will need to decide
ahead of time where you want partners to work – will they pick their own
spots?)
Closing

Signal students back to the meeting area. Discuss how working with a
partner helped them grow their thinking. Have students share what they did
to make their time effective. Point out what you noticed students doing to
make their partnerships successful. Ask students what they learned today
that helped them become stronger readers.

Revisit the “Reading Partnerships” chart you created and tell students that
whenever they are working with their reading partner, they will follow the
guidelines on the chart they created.
The charts below were posted in classrooms to help students think about how they
might share their thinking during partner conversations.
You may choose to have students reflect on their partnerships after students have
worked together for about a week. Sample reflection sheets are below.

Writing Lesson 11: Revision Toolbox
Materials

Chart paper for the chart, “Writers Revise” (You may want to create this prior
to the lesson and refer to it as you are revising your piece.)

Teacher’s draft to use for demonstration

Students will bring their drafts to the meeting area during the mini-lesson.

Special pens (one for each student) designated for revising (Lucy Calkins
suggests using purple pens which represent royalty.)
Opening

Remind students about the Writing Workshop rubric they created to help
them remember what you will count on them to do during each portion of
Writing Workshop. Give them feedback on how well they are doing! (You may
choose to give each student a copy to put in his/her Writer’s Notebook or
writing folder.)

Tell students that today you are going to teach them something writers do
when they are proud of their work.

Review the standard ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit my writing
with the help of peers and adults. Tell students that up to this point they
have been focusing on a topic and should be proud of the drafts they are
creating. Tell students that when writers look back at their work and say, “I
like what I wrote,” they then ask themselves, “How can I make this writing
even better?”

Writers are like cooks. A cook doesn’t just pour in some ingredients and then
suddenly the food is done. Instead, the cook adds things, takes things away,
and changes things until the cooking (like writing) is the very best it can be.
Today I am going to show you how real writers revise. Explain that revise
means to “see again.” When writers revise they reread their piece to see
what they can do to make it even better. For example, Helen Lester, the
author of Tacky, the Penguin, wrote the following in her book Author; A True
Story. (If you have the book, show students this page. If not, you may wish
to project this so all students can see. You can also visit her site:
http://www.helenlester.com/.)
Usually when I first think a book
is finished, it really isn’t.
I keep going over the story
again and again, looking for ways
to make it better with little
changes here and there. I do
this until the book has to be
printed. Then it’s too late to
do anything more!

Model for students how you revise. Use a draft that you have developed from
a seed idea. Display your draft on a chart or under a document camera so all
students can see the process.
First I reread, and as I do this, I’m thinking, “Is there anything I could add to make
it even better and clearer for my reader?” Writers do this to help their readers
visualize and create movies in their minds of what they are reading.

Demonstrate going back to your piece and creating a plan about what you want
to revise. Show students how you reread, make a movie in your mind, and add
words that make your writing even clearer. Show students how to use a carat to
insert words. In addition, demonstrate crossing out words to show students how
you delete words you don’t need and circle words that you will want to check for
spelling later. Emphasize that writers don’t erase. Point out that you are using a
special revision pen and that they will get to use one too!

Explain that they now have a “toolbox” of items or things they can do to make
their writing clearer for their readers. Review that students can use a carat to
add more to parts of their piece, cross out words that are not needed, and circle
words to check for spelling later. They also have a special writing tool to use
when they revise. (Share with students the procedures for using the pens, such
as where they are stored and how to get them.)
Writers Revise
How do I revise my writing?

I reread and make plans.

I reread, make a movie in my mind, and add important
descriptive words.
o
I can add words to the beginning or middle of my
piece.
o
I can add words to the end of my piece.

I can cross out words that I don’t need or words that don’t
make sense.

I can circle words to check for spelling later.

Ask students to reread their drafts and make a plan for how they want to
revise. Invite students to turn to a partner and share one thing they plan to
revise.

Send students to their seats with their new revising pens! Point out that if
students are not finished with their drafts, they can still reread what they
have written and decide if there is something they want to revise.
Work Time

Students will continue working on their drafts. Encourage students who are
finished to revise.

The teacher will confer with individual students. Look for students who are
doing a great job of revising, and select a few to share during the closing.
Closing

Signal students back to the meeting area. Ask a few students to share how
they revised their writing to make it clearer for their readers. Revisit the
standard, and discuss how revising strengthened their writing. Revisit the
Writing Workshop expectations rubric (created in Lesson 10) and ask
students to reflect on how they did during each component of the workshop
time.
Reading Lesson 12: Reading is Thinking – Asking Questions About Literary
Texts
Notes
This lesson is an introduction to the standard ELACC3RL1: I can ask and
answer specific questions to show that I understand the stories that I am
reading or have read. You will be focusing on this standard throughout the year
as you and the students read literary texts.
Materials

Read aloud book relating to the theme (suggested titles include Our Tree
Named Steve or The Giving Tree

Chart paper (See sample chart below.)
Opening

We have learned that readers are always thinking when they read. Today you
will learn that readers often ask questions before, during, and after they read
to better understand the key details in the text. Display the standard
ELACC3RL1: I can ask and answer specific questions to show that I
understand the stories that I am reading or have read. Clarify
vocabulary such as demonstrate and key details.

Tell students that asking and seeking answers to who, what, when, where,
why, and how questions when they read will help them understand the key
details in the text. These questions help readers track everything that is
happening in the story.

Show students the book you choose to read, pointing out that it is a literary
text. In addition, identify the genre. Model what you previously taught
students about getting ready to read (read the title and author, blurb on the
back…). Although Our Tree Named Steve is a great text to use because it
relates to the theme and can be tied to the science standard, another book
can be used for this lesson.

Tell students that as you read the book, you are going to model asking the
questions you have as you are reading and then give them an opportunity to
turn and talk to a partner about the questions they have. Point out that your
questions will begin with some of the question words in the standard and will
be about the elements of literary text (characters, setting, problem, major
events, and resolution). Tell them that as you are reading, you want them to
think about how the book relates to the theme, You Can Count on Me.

As you are reading, think aloud about the questions you have before, during,
and after reading. Demonstrate answering the questions using the text as
evidence. In addition, point out that some of your questions are answered as
you read more and some of the questions require you to make an inference.
Create a chart similar to the one below to record your questions and any
answers you find as you read the text.
Readers…
Ask questions to better understand the key details in the text (who, what, when,
where, how, why).
Readers ask questions about the characters, setting, problem, major events, and
the resolution.
Question
Answer
Evidence

Read a portion of the text and stop and think aloud about a question you
have. Record the question on the chart. Then read a few pages stopping to
think aloud about a question you have. As you find an answer to the question
record the answer and the evidence from the text that makes you think that.
After thinking aloud a few times about the questions you have, invite
students to turn and talk to a partner about a question they have. Finish
reading the story and then share any questions you still have.

Point out that you asked questions to understand the key details such as who
the characters are and what they are like, where the story takes place, what
the problem is, what the major events are, as well as the resolution.

Choose just a few of the questions below as you think aloud about the key
details.
o
Who is the main character?
o
What does the main character want?
o
What are the characters doing?
o
What can we infer about the character? How do we know that?
o
What kinds of problems do the characters face?
o
How do the characters react to the problem?
o
Where were the characters?
o
When did the story take place?
o
How do the characters feel? How do we know?
o
Why do the characters feel this way?
o
What is happening in this part?
o
What is going on so far?
Review what the story was about and how asking the questions really helped you
think about the key details. Ask students how the story relates to the theme, You
Can Count On Me.
****Note: After this lesson, read this book at another time during read aloud.
Revisiting the book will give the students an opportunity to hear the story without
interruptions to ask questions. When reading it again, read with the purpose of
really focusing on how it relates to the theme. Ask students to identify the evidence
from the text that supports the theme.

Tell students that when they read, you would like them to think about the
questions they have when they are reading their books and jot down at least
one question they have on a Post-it note as well as any answers they find.
Work Time

Students will read their independent books and the teacher will confer with
students. Ask students to begin reading one of their literary texts and write
down at least one question they have while reading (and the answer if they
have found it). At the end of independent reading time, review the
expectations for partner work. Ask students to get with their partners and
share their questions and answers and their thoughts about the books they
were reading.
Closing

Revisit the standard and discuss how asking questions helps them better
understand the books they are reading. Invite a few students to share a
question, the answer, and the evidence in the text that led them to the
answer.
Writing Lesson 12: Writing for Readers – Using Conventions
Notes
This lesson is modeled after Jeff Anderson’s technique to teach conventions. The
following three minute clip is an introduction to “Invitations to Notice” presented by
Jeff Anderson. This technique involves students in looking at mentor sentences to
see how authors craft their sentences and use conventions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjgKIbow400
Materials

A book that you have previously read to students (Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe
is used as the example in this lesson.)

Chart paper or something used to display mentor sentences (Have the
sentence already written.)
Opening

Signal students to come to the meeting area. Ask them to bring their Writer’s
Notebooks. Point out to students that they will be doing lots of writing for
various reasons throughout the year. This will occur in Writing Workshop and
also in math, science, social studies, health, and reading. The writing you
produce will be read by someone. The goal is for your writing to be read and
appreciated by readers. For a reader to be able to read and comprehend
your writing, you must make sure words are spelled correctly and that
conventions are used properly to support the reader’s understanding.

Invite students to notice what the selected author did to make the sentences
clear to her readers. We are going to be researchers and look at a few
sentences written by the author of Fireflies, Julie Brinckloe, to see what she
did as a writer to make her sentences clear and easy to read. (Choose any
literary text you have read to students.)

Show the sentences from the mentor text you wrote on a chart prior to the
lesson. It should be written on a chart, SmartBoard, or on a paper placed
under a document camera.
I poked holes in the top of the jar with Momma’s scissors. The screen door
banged behind me as I ran from the house.
Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe

Invite students to tell what they notice about the sentences. Lead them to
discover that the author wrote one sentence telling what happened to the
character. She started the sentence with a capital letter and ended the
sentence with a period. Then she wrote another sentence and started that
sentence with a capital letter and ended it with a period. It is interesting to
see what else students notice such as the possessive noun (Momma’s) or
strong verbs such as poked and banged. Discuss why the author included the
conventions and how it helped the reader. Discuss what would happen to the
reader if the author left them out.

Tell students that the Writer’s Notebook is also a place to try out new things
you are learning. Display your Writer’s Notebook under the document
camera or use a chart and tell students you are going to write on a chart
instead of your notebook so they can see what you are writing.

Let students know that you are going to imitate Julie Brinckloe’s sentences.
Point out that imitate does not mean copy – it means to model your sentence
after the author’s and imitate the way she used conventions. Think aloud
about something that happened to you and write that thought beginning with
a capital letter and ending with a period. Then think aloud what happened
next and write that sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a
period. (Example: I woke up and went downstairs. Then I made coffee.)

Ask students to turn to the next page in their Writer’s Notebooks or the
section you have designated for practice, and think about something that
happened to them, perhaps in the morning before school. Ask them to write
that one sentence and begin it with a capital letter and end it with a period,
just like Julie Brinckloe did. Then ask students to think about what happened
next and have them use correct conventions to write their sentence.

Invite students to read their sentences to a partner. The partner listening to
the sentences will tell the writer what he/she noticed about the conventions
used.

Tell students that whenever they are writing, they need to make sure they
begin each sentence with a capital letter and end each sentence with
punctuation. Remind students that they might use a period, an exclamation
point or a question mark. You may wish to point out examples from the book
and discuss why the author used a question mark or exclamation point.

Review the standard ELACC3W5: I can plan, revise and edit my writing
with the help of peers and adults Explain that when writers edit they
reread their writing to make sure they have included conventions such as
capital letters and ending punctuation to make their writing easy to read. Tell
students that you want them to go back to their drafts and reread each
sentence to make sure they included capital letters and ending punctuation.
(You may choose to let students use a pen that is a different color than the
pen they used for revising.)
Work Time

Students will work on editing their pieces or choose another idea from their
heart maps or notebooks and begin writing a new piece.

The teacher will confer with individual students or groups of students needing
support.
Closing

Invite a few students to share their writing and point out how they revised
and edited their pieces to make them clearer for their readers.

Review the standard and tell students that now they have experienced the
first four stages of the writing process – pre-writing, drafting, revising, and
editing. Tell them the last stage is publishing. Let students know that every
piece they write this year will not be published. They will keep this draft in
their writing folder, and if they choose to publish it at a later time, they can.
(Point out the paper students can use for publishing and where it is stored.)

Revisit the Writing Workshop expectations rubric and ask students to reflect
on how they did during each component of the workshop time.
Reading Lesson 13: Reading is Thinking – Asking Questions About
Informational Texts
Notes
This lesson is an introduction to the standard ELACC3RI1: I can ask and
answer specific questions to show that I understand the information that I
am reading or have read. You will be focusing on this standard throughout the
year as you and the students read informational text.
Materials

Informational book related to the theme. Although A Tree for All Seasons by
Robin Bernard is the example used in this lesson, feel free to substitute
another book.

Chart paper (See sample chart below.)

Students will need an informational book on their independent level in their
book bags.
Opening

Yesterday we read a literary text about a tree, and we asked the questions
we had when we were reading to better understand the story. Today you will
learn that readers also ask questions to understand key details when they
are reading informational texts.

When readers read informational texts, they read differently than when they
read literary texts. They think about their purpose for reading. Read the title,
A Tree for All Seasons. Share your purpose for reading. I am going to read
this book because it relates to what we have been learning in science. I hope
to learn about how trees change in each season.

Now I am going to preview the book so I’ll have an idea about how the book
is organized. Just as explorers study the lay of the land before they travel
through it, readers study the lay of the land of our informational texts before
we begin reading them. There is a way that information is laid out in these
pages. When readers open an informational book, we study this layout to
warm up for our reading. I notice the book does not have a table of contents,
but the first page gives us an overview of what the book will be about. I
notice that the book is organized by seasons. First, we’ll learn about trees in
winter, then spring, summer, and fall. The author included images -
photographs and captions to help us better understand the text. The author
also included words in red that we will have to pay careful attention to. As
you quickly turn the pages, point out that you noticed the book is organized
into sections according to each season.

Review with students that you just showed them what readers do when they
read informational texts. Begin a chart similar to the chart below. Add “set a
purpose and preview”.

Tell students that after readers set a purpose and preview, they might ask
the question, “What is this going to teach me?” Tell students that when
readers read informational texts they don’t just roar on, tearing through the
text at the speed of a race car. We pause quickly and often to collect our
understanding and determine the key details. We ask questions such as,
“What have we learned so far? What was this part about?” We hold this
information in our mind as we move forward in the book.

Read the book, pausing to think aloud your questions and answers. Give
students a few opportunities to turn to a partner and share their questions
and answers. (Depending on the time frame, you may just read a portion of
the book.) Reading an informational piece really gets all the stuff in our
brains moving. When we finish reading, we have new questions and new
ideas. We now ask ourselves the question, “What do I know now that I didn’t
know before reading this text?” Turn to your partner and ask him/her this
question and then let him/her ask you that question. Tell each other what
you know now that you didn’t know before reading this book.

Readers also ask themselves, “What new questions do I have now?” What
questions did this text make you think of? (You may want to turn to a place
in the book and show the students a question you have as a result of
something you read or an image in the book.)
When reading informational texts readers:

Set a purpose for reading.


Preview the text.

Read and stop quickly to ask questions.
o
What have I learned so far?
o
What was this part about?
o
How do the images (illustrations) help me understand the text?
o
What do I know now that I didn’t know before reading this text?
o
What questions do I have now?
Tell students that during independent work time you want them to choose an
informational book. (Students will choose books from their book bags..)
Remind them to set a purpose for reading, preview the text, and ask
questions when they are reading. They will write one of their questions and
the answer if they have found it on a Post-it note. Remind them that they will
get to share their questions with a partner during partner time. Remind
students that they are going to work on increasing their independent reading
stamina.
Work Time

Students will read independently. The teacher will circulate and informally
confer with students, asking them to share what they did as readers when
they were reading the informational text.

Partner Share – Remind students of the partnership expectations. Tell
students that during their partner time today, you want them to share any
questions they had and any answers they found as well as the other ideas
they had when they read. When they finish, they will take turns sharing
some of the key details they found in their books.
Closing

Signal students to come back to the meeting area. Review the standard and
ask students what they learned about themselves as readers today. Invite a
few students to share their questions and answers and any evidence in the
text that supports their answers.
Writing Lesson 13: Pre-Assessment – Narrative Writing
Notes
This performance assessment will allow you to plan your next teaching moves, and
you will also have a baseline against which to compare the work students are able
to do in narrative writing across the year. In addition to using these pieces to
inform your teaching plans, you might also eventually use them to allow both your
students and their parents to reflect on growth over the year. You will also want to
notice your children’s knowledge about conventions.
Materials

Paper for students to write their stories
Opening

Remind students how much they have learned about what writers do. Tell
them that today you will give them the opportunity to spend the whole
writing period writing independently. Let them know that this will inform you
about what they can already do as writers as well as what you will teach
them next.

Today I want each of you to write a true story of one time in your life that
you remember. There are often people in our lives who are really important
to us. Write about one moment you spent with a person who really matters
to you. Tell the story of that moment.

Remind students that writers are never finished. Remind them what writers
do when they think they are done.
Work Time

Students have approximately one hour – full writing workshop time to work
on this piece.
Closing:

Signal students back to the meeting area, and ask students to bring their
pieces. Review the expectations for speaking and listening, and ask students
to share their work with a partner. Remind the listener to tell the writer at
least one positive thing he/she noticed about the writing.

Close with the question, “What did you learn about yourselves as writers
today?”

Collect the students’ papers and assess students’ application of the narrative
standard.
Reading Lesson 14: Keeping Track of Reading Using a Book Log and
Reader’s Notebook
Notes
This lesson involves introducing a Reader’s Notebook. There are many ways to
organize a Reader’s Notebook. Possibilities include a composition notebook, a
folder, or a 3 ring binder. Whatever type of notebook you choose, you will want to
make sure you include a reading log for the students to complete each day and
room for students to record their thinking. Listed below are suggestions for
organizing notebooks.


One suggestion is to use a pocket folder with brads and include:
o
In the front pocket – A book log
o
In the brads – Blank notebook paper
o
In the back pocket – empty for now (Later, fluency checks or a fluency
rubric can be kept here.)
Another suggestion is to use a composition notebook and have students glue
their reading log in the front portion.

The websites below also have suggestions for organizing a Reader’s
Notebook.
http://www.ourclassweb.com/sites_for_teachers_reading_workshop_bin
ders.htm
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2009/11/readersnotebook
Materials

Reading log (launch unit resource folder)

Reader’s Notebook for each student

Teacher’s Reader’s Notebook
Opening

Ask students to turn and talk to a partner about the things they have learned
about in Reading Workshop. Tell students that today you are going to
introduce them to something readers do to monitor and keep track of their
reading.

Throughout the year you will be reading many books. It is very important
that you do your best learning and thinking from each of the books you read.
We need a way for everyone to keep track of the books they read so that
during the year you can look at it to remind yourself of the thinking you did.
I will be giving each of you a reading log so that you can record the books
you read. You can refer to it when you want to talk about books with your
classmates. We will look at it together during our conference time. At the end
of the year, you will enjoy looking back to see the progress you have made
as a reader.

Display the enlarged or projected version of the book log you intend to use
(launch unit resource folder). Describe the procedures you expect for filling it
out (when, how often, information to record, possibly including title, author,
genre, date started…). Model filling in an entry for at least one book.

Ask students to turn and talk to a partner and tell him/her what they noticed
about how you completed your reading log entry. Remind students that
every day you would like them to record the books/pages they read on their
reading logs.

Introduce the Reader’s Notebook. Tell students the Reader’s Notebook is a
special place where they can record their thinking, place Post-it notes they
used to record their thinking, keep track of the books they read, and place
notes they take or handouts they receive from you. Show students where
they will keep their reading logs (pocket in a binder, glued in a section of a
composition book, in a section of a binder…). At a later time, you will
introduce how and when you want them to record written responses.
Work Time

Students will go to their reading spots and read independently. Students will
record the book(s) they read during independent reading time today on the
log. Before calling students back to the meeting area, remind them to fill out
their logs.

Partner Share – Remind students of the partnership expectations. Tell
students that during their partner time today, you want them to share any
questions they had and any answers they found as well as other ideas they
had when they read.
Closing

Ask students to bring their Reader’s Notebooks with the reading logs back to
the meeting area. Ask a few students to share their logs. If you have a
document camera, display the log so that everyone can see it as the student
is explaining how he/she filled it out. You may also choose to have students
share their logs with partners. Ask students what they learned about
themselves as readers today.
Writing Lesson 14: Unwrapping the Narrative Standard and Planning
Notes

This lesson introduces students to the narrative writing standard. It will be
important to introduce and teach just one part at a time since it is a standard
that encompasses many expectations.

This lesson focuses on personal narratives. You will also want to teach
students about other types of narrative writing throughout the year (fantasy,
realistic fiction…).
Materials

Chart paper for creating the chart, “What We Notice About Personal
Narratives”

Personal narrative Writing Samples – Use samples from Common Core
Appendix C (http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.pdf) or any
other well-written narrative samples. If you are using the samples from
Appendix C, you will want to show students both the second and third grade
samples.

Students’ Writer’s Notebooks

Teacher’s Writer’s Notebook
Opening

Ask students what they have learned so far as writers. Add any new ideas to
the chart you started on Day 1. Praise students for how much they have
learned and the fact that you have become a community of writers in just
three weeks!

Tell students that today they are going to be researchers and study samples
of narrative writing so they can discover what makes a well-written narrative.
You want students to be able to answer the question, “What are the elements
of quality in the product I am to create?”

Ask students what they think are the characteristics of a good story or a
well-written personal narrative. Record all responses on chart paper. Keep
the list in their language – don’t paraphrase it.

Display and read one or two examples of personal narratives. Ask students to
turn and talk to a partner about what they notice about the piece. What
makes it good writing? What are the characteristics/elements of a wellwritten narrative? Ask students to share what their partner told them and
add new ideas to the list.

In addition, revisit one of the literary texts you have read to students such as
Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe. Read a page or two to illustrate something you
want students to notice such as use of dialogue, or thoughts, feelings, and
action of the characters. Keep this list open as you are unwrapping the
narrative standard. Add to it as students see more samples and learn more
about narrative writing. When you have finished “unwrapping” the standard,
use the criteria on the list along with the language of the standard to create
a checklist for students to use during the narrative writing focus. A sample is
included below. (It will take you several days to completely unwrap the
standard. There are several parts to the standard, and you will want to focus
on one part at a time.)

Introduce the first part of the narrative standard ELACC3W3: I can write
organized stories that have lots of details. Display this part of the
standard and discuss the meaning of recount, well-elaborated, and event.

Explain to students that they will be writing narratives and they will be taking
at least one narrative through the writing process.

Tell students that writers start by thinking about their writing ideas and
planning how they will write about these ideas. This thinking step is called
Prewriting. Prewriting means, “I can think and plan.” Discuss the ways they
have already engaged in prewriting.

Model using your notebook and/or heart map to think of an event that you
want to write about. Turn to a page in your notebook and write, “Narrative
Writing Topics.” Think aloud how you choose a special place and jot down a
few events that happened in that place. Then choose a special person and jot
down a few events that happened with that person, using your heart map as
a guide.

Tell students that today they will continue to do the work of real authors by
using the writing process to prewrite. Their job is to create a list of possible
topics in their notebooks. Ask students to think of a special person or place
on their heart maps and think about an event they could write about. Ask
students to turn and talk to a partner about their ideas.
This is a sample chart. You will include what students say and lead them to notice
the characteristics of personal narratives.
What We Notice About Personal Narratives

Tell about a special experience

Written in first person (I, we,)

Take place over a short period of time

Have a beginning, middle, and end (The beginning
introduces the story and the ending concludes the
action.)

Include details to describe the characters thoughts,
feelings, and actions
Work Time

Instruct students to go to their seats and create a list of possible topics.
When they finish they can work on something they’ve started in their
notebooks or start writing something new.

Students will create a list of possible narrative topics. The teacher will confer
with individual students or call a group of students needing support with
thinking about possible topics.
Closing

Use the signal to call students back to the meeting area. Ask a few students
to bring their Writer’s Notebooks back and share their ideas. Reinforce that
students just participated in the pre-writing step of the writing process and
that tomorrow they will choose one of the topics to write about.

Revisit the Writing Workshop expectations rubric and ask students to reflect
on how they did during each component of the workshop time.
Reading Lesson 15: Completing the Performance Task
Materials

Students’ Writer’s Notebooks

Teacher’s Writer’s Notebook

Paper divided into six sections – one for each student and the teacher (or
you may prefer to have 4 square paper prepared for each student and the
teacher if you use 4 square for prewriting and organizing)
Opening

Revisit the unit essential question: How can we count on each other to build
a community of readers and writers?

Review with students all of the things they have learned over the last 15
days! Tell them that you want them to think about the rules and procedures
they have learned for each portion of the Reading Workshop. Ask students to
turn and talk to a partner about what you can count on them to do and what
they can count on each other to do during each portion of the workshop.

Tell students that you want them to write a letter to show what they have
learned. Explain the performance task to the students. You may want them
to sketch a picture first showing what they do during reading workshop and
then write a letter.

Unit Performance Task: Provide the students with this scenario: We have
learned how to follow the rules and procedures for Reading Workshop. Your
teacher is going to be gone next week. Write a letter to the substitute telling
her what she can count on the class to do during Reading Workshop.
(Students may not have remember the all letter writing conventions from
second grade. Don’t hold them accountable for this at this point.)
Work Time

Students will work on the performance task. (Instruct students to read
independently when they finish.) At the end of the time you have allotted,
ask students to get with their reading partner and take turns sharing their
letters. Collect the letters to see who has demonstrated a clear
understanding of the rules and procedures during the workshop time.
Closing

Signal students back to the meeting area and have a discussion about what
they have learned about the rules and procedures. Remind them to follow the
Speaking and Listening standards they have learned throughout the unit.
Writing Lesson 15:
Unwrapping the Narrative Standard and Planning
Materials

Students’ Writer’s Notebooks

Teacher’s Writer’s Notebook
Opening

Tell students that they did a great job of thinking about possible narrative
topics they could write about yesterday. Today they are going to begin
planning their narratives.

Revisit the first part of the narrative standard ELACC3W3: I can write
organized stories that have lots of details. Review that before writers
write, they think and plan and this is called prewriting. Today they are going
to choose a topic.

Model how you go back to your “Narrative Writing Topics” page and chose
one topic. Ask students to look at the list of ideas in their notebooks and
choose one topic.

Point out that writers often prewrite by telling the story they select to write
to someone. Revisit the Speaking and Listening standard ELACC3SL4: I can
give a report or share a story or experience with important details to
help others understand by speaking clearly and at an appropriate
speed.

Discuss the expectations for telling stories. Think aloud about how you
choose one small moment to write about as opposed to a broad topic. Orally
tell your story and ask students to make sure you followed the expectations
in the Speaking and Listening standard. Invite students to tell their stories to
their partners.

Tell students that another pre-writing strategy writers use is to sketch the
scenes of their story before they write. Display paper divided into six sections
under a document camera, or use a chart/SmartBoard to model. (You could
also have model and have students do their sketch in their Writer’s
Notebooks.) Think aloud and model how you think of the sequence of events
and quickly sketch each scene. Point out that students may use fewer than
six sections or they may need to go on the back of their paper and continue
sketching. This is also a good place to use 4 square writing if you prefer to
use this system for prewriting and organizing thoughts.

Tell students that usually writers do not spend the whole writing period
sketching. Since students already spent time rehearsing their piece by telling
it to a partner, their sketches can be really quick – just enough to help them
remember what they want to say so that they can get started on their writing
right away.
Work Time

Students will work on their sketches and begin writing their drafts when they
finish. The teacher will confer with individual students or pull a group of
students needing support.
Closing

Ask a few students to share their sketches and tell their stories. Ask students
to reflect on how well they are following the procedures for Writing
Workshop. You may wish to have students complete the Writing Workshop
expectation checklist created in Lesson 10 to review and celebrate
establishing a community of writers.
Note

You will continue unwrapping the narrative standard as you do mini-lessons
on each part of the standard. Students will take their sketches and use them
to create their narrative drafts.
The following advice for writing narratives is from Lucy Calkins from A Curricular
Plan For Writing Workshop, Grade 2.
Of course, once students have written a story they’ll proceed to write another—not
waiting for you to march them along to this in sync! As children cycle through the
process, writing more and more stories, you can continue to teach in ways that lift
the level of stories that have yet to be written, and in ways that prompt writers to
reread and reconsider stories they once thought were done. It could be, for
example, that your children write their first stories without you having had much of
a chance yet to teach them that once a writer has a story line, it helps to take some
time to develop the main character. That’s okay. You could teach this to children
when most of them are in the midst of their second story. But at some point, you
will want to let children know that writers often take time to flesh out characters
before writing the actual story. We do believe a writer can think and talk about
what the character is like and act out that character showing how she goes about
doing things. Is she shy? Timid? Frantic? Once a child has a character well in mind,
the child’s writing can be much more colorful.
Name ____________________________________
1.
What kinds of things do you like to read?
2.
What kinds of things do you not like to read?
3.
How do you choose the books you read?
4.
What do you do when you get stuck?
5.
What kind of reading is easy for you?
6.
What kind of reading is hard for you?
7.
What is your favorite book?
Name:_________________________________
Date:_______________________
My Writing Life Survey
Think about your writing life and then answer the questions below.
1. When do you like to write (at night, at school, at home, in the morning, after
special occasions, when you’re with your friends, etc.)?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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2. What do you like to write (poems, stories, lists, nonfiction topics, recipes,
letters, etc.)?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
3. Do you think writing is easy or hard? What makes it easy or hard?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_
4. Do you like to illustrate? What kinds of drawings do you enjoy?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
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