Curriculum+Resources

Considerations for Upcoming Units
__//Abbreviations//__: IRA= Interactive Read Aloud T&T= Turn and Talk UOS= Unit of Study ML(s)= Mini-Lesson(s) RWS= Reading Workshop WWS= Writing Workshop

October, Reading:

 * ====** Grade **==== || ====** Unit Title **==== || ====** Considerations **==== ||
 * K || Thinking, Wondering and Talking About Books || * Utilize as many Emergent Read Alouds as you can throughout this month... provide multiple copies for students to read during Independent Reading.
 * Teach book selection, possibly creating an anchor chart or personalized "shopping lists" for students to use when picking books for independent reading
 * Ensure students have a place to collect books for at-school reading... this could be the same baggie they use to bring books home.
 * Develop a routine/expectation of using partners to talk about books. Students may be reading the same text, but shouldn't be doing so at the same time. If multiple copies aren't available, students can read from each others' book selections or swap books during independent reading.
 * Read aloud a few informational texts... demonstrate studying pictures to notice/learn/wonder, connecting pages to understand the main idea, and discussing new learning. These experiences will support MLs next month. ||
 * 1 || Reading Just-Right Books and Using Print Strategies || * When reinforcing that reading must look right, sound right, and make sense... make sure you're reinforcing that 'makes sense' is within the context of the book and/or page... not just sentence level. This will promote monitoring at the book level.
 * Ensure students are bringing home books for nightly reading... students should be bringing home at least 2-3 books... you may want to send their entire baggie home so each night they can make the decision and this doesn't need to occupy Independent Reading time.
 * Be sure to model the work of Indicator 1 and 2 with texts students are UNFAMILIAR with... this will help hit home the idea of persisting at difficulty.
 * Be attentive of which components of fluency your students are just developing, so your lessons for indicator 3 can be tailored accordingly... be specific when it comes to fluency... rate, phrasing, expression, pausing/attention to punctuation, or stress.
 * Read aloud a few books with strong characters that have internal and external traits... characters you can infer information about based on actions and words. Do this a few times, so that next month you can compare and contrast characters easily. ||
 * 2 || Applying Print and Comprehension Strategies to Read Well || * Consider Level K behaviors to teach throughout this unit. For students who are either above or below this level, address their specific needs in strategy or guided reading groups.
 * Ensure when you teach word-solving that 'makes sense' refers to not only the sentence and page, but also book level. This will promote self-monitoring at the book level, not just the word level.
 * You may want to use the narrative story arc to demonstrate how stories 'go'. Students need not copy this into their reading logs, but use it as a structure to support meaning-making and conversation about different parts of their story.
 * Read aloud a few texts that have the same character or are from the same series. This will support MLs next month when partners are asked to support, defend, or revise their thinking about a character. ||
 * 3 || Thinking, Talking, and Writing About What We Read || * Use any of Janet Angellilo and/or Kylene Beers' work to support this unit... both authors support monitoring and posting to deepen understanding.
 * Be sure to support students' work in Readers' Notebooks... have one yourself and use it during IRA. You can model and guide responding to texts in various ways. Use Day 5 and MLs to model and support this work.
 * Ensure students have TIME at least every other day to discuss what they are reading with partners, otherwise, they will continue to see post-its as tools for the teacher rather than themselves. By asking students to use the post-its as a basis for talk, then they will be implicitly reinforced to write something pertinent and useful on them!
 * Begin reading aloud a few books from the same author to support next month's study. Consider texts that lead to interpretation through the illustration and words, and connect in terms of large themes. ||
 * 4 || Studying Characters and Interpreting Fiction || * Utilize Shared Reading to introduce the new genre at least a week before launching the Unit to begin to explicitly teach the components of that genre.
 * Always read the Overview and the Indicators of Understanding (on the front side) to fully understand the purpose of the Unit and know that the bullets are suggested mini lessons that lend themselves to the indicators.
 * Plan, plan, plan with a month in mind to ensure teaching ALL the indicators. It is a culmination of the work from indicator 1 and 2 that you want to celebrate and move forward during indicator 3. I see indicator 3 as a barometer of understanding for the entire unit because of the complexity of the tasks.
 * Students read in their own independent readers specifically at their level to do this work. However, pairs of students may read the same book for the purpose of grand conversations that ought to be occurring within this Unit.
 * Always, always remember the sharing component of Reader's Workshop. (It's my favorite part!) Bring the students back to the carpet and the TEACHER identifies one (or two) students who did the work that was asked that day. In other words, the teacher always identifies the student's work for sharing that matches the explicit instruction of the mini-lesson. (Not, "who wants to share...") Keep this routine every day. ||
 * 5 || Following and Analyzing Characters to Interpret Fiction || * Utilize Shared Reading to introduce the new genre at least one week before launching the Unit to begin to explicitly teach the components of that genre.
 * As seen in the Indicators of Understanding, readers track and comprehend multiple layers.... might I suggest utilizing color coding to clearly see those multiple layers. With color coding, students can clearly see the different types of comprehension questions and/or tasks you are asking of them and can see how one thought builds upon another.
 * Use short picture books with challenges/issues to practice identifying issues within text so that when asked, as in Indicator two, the students have some familiarity with the task.
 * Notice the need for reading partnerships for the accountable talk portion of the unit. I paired like readers together, but first they read independently and were accountable for their note taking, then they brought their post-its and conclusions with them to those pair ships to have grand conversations about their thinking with their partners.
 * The purpose of post-its is for students to track their thinking, to make the invisible visible. They purpose of notes being on post-its is for portability and movability. For organization, I have the students place the post-its on copy paper rather than tucked into books. Then, the post-its won't get lost. These notes can be sorted, categorized, labeled, analyzed, valued as important or not, etc. The notes can be brought to a partnership to share with that partner to get feedback and to hear the partner's point of view. After the post-its have been studied, they then can be housed in a Reader's Notebook by simply gluing the white copy paper holding the post-its onto the page. ||

October, Writing:

 * ====** Grade **==== || ====** Unit Title **==== || ====** Considerations **==== ||
 * K || Labeling the World Around Us & Creating Pattern Books || * Expand students' paper choices as their writing abilities develop. Provide students with booklets as you shift into creating pattern books, but utilize familiar paper choices within these books.
 * Encourage students to revise through illustration... they don't often have more to write/say, but can add details about characters feelings, actions or words through facial expressions, movement lines and speech/thought bubbles. Even if students cannot write conventionally what gets represented within a thought bubble is symbolic and enhances understanding of the reader.
 * Encourage the use of the Alphabet Linking Chart... this may be a good time to provide one for each student in their writing folder. Create a name linking chart if this is more appropriate for some of your writers by placing student pictures underneath a letter... print a small copy and place it in folders so students aren't burdened by far-point copying.
 * Promote conventional spelling of high frequency words by explicitly demonstrating how to write and then check their spelling against the word wall... it should not be used as a 'copying wall' but rather a 'checking wall' to ensure what we hypothesize is correct actually is.
 * You can begin to support the reading work that will take place next month by having students write nonfiction pattern books... "This is a lion. This is a bear. etc." These texts can go into your library and be read during next month's Reading UOS as long as students are okay with their work being donated to the classroom community.
 * During shared reading begin writing stories of events that happened to the entire class... include a beginning, middle and end, and within that characters, setting, actions and reactions to explain the moment in time. ||
 * 1 || Teaching Others "How To" Tackle the Unknown || * Promote conventional spelling of high frequency words by explicitly demonstrating how to write and then check their spelling against the word wall... it should not be used as a 'copying wall' but rather a 'checking wall' to ensure what we hypothesize is correct actually is.
 * Ensure students have a writing partner... consider the same pairs as you use for reading. Build in time for students to regularly reflect and hone their work with a partner. This is a great place for students to practice giving feedback and asking authentic questions.
 * You may want to introduce an editing checklist at this time... include whatever editing strategy you taught during last month's unit as well as the one/two you teach this month. This can build independence, and be used as a supporting document when partners work together.
 * Ensure you're referring back to other published How-To texts... help students see that adults also use these types of texts regularly, but refer and use familiar texts during your demonstration.
 * In preparation for Mid Nov-Dec: read aloud a few small moment stories that include replicable dialogue and precise language to describe the story of a small moment in the author's life. ||
 * 2 || Mid Oct: Leaning on Experts to Improve Our Nonfiction Writing || * Lean on mentor authors to support various structures of nonfiction text. Some simple formats students may emulate are: question/answer, chronological/sequential, descriptive, or categorical/all about (See Genre Study for more details on this).
 * Consider the text features most prominent in the books your readers are reading and select a few to teach... bridge the gap between reading nonfiction and writing nonfiction by helping students consider what readers expect from a feature and how this feature should "work" as a writer. Some good features to study may be title, headings, bold print/italics, and captions.
 * Ensure students are writing about things they know... if they have background on the topic their writing fluency will increase and their mental energy can be put toward crafting well-written texts instead of considering the content. Therefore, ensure students aren't researching a topic in order to write about it. This may naturally happen; however, it should not be reinforced as the only means in which to have content for writing. Students will naturally aim to include details, descriptions and facts just as mentor authors have, and will likely consult books on the topic when learning how to present information, but they should not be solely consulting published texts to gather content for their project. ||
 * 3 || Crafting Real Life Stories || * Ensure students bounce between brainstorming and collecting entries. Students should have multiple "short writes" about different topics during the collection phase.
 * Allow students to collect many entries before drafting, and then select one to shape into a draft (on separate paper).
 * While teaching writers how to "try on" different techniques, allow them to experiment with their use in their notebook so they have a record of their work to refer back to. Students can then select the sentence that best meets their needs and revise their draft to match their improved work. This cycle of using the notebook to "try out" strategies and then moving specific work into the draft should be replicated throughout the unit.
 * You may want to remind students to use the story arc to add shape to their text... just as readers should be able to summarize what they are reading, writers should be able to summarize what they are writing. This may come in hand as you teach revision: consider who is doing what, where? What's the problem and how was it solved? If students are already familiar with "Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then" you can use this a structure for monitoring and revising their piece. ||
 * 4 || Authoring Realistic Fiction || * Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner is such a user friendly resource full of ideas that are able to be implemented the next day and fits perfectly into this genre of writing.
 * Have students utilize the story arc which has been repeatedly practiced in your classrooms to craft their stories. And, how perfect for your writers to see the link between reading a fictional piece to writing one.
 * You could use a student's personal story, change a name or two, change a detail or two and it could become a student's realistic fiction piece.
 * I remember Beth Swenson using student work to inspire, guide, and direct the others in the classroom.
 * Also, Beth had students share their stories while others listened, asked questions and that informed the writer what details needed to be added. ||
 * 5 || Crafting Narratives || * Have students tell their stories in partnerships. Encourage the listener of the partnership to ask questions of clarification and that may inform the story teller to include those details into the story. In my classroom, we practice the art of story telling, character and setting is told first followed by the events. One day during shared reading is a good practice place.
 * Ginny suggests collections be in the genre of study. When students are in narrative genre, collections ought to be on ideas for stories, personal, imaginative, etc. When students are in the nonfiction genre, collections be that of facts. Collections ought to match the genre. An idea could be to imagine being a particular author of a book that the students are familiar and imagine the collection of ideas that would be in that author's notebook.
 * Identify favorite ideas to ensure those ideas goes into the stories. Post-its, circling, starring, highlighting are possible tags for identifying those favorite ideas. Also, explain to students that not all favorite ideas need go into the current narrative.
 * Use student work to inspire, guide, and direct. If a student has a really good thought, or uses grammar correctly or punctuation correctly, that student's work could be the mentor text of the lesson. ||

September, Reading:
Reading Habits || * Begin reading //many// emergent read alouds this month for use as "star books" next month. Reading Habits || * Set up a procedure for at-home reading, and begin this routine early on. Encourage students to bring multiple books home each night, possibly those they read during independent reading. The goal is for these books to be nearly effortless. Reading Habits || * Teach students how and when to complete their reading logs (consider maintaining one yourself- possibly from IRAs and/or Shared). Reading Habits || * Teach students how and when to complete reading logs. Keep one yourself! Through Good Reading Habits || * Teach your expectations for interacting with texts during independent reading... introduce one tool/method at a time, once students have demonstrated independence with the previous. Through Good Reading Habits || * Maintain your own reading notebook (and reading log, too)... use these during demonstrations and conferences. Try out the work you're asking kids to do... it will help you see the "how" and, in turn, help you deconstruct the skills for your teaching.
 * ====** Grade **==== || ====** Unit Title **==== || ====** Considerations **==== ||
 * K || Developing Good
 * Set up a system for at-home reading and allow students to bring home a variety of texts (e.g. copies of poems, songs, board books, picture books, emergent read alouds, alphabet books, etc.).
 * Begin some buddy work, but wait to assign reading workshop partners at this time... allow students to work with different peers throughout the month. This will give you a chance to informally assess students' speaking and listening abilities so you can make informed decisions about partnerships for October.
 * Compile bins of books for students to select from during independent reading. Rotate the bins from table to table daily. Add in books that students express interest in or that you've read aloud. ||
 * 1 || Developing Good
 * Begin partnership work. Consider using the same partners for reading and writing workshops.
 * Consider using compliment conferences that stress efficiency and independence as the bulk of your one-on-one interactions during independent reading time. This will allow build students' self-image and reinforce the routines and procedures you're teaching, soon allowing you to shift to reading-specific compliment conferences in October.
 * Ensure you get Shared Reading up and running as part of your weekly routine so you can revisit those texts during October's mini-lessons.
 * Ensure books your classroom library represent the reading levels of students in your class. Wait to place bins above your students' just right levels out until they have 'grown-up' to these levels. You could use this showcasing opportunity as their last guided reading lesson, helping students select the most appropriate books from that level. ||
 * 2 || Developing Good
 * Begin reading IRA's with strong story elements.
 * Begin Shared Reading to expose students to solving multi-syllable words and monitoring for meaning.
 * Begin partner work. Consider using the same partners for reading and writing workshops.
 * Ensure books your classroom library represent the reading levels of students in your class. Wait to place bins above your students' just right levels out until they have 'grown-up' to these levels. You could use this showcasing opportunity as their last guided reading lesson, helping students select the most appropriate books from that level.
 * If you're asking students to maintain a reading journal then you should too! Try out the work and strategies you're suggesting, and use your notebook to demonstrate these things prior to asking kids to do them during their independent reading. ||
 * 3 || Developing Good
 * Teach students, through IRA or Shared, how to use a reader's notebook. Consider demonstrating your own response a few times, constructing a shared response, and then ask students to respond after conversation in their own notebooks. Do all of these things with either an IRA or Shared text... the experience has to be shared among all reading members before they are expected to write in their readers' notebook off their independent reading.
 * Keep your own reading notebook! This will provide an authentic place for your to demonstrate and collect the type of work you're asking the readers in your class to do. This will support your year-long conferring and October UOS.
 * Teach students how to meaningfully jot on sticky notes... keep these notes in the books you read for later reference. Do this through IRA. This will support next month's UOS.
 * Consider holding back books pertinent to any genre- or topic-related UOS. Bring these books out at the beginning of those units.
 * Ensure books your classroom library represent the reading levels of students in your class. Wait to place bins above your students' just right levels out until they have 'grown-up' to these levels. You could use this showcasing opportunity as their last guided reading lesson, helping students select the most appropriate books from that level. ||
 * 4 || Developing Stamina
 * Begin reading IRAs with strong character and story elements for reference during next month's UOS.
 * Begin teaching the curriculum of talk during your IRAs... have students practice listening, rephrasing, adding on/clarifying/disagreeing with each other. Take this slowly... teach new skills once the previous are more strongly emerging. Be mindful of how much you participate in your IRAs... the more the teacher talks, often the less students do... which means they have less time to practice the skills we want them internalizing.
 * Ensure books your classroom library represent the reading levels of students in your class. Wait to place bins above your students' just right levels out until they have 'grown-up' to these levels. You could use this showcasing opportunity as their last guided reading lesson, helping students select the most appropriate books from that level.
 * Maintain your own reading notebook (and reading log, too)... use these during demonstrations and conferences. Try out the work you're asking kids to do... it will help you see the "how" and, in turn, help you deconstruct the skills for your teaching. ||
 * 5 || Developing Stamina
 * Begin teaching the curriculum of talk during your IRAs... have students practice listening, rephrasing, adding on/clarifying/disagreeing with each other. Take this slowly... teach new skills once the previous are more strongly emerging. Be mindful of how much you participate in your IRAs... the more the teacher talks, often the less students do... which means they have less time to practice the skills we want them internalizing.
 * Consider holding back books pertinent to any genre- or topic-related UOS. Bring these books out at the beginning of those units.
 * Read aloud a few IRAs to support next month's UOS on Character: Select texts where characters have multiple layers, have internal and external struggles, change over time, are relatable, and can impact students' perspective on an issue. One book need not do all of these things, but aim to expose students to these things (explicitly or implicitly) through IRA, prior to next month when students will be expected to try these things out in their independent reading. ||

September, Writing:
of Writers As We Share Our Stories Through Drawing || * Set up your classroom for independence and efficiency... place student writing folders around the room, so not all writers congregate at the same place to collect/return materials. Also, select a place to organize writing materials: paper options, coloring utensils, staplers, scissors, sticky notes, revision strips/flaps, etc.. > If you're collecting notebooks, consider placing small groups of these around the room so writers don't congregate to collect/return materials.
 * ====** Grade **==== || ====** Unit Title **==== || ====** Considerations **==== ||
 * K || Becoming a Community
 * Maintain your own writing folder. This will come in use as you teach writing procedures and confer. You can add to your collection through your demonstrations during mini-lessons. Consider also crafting a few pieces that represent the goal for your students at the end of the month... determine a way to help students see this work as their target. (You may want to post this alongside your UOS charts.)
 * Read LOTS of emergent read alouds or IRAs. Select texts for two reasons: they lend themselves to rereading/retelling or they have clear illustrations that tell a story. You can then use them as mentors during WWS.
 * Provide students with single sheets of paper to draw their stories... if they ask for more teach stapling to make booklets during conferences. (Book teaching will come during the next UOS when students make pattern books.)
 * Allow students to color from the start... they should be illustrating (not sketching) their stories.
 * Ensure that you read label and simple pattern books during Shared reading to support next month's UOS. ||
 * 1 || Sharing Our Stories Through Personal Narratives || * Set up your classroom for independence and efficiency... place student writing folders around the room, so not all writers congregate at the same place to collect/return materials. Also, select a place to organize writing materials: paper options, coloring utensils, staplers, scissors, sticky notes, revision strips/flaps, etc..
 * Maintain your own writing folder. This will come in use as you teach writing procedures and confer. You can add to your collection through your demonstrations during mini-lessons. Consider also crafting a few pieces that represent the goal for your students at the end of the month... determine a way to help students see this work as their target. (You may want to post this alongside your UOS charts.)
 * Consider using the same parters as reading when students practice oral storytelling. Allow these partners to sit next to each other while working, so they can ask for feedback and suggestions while working.
 * Read aloud personal narrative texts written in the first person. It may help to give your students some background on the author- they will more likely envision the author as a "real" person. Some suggestions are: Mercer Mayer texts, The Listening Walk, When I Was Little, Shortcut, Fireflies, Do Like Kyla, Night of the Veggie Monster, Night Shift Daddy.
 * Determine whether or not to administer On Demand tasks for Narrative, Informational and/or Opinion writing. If you feel as if you can only administer one of the three genres, I highly suggest the Narrative one so you can use this data to inform your MLs. Near the end of the month you'll want to administer the Informational one to gather a baseline prior to beginning the "How-To" UOS.
 * Near the end of the month read aloud (through IRA or Shared) some nonfiction texts that teach "how to" in preparation for next month's UOS. Select texts that closely match their reading/writing level, keeping in mind that the moves the author makes are the ones that you're going to ask your students to "try on". ||
 * 2 || Sharing Our Stories Through Personal Narratives || * Set up your classroom for independence and efficiency... place student writing folders around the room, so not all writers congregate at the same place to collect/return materials. Also, select a place to organize writing materials: paper options, publishing utensils, staplers, scissors, sticky notes, revision strips/flaps, etc..
 * Maintain your own writing folder. This will come in use as you teach writing procedures and confer. You can add to your collection through your demonstrations during mini-lessons. Consider also crafting a few pieces that represent the goal for your students at the end of the month... determine a way to help students see this work as their target. (You may want to post this alongside your UOS charts.)
 * Read aloud personal narrative texts written in the first person. It may help to give your students some background on the author- they will more likely envision the author as a "real" person. Some suggestions are: A Letter to Amy, Owl Moon, A Chair for my Mother, Those Shoes, Alexander and the Terrible..., The Best Story, One of Three, Just Us Women.
 * Determine whether or not to administer On Demand tasks for Narrative, Informational and/or Opinion writing. If you feel as if you can only administer one of the three genres, I highly suggest the Narrative one so you can use this data to inform your MLs. Near the end of the month you'll want to administer the Informational one to gather a baseline prior to beginning the Nonfiction Book Study.
 * Near the end of the month, read aloud/expose students (through IRA or Shared) to different nonfiction mentor authors/texts. Select texts that closely match their reading/writing level, keeping in mind that the moves the author makes are the ones that you're going to ask your students to "try on". ||
 * 3 || Launching Writers' Workshop in Writing Notebooks || * Set up your classroom for independence and efficiency... select a place to organize writing materials: paper options, publishing utensils, staplers, scissors, sticky notes, revision strips/flaps, etc.. If you're collecting notebooks, consider placing small groups of these around the room so writers don't congregate to collect/return materials.
 * Maintain your own writing notebook. This will come in use as you teach mini-lessons and confer. You can add to your collection through your demonstrations during mini-lessons.
 * Consider crafting at least one piece that represents the goal for your students at the end of the month... determine a way to help students see this work as their target. (You may want to post this alongside your UOS charts.)
 * Read aloud personal narrative texts written in the first person. It may help to give your students some background on the author- they will more likely envision the author as a "real" person. Some suggestions are: Hurricane! (London), Come On Rain, When I Was Young in the Mountains.
 * Near the end of your launch be sure to expose students to different personal narrative-type stories. Read aloud texts that demonstrate how authors select topics for writing from a variety of experiences. Select texts that closely match their reading/writing level, keeping in mind that the moves the author makes are the ones that you're going to ask your students to "try on". ||
 * 4 || Launching Writers' Workshop With Volume, Stamina, and Independence || * Set up your classroom for independence and efficiency... select a place to organize writing materials: paper options, publishing utensils, staplers, scissors, sticky notes, revision strips/flaps, etc.. If you're collecting notebooks, consider placing small groups of these around the room so writers don't congregate to collect/return materials.
 * Maintain your own writing notebook. This will come in use as you teach mini-lessons and confer. You can add to your collection through your demonstrations during mini-lessons.
 * Consider crafting at least one piece that represents the goal for your students at the end of the month... determine a way to help students see this work as their target. (You may want to post this alongside your UOS charts.)
 * Read aloud personal narrative texts written in the first person. It may help to give your students some background on the author- they will more likely envision the author as a "real" person. Some suggestions are: Chicken Sunday, Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street, Fireflies.
 * Near the end of your launch be sure to expose students to a few more narratives that have strong story elements. Consider text structure... examine whether or not the author uses a traditional story arc... these stories will best your next UOS. Select texts that closely match their reading/writing level, keeping in mind that the moves the author makes are the ones that you're going to ask your students to "try on". ||
 * 5 || Launching Writers' Workshop With Volume, Stamina, and Independence || * Set up your classroom for independence and efficiency... select a place to organize writing materials: paper options, publishing utensils, staplers, scissors, sticky notes, revision strips/flaps, etc..
 * Maintain your own writing notebook. This will come in use as you teach mini-lessons and confer. You can add to your collection through your demonstrations during mini-lessons.
 * Consider crafting at least one piece that represents the goal for your students at the end of the month... determine a way to help students see this work as their target. (You may want to post this alongside your UOS charts.)
 * Near the end of your launch be sure to expose students to a few more narratives that have strong story elements. Consider text structure... examine whether or not the author uses a traditional story arc... these stories will best your next UOS. Select texts that closely match their reading/writing level, keeping in mind that the moves the author makes are the ones that you're going to ask your students to "try on". ||