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Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing Grades 3-5
Although this unit is titled Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing, the real goal is to improve the quality of writing—and of the writers—in general. We invest another month of work in personal narrative writing (before shifting to a focus on expository writing) because we know that real progress comes not from constantly exposing children to yet another form of writing but from working long enough within one form to help children write longer, more significant, more conventional, and more graceful pieces in general.
We begin the unit by telling children they will be revisiting narrative writing and helping them understand this means they will need to draw on all they already know. This is a perfect opportunity to teach children that writers carry with them and draw on a cumulative repertoire of strategies. For example, we say, "You already have a whole repertoire of strategies for generating narrative writing," and briefly direct children's attention to the charts listing strategies they learned during the earlier unit.
When children begin to draft new personal narrative entries, we can ask them to look back at the piece they published (after revision and editing)at the end of the previous unit. Since they learned to write focused, sequential stories that included direct quotations, details, paragraphs, and end punctuation, we suggest that their new entries should demonstrate all they have already learned as writers. This unit, then, emphasizes that learning to write is cumulative, and that any new work that writers do will always stand on the shoulders of previous work. Among other things, this unit, then, can definitely teach children that each day of writing is much more than a time to practice that day's minilesson! Once the unit has gotten underway with this emphasis on writers' drawing on all they already know as they begin a new cycle of writing work, it will be important to find ways to lift the quality of students'work. Chances are good that the stories children wrote during the first unit of study were sequenced, detailed, and, sadly, a bit dull.
One important way to lift the level of writing in this unit is to help children bring forth more significance in their writing. For starters, we teach children strategies for generating narrative entries that stand a greater chance of having emotional weight and of following a story arc. Specifically, we teach children a few new strategies for generating narrative writing that, over time, have proved to evoke especially powerful, shapely stories. For example, we teach students that when a writer wants to write a powerful personal narrative, we sometimes write about the first (or last) time we did something, or about a time we learned something, or a time we felt a strong emotion—hope, worry, sadness. The resulting stories are often significant and shapely.
A second way to lift the level of student writing is to rally children to look really closely at the ways in which writers create texts that matter. We encourage children to read texts like those they will write, to let those texts affect them, and then to pause and ask, "What has this writer done that has affected me?" That is, this unit places a new importance of reading-writing connections.
Since we are guiding students to notice aspects of published texts that we believe will be especially important to them, this unit relies on assessment. Are children already writing focused, detailed, chronological pieces? If not, we'll want to teach the easiest way to focus personal narratives, which is to limit the time span of the story. Sometimes teachers refer to focused narratives as "small moment stories," although the technical word that writers use for this is scenes (as in scenes of a play, not scenery).
But once children grasp what it means to write effectively about a brief episode, we can show them that narratives need not stay within the confines of a half-hour episode! Narratives actually comprise several scenes glued together with bits of exposition (or narration) between them. For children who are ready to learn this, then, we can point out that in any short story, writers often put a few scenes (or small moments) one after another. This is what many people mean when they say that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. For example, the child who has written a Small Moment vignette about getting a bike for her birthday will construct a better story if she sets up the incident by first telling about an earlier time when she begged for the bike. Similarly, the child who writes about defending the goal in a soccer game will construct a more effective story if he first backs up to re-create the moment when he put on his goalie pads and worried they might not be thick enough.
Whether children are writing one episode or linking several together, we will definitely teach them that writers focus their pieces not only by narrowing the time-frame in which they write but al...
We begin the unit by telling children they will be revisiting narrative writing and helping them understand this means they will need to draw on all they already know. This is a perfect opportunity to teach children that writers carry with them and draw on a cumulative repertoire of strategies. For example, we say, "You already have a whole repertoire of strategies for generating narrative writing," and briefly direct children's attention to the charts listing strategies they learned during the earlier unit.
When children begin to draft new personal narrative entries, we can ask them to look back at the piece they published (after revision and editing)at the end of the previous unit. Since they learned to write focused, sequential stories that included direct quotations, details, paragraphs, and end punctuation, we suggest that their new entries should demonstrate all they have already learned as writers. This unit, then, emphasizes that learning to write is cumulative, and that any new work that writers do will always stand on the shoulders of previous work. Among other things, this unit, then, can definitely teach children that each day of writing is much more than a time to practice that day's minilesson! Once the unit has gotten underway with this emphasis on writers' drawing on all they already know as they begin a new cycle of writing work, it will be important to find ways to lift the quality of students'work. Chances are good that the stories children wrote during the first unit of study were sequenced, detailed, and, sadly, a bit dull.
One important way to lift the level of writing in this unit is to help children bring forth more significance in their writing. For starters, we teach children strategies for generating narrative entries that stand a greater chance of having emotional weight and of following a story arc. Specifically, we teach children a few new strategies for generating narrative writing that, over time, have proved to evoke especially powerful, shapely stories. For example, we teach students that when a writer wants to write a powerful personal narrative, we sometimes write about the first (or last) time we did something, or about a time we learned something, or a time we felt a strong emotion—hope, worry, sadness. The resulting stories are often significant and shapely.
A second way to lift the level of student writing is to rally children to look really closely at the ways in which writers create texts that matter. We encourage children to read texts like those they will write, to let those texts affect them, and then to pause and ask, "What has this writer done that has affected me?" That is, this unit places a new importance of reading-writing connections.
Since we are guiding students to notice aspects of published texts that we believe will be especially important to them, this unit relies on assessment. Are children already writing focused, detailed, chronological pieces? If not, we'll want to teach the easiest way to focus personal narratives, which is to limit the time span of the story. Sometimes teachers refer to focused narratives as "small moment stories," although the technical word that writers use for this is scenes (as in scenes of a play, not scenery).
But once children grasp what it means to write effectively about a brief episode, we can show them that narratives need not stay within the confines of a half-hour episode! Narratives actually comprise several scenes glued together with bits of exposition (or narration) between them. For children who are ready to learn this, then, we can point out that in any short story, writers often put a few scenes (or small moments) one after another. This is what many people mean when they say that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. For example, the child who has written a Small Moment vignette about getting a bike for her birthday will construct a better story if she sets up the incident by first telling about an earlier time when she begged for the bike. Similarly, the child who writes about defending the goal in a soccer game will construct a more effective story if he first backs up to re-create the moment when he put on his goalie pads and worried they might not be thick enough.
Whether children are writing one episode or linking several together, we will definitely teach them that writers focus their pieces not only by narrowing the time-frame in which they write but al...
160 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 16, 2010
Before I address the content of this book, let me make something absolutely clear. I have strong opinions on the matter of teaching writing. It's a crazy notion but I'm going to throw it out there anyway:
I BELIEVE OUR KIDS CAN WRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our kids have stories! They have really freakin good stories! Interesting stories! Hilarious stories! Heart breaking stories!
If we could just keep our mouths shut for a minute, set aside the graphic organizers and let them talk, I think we would be amazed.
The most discouraging thing is that kids in low-income schools are most likely to not have their voices be heard and sometimes they are the ones with the most interesting stories. We are so busy assuming they are incapable of creative/articulate thought that we are boring them to death with formulaic palettes and meaningless assignments.
If I see one more essay about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I'm going to shove an entire jar of peanut butter up someones ass!
Because honest to God! Why do I want to read 28 papers on how to make a sandwich when I could be reading about
-their experience as a child in between 2 cultures.
-their relationship with the aunt that adopted them.
-their dog that died or their sibling that was just born.
TELL ME ABOUT HOW YOU CELEBRATE 3 KINGS DAY DON'T TELL ME HOW TO SPREAD JELLY BECAUSE I ALREADY KNOW THAT!!!
Where I work we have kids that have moved here from other countries, they bring their traditions and their customs. We have a ton of kids that are in foster care, they sit in their seats everyday full of questions/insecurities/fears. We have kids with parents dying of cancer, parents in jail, parents on drugs they keep shit to themselves that I hope I never see! We have kids from large families, kids that watched their siblings being born. ETC ETC ETC
And what are we asking them to write about?
How to make a sandwich, what you did over the weekend, "Lifeskills".
ugh!!!!
Then we have a school wide crisis because the kids don't want to revise their writing. They don't want to go back to it. Well who the hell can blame them? They didn't care about it in the first place and we want them to revisit it? I don't like to revisit the in-law I didn't want to see in the first place why should they want to revisit their lame papers?!
Anywho....LUCY Calkins! Love her. Love her name. Love her ideas. Love her passionate belief in every kid having intrinsic value and abilities.
Let me get out of the way early on what's wrong with these books on writing. The lay out is waaaaay too narrative for them to become utilized or adopted as widely as they should be.Which is a shame because I they are a GREAT RESOURCE.
And here is why!
Because the basic premise is that kids have stories, that they think and they can express themselves in compelling ways. ed,
I BELIEVE OUR KIDS CAN WRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our kids have stories! They have really freakin good stories! Interesting stories! Hilarious stories! Heart breaking stories!
If we could just keep our mouths shut for a minute, set aside the graphic organizers and let them talk, I think we would be amazed.
The most discouraging thing is that kids in low-income schools are most likely to not have their voices be heard and sometimes they are the ones with the most interesting stories. We are so busy assuming they are incapable of creative/articulate thought that we are boring them to death with formulaic palettes and meaningless assignments.
If I see one more essay about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I'm going to shove an entire jar of peanut butter up someones ass!
Because honest to God! Why do I want to read 28 papers on how to make a sandwich when I could be reading about
-their experience as a child in between 2 cultures.
-their relationship with the aunt that adopted them.
-their dog that died or their sibling that was just born.
TELL ME ABOUT HOW YOU CELEBRATE 3 KINGS DAY DON'T TELL ME HOW TO SPREAD JELLY BECAUSE I ALREADY KNOW THAT!!!
Where I work we have kids that have moved here from other countries, they bring their traditions and their customs. We have a ton of kids that are in foster care, they sit in their seats everyday full of questions/insecurities/fears. We have kids with parents dying of cancer, parents in jail, parents on drugs they keep shit to themselves that I hope I never see! We have kids from large families, kids that watched their siblings being born. ETC ETC ETC
And what are we asking them to write about?
How to make a sandwich, what you did over the weekend, "Lifeskills".
ugh!!!!
Then we have a school wide crisis because the kids don't want to revise their writing. They don't want to go back to it. Well who the hell can blame them? They didn't care about it in the first place and we want them to revisit it? I don't like to revisit the in-law I didn't want to see in the first place why should they want to revisit their lame papers?!
Anywho....LUCY Calkins! Love her. Love her name. Love her ideas. Love her passionate belief in every kid having intrinsic value and abilities.
Let me get out of the way early on what's wrong with these books on writing. The lay out is waaaaay too narrative for them to become utilized or adopted as widely as they should be.Which is a shame because I they are a GREAT RESOURCE.
And here is why!
Because the basic premise is that kids have stories, that they think and they can express themselves in compelling ways. ed,
June 2, 2012
I grew because of this book. I'm always looking for ideas on teaching writing. This is full of them. In the end, however, what I learned was that I have a different approach to teaching than writer's workshop.
Lucy Calkins is the writing guru. She has set the pace for writing instruction in elementary and middle schools. The writer's workshop method is being adopted all around. There's lot of research that supports it works. Of course, there's plenty of research that demonstrates a lot of failed educational policy worked. It's the nature of the beast; education is a social science, not a hard science.
Nevertheless, the workshop model is presented here. This is the introductory book to the series. This is pretty much the overview of what the rest of the books are. I will say, it's a rather in-depth overview. After reading this, the reader clearly understands what is ahead of him. While I will probably get around to the rest of those books, I am not heading directly to them.
Adoption of the workshop model in fourth grade I think is not the correct approach. My experience shows that students need far more concrete and formulamatic writing at that age. There is plenty of time later to develop the flair. Without having that foundation, too many students are lost. Yeah, I'm old-school.
Nevertheless, Calkins is enthusiastic and certainly well-versed in this topic. She should not be dismissed. There are takeaways here, even for me. I like mini-lessons. I like the shared time. Frankly, a lot of the workshop model is what we do; it's just that I like a frame for students to work within, not an open-ended self-selected model that flows through a confluent learner's eyes while abandoning those who do not know how to begin. I tend to teach far more of the latter.
If you are investigating writer's workshop, this is where one should begin.
One last note, I was not a fan of the layout of the book. It's a long book horizontally. Therefore, each page has two columns of text. It would have been far easier on the eyes if the physical page were cut in half and the number of pages doubled. I do not think the text flowed well at all with this formatting.
Lucy Calkins is the writing guru. She has set the pace for writing instruction in elementary and middle schools. The writer's workshop method is being adopted all around. There's lot of research that supports it works. Of course, there's plenty of research that demonstrates a lot of failed educational policy worked. It's the nature of the beast; education is a social science, not a hard science.
Nevertheless, the workshop model is presented here. This is the introductory book to the series. This is pretty much the overview of what the rest of the books are. I will say, it's a rather in-depth overview. After reading this, the reader clearly understands what is ahead of him. While I will probably get around to the rest of those books, I am not heading directly to them.
Adoption of the workshop model in fourth grade I think is not the correct approach. My experience shows that students need far more concrete and formulamatic writing at that age. There is plenty of time later to develop the flair. Without having that foundation, too many students are lost. Yeah, I'm old-school.
Nevertheless, Calkins is enthusiastic and certainly well-versed in this topic. She should not be dismissed. There are takeaways here, even for me. I like mini-lessons. I like the shared time. Frankly, a lot of the workshop model is what we do; it's just that I like a frame for students to work within, not an open-ended self-selected model that flows through a confluent learner's eyes while abandoning those who do not know how to begin. I tend to teach far more of the latter.
If you are investigating writer's workshop, this is where one should begin.
One last note, I was not a fan of the layout of the book. It's a long book horizontally. Therefore, each page has two columns of text. It would have been far easier on the eyes if the physical page were cut in half and the number of pages doubled. I do not think the text flowed well at all with this formatting.
August 6, 2014
There are three sets of Lucy Calkins writing books that I have. One is copyrighted 2003, another 2006, and the third 2013. The 2006 set seems to be MIA. This book is from that series.
When the district re-wrote the ELA curriculum last year, it used Calkins' 2013 set of books, which I am working through. Interestingly, and without an apparent reason that I can conclude, it wedged this book between two of the units. The 2013 series has a section on personal narratives. The 2006 book is not particularly strong, imo, to warrant disrupting the flow that one uses with the 2013 series.
And that is the heart of this review for me. I now have a decade's worth of Calkins' writing at my disposal. She has a certain style or writing that does not particularly appeal to me as a resource. It reads fine, but it doesn't provide the organization a teacher needs to use it as a daily resource; rather it provides the background from which to draw from. That's fine in some respects, but four months from now when I need to write plans and refresh what I will be doing in this unit, I will need to re-read large portions to re-familiarize myself.
Toward the end of this unit, Calkins introduces the story arc. Interestingly, the 2013 series of which students will have already worked in begins with the story arc. It is neat to see how Calkins has developed her own path to writing curriculum.
Overall, this serves as a starting point. I do not find it as valuable as her later writing, but I have benefited from reading (over and over) her approach. That is helping me formulate changes to how I will implement writing in my classroom.
When the district re-wrote the ELA curriculum last year, it used Calkins' 2013 set of books, which I am working through. Interestingly, and without an apparent reason that I can conclude, it wedged this book between two of the units. The 2013 series has a section on personal narratives. The 2006 book is not particularly strong, imo, to warrant disrupting the flow that one uses with the 2013 series.
And that is the heart of this review for me. I now have a decade's worth of Calkins' writing at my disposal. She has a certain style or writing that does not particularly appeal to me as a resource. It reads fine, but it doesn't provide the organization a teacher needs to use it as a daily resource; rather it provides the background from which to draw from. That's fine in some respects, but four months from now when I need to write plans and refresh what I will be doing in this unit, I will need to re-read large portions to re-familiarize myself.
Toward the end of this unit, Calkins introduces the story arc. Interestingly, the 2013 series of which students will have already worked in begins with the story arc. It is neat to see how Calkins has developed her own path to writing curriculum.
Overall, this serves as a starting point. I do not find it as valuable as her later writing, but I have benefited from reading (over and over) her approach. That is helping me formulate changes to how I will implement writing in my classroom.
August 15, 2009
Brilliant! A detailed-yet-concise overview of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study framework for teaching writing in a workshop format. I enjoyed reading this and am looking forward to implementing it in my classroom this fall. This book in particular really breaks down what workshop looks like, how it works, and what you do/don't do as the teacher. It seems to me that this "Guide" is much more useful and a good reference to go back to since it's so much more "big picture" than the six specific units of study that follow it. I feel like I'll be checking back in with this book periodically to see what I am doing well and figure out why certain things aren't working.
October 14, 2011
This is the third year I have used this series of books, but the first year I have sat down and really read every word. My goal this year is to actually read these books cover to cover instead of just skimming. I guess my biggest complaint is that these books are so dense that they are not user friendly for a lot of people, especially new teachers overwhelmed with so many things to do. On the other hand, they contain wonderful nuggets of information, just not particularly well organized.
January 6, 2014
Great inspiration, very hard to use day to day.
September 16, 2009
I love this writing series. And I LOVE this book. It's my first time teaching it but I really believe that this is one of the best ways to teach writing. I love that Lucy actually outlines/scripts all of the lessons because if you don't get a particular lesson she'll walk you through it. Most of the time I skip over her wordy descriptions of the lesson and sort of adapt it best for me (and my personality as a teacher and writer and what I think will work best for my kids) but I can already see there being times when I totally stick to her script. Overall, fantastic! I am happy to be using it.
August 7, 2015
This was a great introduction to what writing workshop looks like and sounds like. If you want a thorough introduction to the structure of writing workshop, and are interested in the rationale behind the structures used, this is the book for you. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is new to the workshop model, needs a refresher on it, or wants to improve their teaching. Instructional coaches, principals, supervisors, reading specialists and especially teachers will all benefit from reading this excellent introductory book.
November 19, 2011
This is the second in the Units of Study grade 3-5. My goal is to actually read these cover to cover this year. I have the same comment as the first book. there is a lot of great stuff in here, but you have to read through a lot of Lucy Calkin's personal story to get there. Not the most practical teacher's guide.
February 8, 2008
The BEST thing that has happened to my students and my teaching. Writer's Workshop is ingenius, and Calkins' sequencing of lessons is unbeatable. It is easy to adapt for grades 3-8. I recommend ALL language arts teachers use these units of study in their teaching.
September 19, 2013
I used this book to set up the Writer's Workshop in my residency classroom. She gives you steps to follow as well as the rationale behind the steps. I love the process and step-by-step way to frame writer's workshop and generate personal narratives.
October 5, 2009
I'm using this now and I love it.
July 26, 2010
Always a great seriers for writing teachers... check it!
October 30, 2012
Excellent resource.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews