Rationale
I currently teach ELA at the third-grade level in the Pittsburgh Public School District. There are several PreK-5 buildings within my district and mine is a magnet school that focuses on Arts and Humanities. I am responsible for four subject areas, including Reading, Spelling, English & Grammar, and Handwriting (which many individuals are trying to remove as a graded subject-me not included). As you can see, there is no “Writing” class. It is embedded in English and Grammar. During the eight 45-minute class periods in our school day, there is a mandatory, daily 90-minute block set specifically for Reading. The other subjects are to be inserted during the remaining periods. Being that we are departmentalized, I am left to squeeze in Spelling, English & Grammar and make space for productive and informative Writing time. Even though we are a magnet school and have a specific focus, we are bound to district and state assessments which require extensive preparation. Unfortunately, this monitoring and preparation detracts from the subjects that I and my students love. It is my goal to use this unit to expand upon the subject of Writing, and turn it into a time that can be meaningful, productive and innovative for my students. The unit will transform the children’s thinking and help to create a spark that will lead to knowledgeable, informed writing that each of them will beg to publish and share as a celebration of their journey into the intermediate levels of education.
The unit will begin with the aim of getting students to effectively transform their writing through a series of exercises and interactions to help them grow, think and construct habits that will become an innate part of their skillset for the remainder of their schooling. This process functions using the inquiry-based approach in which the students drive the learning. Through discussion, small group work, mentor texts such as The Relatives Came, by Cynthia Rylant and Smoky Night, by Eve Bunting, students will gradually improve on their writing. They will focus on multiple “stages” (as a caterpillar does during their transition) during this process, discussing how they can improve as well as become more innovative and expressive writers. In the end, having completed an intense and closely monitored writing process, students will emerge as butterflies who have completed their famous transition. Their writing will be filled with colorful language and lilting expression. They will continue on as pollinators of skill and strategy that will follow them as they grow and share their work.
As stated earlier, standardized assessments have drained classrooms of fun, meaningful and informative learning opportunities in many subjects. In recent years within my school district, the only writing that the students have been required to complete for a portfolio are basic writing pieces such as narratives, summaries, responses and TDAs (text-dependent analyses). They spend a very small amount of time focusing on expressive, in-depth writing that is personal and creative. There is even less time to actually share it, publish it and celebrate it. The goal of this unit is to truly put Writing in the forefront and make it something that is very different, yet useful and lasting for students.
Some people may view Writing as an art form and skill, such as music. In my experience with music as a young child up to the present, it is common for the musician to perform at higher levels of skill and artistic form when they enjoy the piece being studied. Keeping this in mind, students’ experiences during this transformative writing process are expected to promote a deep-rooted love of writing that surprises even the most reluctant student. With collaborative work, mentor texts, teacher modeling and sharing out, the hope is to completely change the direction of the students’ skillset and overall love of the subject.
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