Writing for Understanding Instruction
Teacher Plan
Teacher: Patsy Belknap Class:4th grade Date: mid-year Writing genre: Response to Literature
Topic / Subject / Text

CENTRAL IDEAS
Content: Most stories and informational texts have a theme, message, or a big idea that can be inferred from the text. Authors write with an idea in mind that they want readers to think about or learn from their books (author's message). The message that the author wants to give drives the writing, giving the reader a deeper understanding.
Reading: Good readers make inferences as they read about story elements such as character and the underlying message that the author is trying to convey.
Writing: Every piece of writing has a focus and writers support their focus with evidence from the text. Students will write a response to text based on the idea of an author's message. Students will use the idea of an author's message to help with their planning for a narrative piece.

Focusing Question:
What message do you think the author wants the reader to understand at the end of the book?
(Book titles may vary depending on their quality and availability.)

Focus (answer to focusing question):
The author's message may be different for different texts.
Example: in Wilma Unlimited the author wants readers to understand that you have to have perseverance in order to achieve success.
(Scaffolded pieces along the way will have a chosen author's message and students will have input into deciding what the author's message is and how to word it.)

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft:
- Vocabulary development of author's messages (may be specific to the text)
- using picture books, introduce whole class to the idea of elements of a story (build/review knowledge of elements from previous grades)
- knowledge about the elements of a narrative specifically knowledge about author's themes and how they work
- guided reading instruction from read aloud to whole class reading to small group reading
- making independent book choices (teacher-directed)
- oral rehearsal of theme/focus/supporting evidence (pair-share, class discussion, guided conversations)
- introduce assessment tools and benchmark pieces (I will begin collecting these)
- understanding and use of a reading response journal and/or writer's notebook (this will be an ongoing process begun the first week of school)
- dramatizing short plays/Reader's Theater that teach a message (oral rehearsal)
- two-column note format

Structures:
How will students know how to organize their ideas
and construct the piece of writing?

- graphic organizers for elements of a narrative both whole class and individual ones
- whole class charts of several elements with information filled in from several picture book texts that the whole class will share earlier in the year
- Frayer model for perseverance using Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull as an anchor text
- model think-aloud and two-column note-taking using the book Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull (public notes)
- review Painted Essay structure (modeled and created by students earlier in the school year) and use it to color a teacher model of the response to text based on an author's message (I will create this for Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco)
- remind students of the “hamburger model” of paragraph construction for a response to literature
- model a teacher-and-class written response using Wilma Unlimited

Writing / Revising:
How will students draft / revise so that their final writing is clearly focused,
organized, and developed to show understanding of the central ideas?

- Group plan using two-column chart to gather evidence from the text
- Group write on Wilma Unlimited using graphic organizers to plan writing
- write in response journals after discussion
- share/revise in partners
- focus on writing a conclusion using the idea of author's message
- revise/share full group
- orally plan their idea for a written response on small group guided reading book
- write response on author's message about their group book
- share/revise these paragraph writes in their small group
- write in chunks by paragraph, check with peer and give to teacher to review and note before going on
- independent final draft of author's theme writing based on these models and already written paragraphs
- share/revise in writing partners and with teacher
- edit for GUM/proofread

Lesson Sequence:
What steps will I follow so that students are able to effectively
show their understanding in writing?

1) Make a whole class chart of the elements of a narrative [character, setting, motivation, problem(or conflict/challenge), solution/resolution and big idea (lesson/author's message)]. This will be done earlier in the year before writing their first narrative based on a series of Cinderella stories.
2) Refer to this chart as you begin a discussion of the big idea or author's message and come up with a message for at least two picture book previously shared with the whole class. (Some suggestions: Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen or Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting)
3) Discuss vocabulary specific to the idea of an author's message or theme (may want to use a Frayer model on the word theme: it may be stated or implied/inferred, there may be more than one message in a story, usually it relates to a truth or comment about human nature or society, may have a moral or an inspirational lesson) or at least the synonyms of theme: moral, message, lesson or big idea should be reviewed with students.
4) Using Reader's Theater from text, read-aloud/act out short plays that teach a message in small groups (a couple class sessions – students are familiar with Reader's Theater from some buddy work done at the beginning of the year).
5) Read Aloud the book Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krall asking the students to think about the author's message. Pair-share thoughts about the author's message.
6) Write the message as a whole class: Wilma had to have perseverance to overcome many obstacles and be successful. Make a Frayer model for the word perseverance.
7) Take apart the book (copy pages) and have students write captions that tell what the author and illustrator want you to see/notice/think about/learn from each page.
8) Make a two-column chart showing evidence from the text and what it means: example/page from text (problems) in first column and what were the consequences for Wilma in the second column (inferences based on those problems).
9) Together come up with a focus statement related to the author's message such as: Wilma had many obstacles in her life that she had to overcome in order to be successful.
10) Write introductory paragraph together, write paragraph into either writer's notebook or response journal and share it with a partner.
11) Review Painted Essay format for response to literature done earlier in the year by each student. Color code the teacher model of a response to Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco.
12) Continue with the rest of the response to text, one paragraph at a time until this model is completed.
13) In small guided reading groups, students will share a different text that has a strong message. They will read, discuss, and write about the author's message as they share books together using the same process and structures as they used with Wilma Unlimited (I am not sure which books I will choose here and it may change from year to year. I will review specific vocabulary and content knowledge so they will have a clear understanding of their text as each group works together. Some possible texts: Big Al by Andrew Clements, Monty by James Stevenson, The Mountain That Loved a Bird by Eric Carle, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, The Trees of the Dancing Goats , Mr. Lincoln's Way, and Thunder Cake all by Patricia Polacco – I may end up doing an author study of Patricia Polacco's books.)
14) Students will write a response to their guided reading book with all the structures given above and discussion with their reading group as well as whole class discussions before they work on their own response. 15) Finishing their responses by publishing with a cover and sharing with parents and perhaps a buddy classroom within the school.

Assessment:

How are students doing? What are my next steps as a teacher?

- On-going formative assessments by listening to student discussion, reviewing graphic organizers and other short response writing in their journals.
- Self-assessment using response to literature class rubric (will create as a class)
- Rubric that assesses response to literature (may use state rubric for now)
Next steps:
- use the idea of an author's message to help students frame their next narrative writing piece which will be written like a native American legend (add it to the structures needed in planning their narrative)
- try to incorporate these ideas into the Avi author study the 4th graders will be doing – they can write about his message in their reading response journals as part of that unit

Next Steps: Gradual Release of Responsibility:
In 4th grade, they will not be writing another response to literature but hopefully they will use these structures to help them write more independently as they move up the grades. They will use the same structures like the Painted Essay to plan other writing that they will complete in fourth grade. Each time they should be ready to write with a little less scaffolding and intentional structures or framing if they have achieved some level of transfer.

Response to Literature - Test Drive - Whole-class model:

Wilma Rudolph was once the world's fastest woman runner, winning Olympic gold medals for the United States. No one would have expected that to happen when she was a little girl! The book Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull tells her story from when she was born to the amazing achievements she had later in her life. Without perseverance, Wilma would not have been able to overcome the obstacles that she faced in her life.

When Wilma was born, she was a sickly child and no one expected her to live to her first birthday. If someone in her family had a cold, Wilma got “double-pneumonia.” When she was young, she had polio and her left leg twisted inward so doctors said she would never walk again. Because she couldn't walk, she also could not attend school. Wilma had all of these obstacles that she needed to overcome before she could be an athlete: her sickness, not being able to walk, and not being able to attend school.

Wilma worked really hard to overcome these obstacles. She pushed herself to use her leg even when it was really painful. She kept practicing and exercising with her family so she was given a brace and could go to school. One day she decided she wasn't going to use the brace any more and she forced herself to walk without it. Because she worked so hard, she became good at basketball and a fast runner. She was given a scholarship and became the first person in her family to attend college. Due to her perseverance, Wilma overcame all the obstacles that were holding her back.

Wilma Rudolph worked so hard that she was able to overlook obstacles like the heat and a twisted ankle on the day that she won an Olympic gold medal. Kathleen Krull wants readers of Wilma Unlimited to understand that hard work and perseverance will help you overcome many obstacles and you can be successful. Wilma's story is an inspiration for people everywhere.