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 4:
1. Generate possible ideas for writing through talking, recalling experiences, hearing stories, reading, discussing models of writing, asking questions, and brainstorming.
2. Develop an awareness of form, structure, and author’s voice in various genres.
3. Use strategies such as reflecting on personal experiences, reading, doing interviews or research, and using graphic organizers to generate and organize ideas for writing.
4. Draft writing in a selected genre with supporting structure according to the intended message, audience, and purpose for writing.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Study of writers: what they write about and how • Explicit writing process instruction Sample Assessment Item: One morning you wake up and go down to breakfast. This is what you see on the table. You are surprised. Then... ...when you look out the window, this is what you see. Write a story called "The Very Unusual Day" about what happens until you go to bed again (*Source-NAEP Questions) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/startsearch.asp
5. Revise drafts by rereading for meaning, narrowing the focus, elaborating, reworking organization, openings, and closings, and improving word choice and consistency of voice.
6. Review own writing with others to understand the reader’s perspective and to consider ideas for revision.
7. Review and edit work for spelling, mechanics, clarity, and fluency.
8. Use a variety of reference materials to revise work, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or internet/software resources.
9. Use computer writing applications during most of the writing process.
10. Understand and apply elements of grade-appropriate rubrics to improve and evaluate writing.
11. Reflect on one’s 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 4:
1. Create narrative pieces, such as memoir or personal narrative, which contain description and relate ideas, observations, or recollections of an event or experience.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Recognizing a literary genre: memoir • Class Discussion • Journal Writing Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through journal writing. Students are encouraged to reflect upon the significance of remembered events and craft responses of their thoughts and feelings. (*Source-Education Oasis) http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/LP/LA/memoir_stuff_life.htm
2. Write informational reports across the curriculum that frame an issue or topic, include facts and details, and draw from more than one source of information.
3. Craft writing to elevate its quality by adding detail, changing the order of ideas, strengthening openings and closings, and using dialogue.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Content and organization Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through writing prompt. One morning a child looks out the window and discovers that a huge castle has appeared overnight. The child rushes outside to the castle and hears strange sounds coming from it. Someone is living in the castle! The castle door creaks open. The child goes in. Write a story about who the child meets and what happens inside the castle. (*Source-NAEP Questions) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/startsearch.asp
4. Build knowledge of the characteristics and structures of a variety of genres.
5. Sharpen focus and improve coherence by considering the relevancy of included details, and adding, deleting, and rearranging appropriately.
6. Write sentences of varying lengths and complexity, using specific nouns, verbs, and descriptive words	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Anchoring of new words to students’ backgrounds and experiences • Writing assignments that require the use of new words • Attention to words that authors choose and how those words illuminate the story or the information being shared Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through writing prompt. We all have favorite objects that we care about and would not want to give up. Think of one object that is important or valuable to you. For example, it could be a book, a piece of clothing, a game, or any object you care about. Write about your favorite object. Be sure to describe the object and explain why it is valuable or important to you. Write sentences of varying lengths and complexity, using descriptive words. (*Source-NAEP Questions) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/startsearch.asp
7. Recognize the difference between complete sentences and sentence fragments and examine the uses of each in real-world writing.
8. Improve the clarity of writing by rearranging words, sentences, and paragraphs.
9. Examine real-world writing to expand knowledge of sentences, paragraphs, usage, and authors’ writing styles.
10. Provide logical sequence and support the purpose of writing by refining organizational structure and developing transitions between ideas.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Teacher read alouds chosen for their use of transitions and organizational structure • Study of electronic and print media Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through performance task. In small groups, students work together as part of a team to create board games. The board games can follow any design the students choose. The game must provide detailed instructions on how to play. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=123
11. Engage the reader from beginning to end with an interesting opening, logical sequence, and satisfying conclusion.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Prolific independent reading • Teacher read alouds • Poetry that tells a sequential story • Interactive word walls Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using poem The Horn I Scorn by Jill Esbaum.—http://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/es/sample/NJ-LAL_sample.pdf, Pages 33-34 In “The Horn I Scorn,” the poet Jill Esbaum writes about a problem that comes from having to share. At one time or another, most of us have to share something with someone else. Write a composition about the difficulties of having to share something you value. In your composition, be sure to: • Describe what it is you have to share. • Discuss the problems that come from having to share it. • Explain how you solved the problems.
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 4:
1. Use Standard English conventions that are appropriate to the grade level, such as sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and handwriting.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Student review of exemplar essays • Student editing of sample essays • Demonstration of understanding through student writing and explicit instruction when needed
2. Use increasingly complex sentence structure and syntax to express ideas.
3. Use grade appropriate knowledge of English grammar and usage to craft writing, such as subject/verb agreement, pronoun usage and agreement, and appropriate verb tenses.
4. Use punctuation correctly in sentences, such as ending punctuation, commas, and quotation marks in dialogue.
5. Use capital letters correctly in sentences, for proper nouns, and in titles.
6. Study examples of narrative and expository writing to develop understanding of the reasons for and use of paragraphs and indentation.
7. Indent in own writing to show the beginning of a paragraph.
8. Spell grade-appropriate words correctly with particular attention to frequently used words, contractions, and homophones.
9. Use knowledge of base words, structural analysis, and spelling patterns to expand spelling competency in writing.
10. Use a variety of reference materials, such as a dictionary, grammar reference, and internet/software resources to edit written work.
11. 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 4:
1. Write for different purposes (e.g., to express ideas, to inform, to entertain, to respond to literature, to question, to share) and a variety of audiences (e.g., self, peers, community).	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Use authentic text (Internet sources, magazines and journals, songs and poetry, letters, brochures and pamphlets, comic strips, political cartoons, etc.) to study audience and purpose for writing • Use shared reading that examines the participatory role of the reader • Facilitate discussions among students as a way of brainstorming for purpose and ideas Students demonstrate comprehension by responding to open-ended questions. They draw from the text and their personal experiences to create written journals. • Students visit the For Kids section of the New England Aquarium website to see baby penguin pictures. Then, each student writes a journal entry in response to the following prompt: Do the baby penguins look as you expected? Why or why not?(http://www.neaq.org/scilearn/kids/babypeng.html) Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through journal writing (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=313
2. Study the characteristics of a variety of genres, including expository, narrative, poetry, and reflection.
3. Develop independence by setting self-selected purposes and generating topics for writing
4. Write independently to satisfy personal, academic, and social needs (e.g., stories, summaries, letters, poetry).
5. Use writing to paraphrase, clarify, and reflect on new learning across the curriculum.
6. Respond to literature in writing to demonstrate an understanding of the text, to explore personal reactions, and to connect personal experiences with the text.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Making text-to-text self, text-to-text, and text-to world connections Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using the poem The Photograph by Jane Medina— http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/2006/release/g4ela.pdf, Pages 15,17, Question 18 In the poem “The Photograph,” Mamá and the speaker, who is her son, look at photographs from the past. a. Explain why the photographs are important to Mamá. b. Explain why the photographs are important to the speaker, her son. Support your answer with important details from the poem.
7. Write narratives that relate recollections of an event or experience and establish a setting, characters, point of view, and sequence of events.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Author and genre studies • Teacher read alouds using literature that develops characters and setting and demonstrates point of view and/or sequence Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using a writing prompt— http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/search/default.asp?intro=yesYou woke up one morning and learned that it was snowing. School was closed for the day! It was a dream come true. Suddenly you had time to take a break from the usual routine and do what you wanted to do. Write a story about a snow day off from school that you remember. Give enough details in your story to show what you did and how wonderful the day was.
8. Write informational reports that frame a topic, include facts and details, and draw information from several sources.
9. Write formal and informal letters for a variety of audiences and purposes.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Direct instruction- letter writing format • Whole and small group instruction- letter writing styles Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using a writing prompt Write a letter to a friend in which you describe a recent trip that you took. Focus on only one place (one city, on resort, etc.) Describe your reaction to it. How did it make you feel? (*Source-Lesson Tutor) http://www.lessontutor.com/dt2.html
10. Use a variety of strategies to organize writing, including sequence, chronology, and cause/effect.
11. Demonstrate higher-order thinking skills through responses to open-ended and essay questions in content areas or as responses to literature.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • In a Math lesson, students use online versions of the story of The Three Little Pigs to develop reasoning skills and identify similarities and differences through the use of a Venn Diagram. Then students: • Decide what materials—straw, wood, brick, or a combination—will be used to build a house • Explain why they chose their building materials. (*Source-NCTM Illuminations) http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L294
12. Use relevant graphics in writing (e.g., maps, charts, illustrations).
13. Demonstrate the development of a personal style and voice in writing.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Author studies and genre studies • Writing that demonstrates student voice • Graphic organizers that allow students to categorize opinions and beliefs that will become part of their writing • Teacher read alouds Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using a writing prompt Students will be exposed to exemplar texts identifying the strong and compelling voice. After recognizing what voice sounds like in literature, students will add voice to their own writing. (*Source-Scholastic.com) http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=696
14. Review scoring criteria of a writing rubric.
15. Develop a collection of writings (e.g., a literacy folder or a literacy portfolio).

Link to Standard 3.2 Grade 3

Link to Standard 3.2 Grade 5

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