Unit Plan

Subject: Writing Session: 5th grade

Objective: Lesson/Activity: Assignment:

Students will
work Turn in their
Day 1

independently
progress
on their - Progress Monitoring
progress monitoring
monitoring piece
prompt.
Objective: Lesson/Activity: Assignment:
- Introduce the text, “Ralph Tells A Story”.
- Read the story to the students.
- After reading, discuss how Ralph felt during
the story.
- Explain that a lot of writers will face writers
Students will
block. It is important to look at the little
listen to a
mentor text
events when writing too. Participation in
Day 2

- Introduce the term “Personal Narrative”.

and develop discussing
- Have students tell you what they know
an anchor
about that type of writing.
personal
chart on narrative
- Keep discussing what personal narrative is.
personal
- Create an anchor chart to hang up each day. writing.
narrative
- Include the following features (focus on a
writing.
small moment in your life, including the
beginning, middle, and end (in order!), describe
the people, places, and things using your 5
senses, tell about your feelings, include
dialogue)
Objective: Lesson/Activity: Assignment:
- Pull up Indy’s Life Story. Read the story to
the students. Explain this is an example of a
Students will
personal narrative.
read an
- Look through the prompt and pick out the
Day 3

example
elements discussed yesterday.
narrative and Brainstorming
- Pull up the brainstorming video. Play for
begin
students. page
brainstorming
- Explain to students they will now be
their own
brainstorming on their own.
topics.
- Hand each student a brainstorming paper
and have them write 3 potential ideas.
 - Walk the students through how to pick and
choose which one is the best option.
- Have students finalize their choice.
Objective: Lesson/Activity: Assignment:
- Have students pull out their topic choices. Go
around the room and have students share
what their topics are.
- Play episode 2: planning and pre-writing for
Students will
the students
create a
- Give students a graphic organizer. Give each
graphic
Day 4

one a copy of the one from the video as

organizer to Narrative
well to refer to.
organize the
- Have students complete their graphic
graphic
events they organizer
organizer too
will write
- Monitor as they work to support their
about in their
understanding of the prewriting stage. Have
narratives.
them write a complete sentence for each
picture so when they write their
paragraphs, it is easier to identify the main
event.
Objective: Lesson/Activity: Assignment:
- Have students pull out their graphic
organizer and familiarize themselves with
their stories.
- Play episode 3: writing an introduction or
Students will
opening.
create their
- Give students a bookmark for each type of
introduction
Day 5

opening. Have students look at their

for their Introduction
bookmark and create an example for their
personal
topics for 2 of them. Have them pick what
paragraph for
narrative their narrative
they want to use and then write the
writing piece
remainder of their introduction.
after viewing
- Students will use a speech to text device to
a video.
write their introduction.
- Make sure to stress using emotion and
introducing the topic they are about to
write about.
Objective: Lesson/Activity Assignment
 - Have students pull out descriptive writing
packets.
- Play episode 4: writing a draft
- Have students open their packets to the
first draft page.
Students will - Read through the bullet points that were
Day 6 and 7

write the mentioned in the video

first draft - Review transition words briefly with the
of their students. First draft of
descriptive - Have students get out their iPads and begin their narrative
writing piece writing their first drafts (1 paragraph for
after viewing each illustrated box).
a video. - Monitor and help as needed
- If students are done, have them re-read and
then check off boxes for EACH paragraph.
The checklist is in the packet.
- Remind students that this is a first draft, so
no need to worry about spelling.
Objective Lesson/Activity Assignment
- Have students pull out their first draft and
re-read it to familiarize themselves with
their story.
- Play episode 5: Writing a conclusion
- Have students go back to their writing
packets and open up to the conclusion page.
Students will - Review the different types of conclusions
write the you can write.
Day 8

conclusion - Have students think for 2 minutes about Conclusion

paragraph their story and which technique would work. paragraph for
for their Have them share with a partner for 2 their narrative
descriptive minutes.
writing piece. - Discuss as a group and talk about why their
technique works (or doesn’t work) for their
story.
- Have students use the iPads again to write
their conclusion paragraph.
- Once finished, have students print for
tomorrow.

Objective Lesson/Activity Assignment

 - Hand first drafts to each student. Have
them read it over again.
- Play episode 6: Revising
- Have students open their work packets to
the revising page.
Day 9

Students will - Review what type of mistakes they are

Revision of
revise their looking for during the revising stage (sound
first drafts. better or look better?) first draft
- Have students cut their first drafts into
separate paragraphs.
- One at a time, have students revise each
paragraph.
- Monitor and help as needed.

Objective Lesson/Activity Assignment

- Have students pull out their revised
paragraphs again.
- Play episode 7: Editing
- Have students open their work packets to
Day 10

the editing page.

Students will - Review the goal for editing (sound better or
Edit of first
edit their look better?)
first drafts. - Discuss specific things to look for (spelling, draft
punctuation, and capitalization).
- Have students go through with a dictionary
and spell check for spelling in each paragraph.
Then punctuation. Then capitalization.
- Monitor and help as needed

Objective Lesson/Activity Assignment

- Have students pull out their revised and
edited first drafts.
- Ask students what should we do next?
Would we turn it in like this?
- Play episode 8: Publishing
Students will Final draft of
- Have students open their packets to the
Day 11

write and
share their
last page and look at the sample essay. narrative
- Discuss that we need it to look neat. essay.
final drafts.
- Allow students time on the iPads to type
their final copies.
- Print when done.
- Share after everyone has completed it.
- Collect for grading.

Link for all videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTCzXKdxBpDDTpvoywXGuipjJTxBcFJsN
 Personal
Narrative
Writing
Journal

Name: __________________
 Brainstorm Example
Kickball at My birthday Got a new toy
recess party at the store

Visited my Got a new dog Watched

grandparents fireworks
 Brainstorm

_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________

 Pre-writing Example
First Then Next Last

My mom told We went to

We went to We chose our
me I could get get toys and
the store. new dog.
a dog. food.
 Pre-writing
First Then Next Last

_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

 Introduction
What is it? Why do we need it?

- First few sentences

- Opening or lead
- Hook the reader

How can we do it?

- Sound
Ex: BOOM! I heard a loud crash in my house!

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
- Talking (Dialogue)
Ex: “Go away!”, I told my brother.

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
- Question
Ex: Have you ever been to a water park?

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
- Setting
Ex: One dark, storm night last weekend, I was
home alone.

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
 First Draft
What is it?

- The first version of your story

- The most important events

Parts of your draft:

- Most important parts of your story
- Transition Words
- Tell order
- Connect ideas
- EX: first, next, then, after, last, finally
- Details
- Descriptive words and sentences

Make sure to check off you have all of

these in EACH paragraph.
What I need Do I have it?

Most important events in order

Transition words

Details
 Conclusion
What is it? Why do we need it?

- End or conclusion
- Wrap up the story
- Remind the reader of your main idea

How can we do it?

- Rephrase your opening

- Remind the reader of your main idea
- Make sure to say it in a NEW way

- Feelings
- EX: I love my toy so much! I can’t wait to
play with it even more!

- Lesson Learned
- EX: Next time it snows, I will definitely be
on the lookout for slippery ice!

- Hope
- EX: I hope I can do back to the pool again
before the weather gets too cold.

- Update
- EX: Now my baby sister is 2 years old. She
gets cuter and cuter every day!
 Revising
What is it? Why do we need it?

- Step to make sure our writing makes

sense
- We make our writing sound better

How can we do it?

- Add words (adjectives, adverbs, and details)

- Ex: First, my sweet mom came to my
room to talk to me. She told me since I had
gotten good grades at school, I could get
a dog! I was so excited, I jumped super high
up in the air. “You’re the best!” I screamed.
- Remove words that don’t make sense or
aren’t important
- Ex: Then we got in the car to drive to the
store in the car, I couldn’t wait! When we
pulled up, I saw that the store had a lot of
dogs that needed to be adopted. The
store was green.
- Change words that don’t make sense or
could be more interesting
- Ex: When we got to the store, I looked
gazed at all of the dogs. They were all so
cute! All of a sudden, one come came up
and licked my foot! He was white and
fluffy and so adorable.
 Editing

What is it? Why do we need it?

- Step to make sure our stories look better

- We need to fix our mistakes so people can
read and understand our stories.

How can we do it?

- Spelling
- Sight words (me, to, see)
- Word parts (check spelling patterns and
vowel teams)
- Stretch sounds (sound out words and
stretch the sounds to try your best)

- Punctuation
- Make sure to use the correct punctuation
marks and in the correct places.

- Capitalization
- The word “I”
- The first word in every sentence
- Proper Nouns or names
 Sample Essay
Have you ever felt so happy, you could cry?
That’s how I felt last summer when my mom told me
I could get a dog! I had wanted a dog for so long. I
couldn’t believe I was finally going to get one!

First, my sweet mom came to my room to talk

to me. She told me since I had gotten good grades at
school, I could get a dog! I was so excited, I jumped
super high up in the air! “You’re the best!” I screamed.

Then, we got in the car to drive to the store. I

couldn’t wait! I smiled the whole way there! When we
pulled up, I saw that the store had a lot of dogs that
needed to be adopted.

When we got to the store, I gazed at all of the

dogs. They were all so cute. All of the sudden, one
came up and licked my foot! He was white and
fluffy and so adorable. I decided he was the dog
for me!

Finally, we put him in the car to take him home.

He was wagging his tail and sticking his tongue out. On
our way home, we stopped to get him some toys,
food, and a collar.

I couldn’t believe I had a dog of my own! I was so

happy! Now I’ve had my dog for two months, and he
is a really great pet. I think he is the best dog in the
world!