STANDARD 3.2: Language Arts Literacy

Language Arts Literacy

Mission: Learning to read, write, speak, listen, and view critically, strategically and creatively enables students to discover personal and shared meaning throughout their lives.

Standard 3.2 Writing

All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.

Big Idea: Writing is the process of communicating in print for a variety of audiences and purposes.
3.2 A. Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do good writers express themselves? How does process shape the writer’s product?	- Good writers develop and refine their ideas for thinking, learning, communicating, and aesthetic expression.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 3:
1. Generate possible ideas for writing through recalling experiences, listening to stories, reading, brainstorming, and discussion.
2. Examine real-world examples of writing in various genres to gain understanding of how authors communicate ideas through form, structure, and author’s voice.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Study of editorials • Study of persuasive writing in various media (e.g., television commercials, radios announcements, political slogans) Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using a performance task—Your local newspaper’s Kid Section is sponsoring a contest for the best-ever class field trip. Write an article telling what you liked about your field trip and why others should visit this special place.
3. Use graphic organizers to assist with planning writing.
4. Compose first drafts from prewriting work.
5. Revise a draft by rereading for meaning, narrowing the focus, sequencing, elaborating with detail, improving openings, closings, and word choice to show voice.
6. Participate with peers to comment on and react to each other’s writing.
7. Build awareness of ways authors use paragraphs to support meaning.
8. Begin to develop author’s voice in own writing.
9. Use reference materials to revise work, such as a dictionary or internet/software resource.
10. Edit work for basic spelling and mechanics.
11. Use computer word-processing applications during parts of the writing process.
12. Understand and use a checklist and/or rubric to improve writing.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Review writer’s checklist • Review holistic scoring rubric
13. Reflect on own writing, noting strengths and areas needing improvement.
3.2 B. Writing as a Product (resulting in a formal product or publication)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do writers develop a well written product?	- Good writers use a repertoire of strategies that enables them to vary form and style, in order to write for different purposes, audiences, and contexts.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 3:
1. Write a descriptive piece, such as a description of a person, place, or object.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Reference writer’s checklist Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using writing prompt from the passage Brave as a Mountain Lion by Ann Herbert Scott— Pages 19 and 20 http://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/es/LAL-manual.pdf
2. Write a narrative piece based on personal experiences.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Develop strong introductions that grab readers and conclusions that leave them feeling satisfied • Use a graphic-based flow-charting tool as a writing guide
3. Write a nonfiction piece and/or simple informational report across the curriculum.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategy: • Using expository texts, students demonstrate comprehension of cause and effect by locating those relationships within the text, recording these findings on two graphic organizers, and then using the organizers to write a paragraph. Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using paragraph from expository text (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=925
4. Present and discuss writing with other students.
5. Apply elements of grade-appropriate rubrics to improve writing.
6. Develop a collection of writings (e.g., a literacy folder or portfolio).
3.2 C. Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do rules of language affect communication?	- Rules, conventions of language, help readers understand what is being communicated.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 3:
1. Use Standard English conventions that are developmentally appropriate to the grade level: sentences, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Review exemplar essays • Edit sample essays
2. Use grade-appropriate knowledge of English grammar and usage to craft writing, such as singular and plural nouns, subject/verb agreement, and appropriate parts of speech.
3. Study examples of narrative and expository writing to develop understanding of paragraphs and indentation.
4. Develop knowledge of English spelling through the use of patterns, structural analysis, and high frequency words.
5. Write legibly in manuscript or cursive to meet district standards.
3.2 D. Writing Forms, Audiences, and Purposes (exploring a variety of forms)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- Why does a writer choose a particular form of writing?	- A writer selects a form based on audience and purpose.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 3:
1. Write for a variety of purposes (e.g., to inform, entertain, persuade) and audiences (e.g., self, peers, community).	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Problem solve by focusing on a question • Use a graphic organizer/writer’s guide to help organize persuasive ideas • Students write to their school librarian, requesting that a specific book be added to the school library collection. They produce a finished document using word processing software and persuasive writing strategies stating their position. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=875
2. Develop fluency by writing daily and for sustained amounts of time.
3. Generate ideas for writing in a variety of situations and across the curriculum.
4. Write to express thoughts and ideas, to share experiences, and to communicate socially.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Teacher think-alouds • Use graphic organizers • Create a welcome guide to share with students and families new to the community. After researching community resources, write, and illustrate a welcome guide to be included in an orientation packet as well as posted online.
5. Write the events of a story sequentially.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Categorize statements describing people, places and experiences • Organize lists of events in chronological order • Write paragraphs for your own autobiography • Create an autobiography using an interactive website (*Source-TV411 Tune in to Learning) http://www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/writing.cfm?str=writing&num=13&act=1
6. Produce writing that demonstrates the use of a variety of sentence types, such as declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategy: • In this creative writing lesson, the student assumes the role of the main character in a fairy tale for a classroom dramatization. The student rewrites the script, changing the ending of a familiar fairy tale incorporating a variety of sentence types. • Use Sentence Clubhouse to review sentence types (*Source-Harcourt School : Grammar Practice Park) http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/clubhouse/index_pre.html
7. Respond to literature through writing to demonstrate an understanding of a text.	Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using historical fiction. The historical fiction text, Meet Addy by Connie Porter, provides an account of a young girl who escapes from slavery during the Civil War. After reading the text, each student writes a continuation of the story. Although their stories will be fictional, students should also incorporate historical facts.
8. Write narrative text (e.g., realistic, humorous, etc.).	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategy: • Students read a picture book together, plotting out a general story line from the pictures. Then, they break into groups to create their own narrative or humorous stories for the book. Each group will present their stories to the class. (*Source- The Educator’s Reference Desk) http://www.eduref.org/cgibin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Writing/WCP0217.html
9. Write non-fiction text (e.g., reports, procedures, and letters).	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Make students aware of features, such as illustrations and graphics • Have students debate benefits of narrative versus expository text • This lesson uses traditional stories of the Native peoples (i.e., narrative text) to introduce students to the study of animals in Alaska (i.e., expository text). Students compare and contrast the two types of text in terms of fiction and nonfiction. The narrative stories provide students with a context for studying native people and animals in Alaska. • Students gather facts for their report (expository text) by searching a database. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=129

Link to Standard 3.2 Grade 2

Link to Standard 3.2 Grade 4

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