Digging Deeper into Personal Narrative (Grades 3-4)

Students write about and write like three narratives: Come on, Rain! by Karen Hesse, The Day Gogo Went to Vote by Elinor Batezat Sisulu and I'm in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. Students expand their understanding of effective narratives and are supported to use what they learned to produce their own personal narratives.

• Nine literary texts
• 4-6 weeks instruction
• Narrative writing

What is this unit about?

The goal of this unit is for each student to successfully produce a criteria-meeting personal narrative by engaging in authentic, coherent, and rigorous reading and writing instruction. The unit engages students in text discussions of three complex narratives and then in studying these texts as well as several student written personal narratives as models of a writer’s craft.

The unit introduces fourth graders to understanding and using English language arts concepts and writing skills (e.g., voice, descriptive language, clarity, organization, etc.), as well as habits of thinking and learning that are transferable to other reading, writing, and learning opportunities—such habits as learning from mentor texts, learning with and from each other, using criteria to guide their work, monitoring their own work, and working hard toward a finished product.