Introduction
Micro-Mentor Texts author Penny Kittle claims, “when you give [students] many opportunities to create, not just comply, the act of writing simmers with possibility.”1 This curriculum unit is designed to create opportunities for my students to express themselves as writers. At Talley Middle School in Wilmington, Delaware, I am the 7th grade English Language Arts teacher. My students come from a variety of backgrounds and are performing at various proficiency levels. Despite the varying levels of proficiency within my classes, the text complexity and writing tasks do not change based on where students are performing. To help all students experience success, I work closely with the special education teachers in my building, provide small group instruction, and structure lessons so that additional background knowledge or graphic organizers are provided as needed. Regardless of a student’s proficiency level, the standards for all students remain high. While most of my students experience growth each year, there remain significant gaps in my students’ proficiency levels, especially in writing, which is one of my main reasons for implementing this unit.
This unit is designed to teach my students to think like writers and get into the practice of noticing the way that sentences are constructed in examples of effective writing. At the end of this unit, students will understand (1) that an author’s craft as a writer can be strengthened through reading a variety of texts, (2) that sound devices can be used to create meaning, (3) that it is important to select strong, active verbs, (4) how to establish a narrator’s voice, and (5) that frequent writing and revision strengthens a writers’ craft.
Comments: