Week 36, Day 1---Day 5
Culminating Activity: Reading and Writing Identity
Memoir: Special memories about a person, place, object or time
"The memoir you will be writing will be a reflection of how you have changed as a reader and writer this year. It’s going to be like a year in review, so you will create a mini book as part of the memoir project.
Some of you may be thinking that this is the same as a personal narrative, but memoirs are more about looking back and thinking about how things have changed over time just like we did at the beginning of class. Narratives tell a story, but memoirs show how the event was meaningful to the author’s life. Also, memoirs are only snapshots. They don’t include the person’s whole life. Now I will add the characteristics of memoirs to the chart.
Use 1st person
Use true descriptions of actual events
Describe any problems faced by the author
Include the author’s feelings about the situation or event
*Narrative Graphic Organizer

Definitions are a part of daily life, academics, and careers. How do they work? What makes an effective definition. Students examine examples of definitions and revise them to learn about options for writing clearly for varied audiences. Finally, students create their own expanded definition.

Week 14, Day 2---Day 5
Writing Descriptions
visuals:
Descriptive Graphic Organizer
Descriptive Checklist Sample
Second Grade Editing Checklist
goals:
Revise using the informative checklist
Editing using the editing checklist
Ask a partner to peer revise and edit

Week 6, Day 3---Day 5
You will need access to the Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace (DK Readers L1) or something similar.
A. Introduction to Descriptive Writing
Utilize memberships to news articles that you have available to you at your school, use free news sites online, or gather informative texts from your classroom library.
Students will work in partners or small groups around the room with small sets of text. There can be pre-selected groupings of texts or students may be permitted to work with one book at a time, coming up to get a new one once they have finished. Students should have sticky notes or some kind of note-taking document to write down the similarities among the descriptions.
Text features to notice are headings, subheadings, photographs, table of contents and glossaries.
B. Learning About Descriptions
Practice putting sentences from a text in order, using the descriptive elements list: introduce the topic, definition or facts about the topic, linking words, conclusion.
C. Evaluating for Descriptive Writing:
Chart: Descriptive Checklist Sample
Read different texts to decide whether the text is a descriptive piece or if it is some other type of writing.

This lesson is the fifth in a series of six in which students engage in a close read aloud of The Invisible Boy. In Session 5, students use a Language Dive to see the cause of and change in Brian's feelings. Additionally, students use Justin's kindness toward Brian as an introduction to compassion, a habit of character.

This lesson is the final one in which students engage in a close read-aloud of The Invisible Boy. Students learn that Brian is happier at school because of the new friendship he has built with Justin. This final session allows students to practice recognizing significant events that cause a response in the main character.

In this lesson, the primary goal in reading The Dot is to ensure that students understand the important events in the text, as well as how Vashti's feelings change throughout the text.

This lesson is the second in a series of six in which students engage in a close read-aloud of The Invisible Boy. In Session 2, students focus their attention on a smaller chunk of the text that dives deeper into understanding the main character, Brian, and an example of something that makes him feel invisible.

This lesson is the third in a series of six in which students engage in a close read-aloud of The Invisible Boy. In Session 3, students begin talking about and tracking Brian's feelings on an anchor chart.

This lesson is the fourth in a series of six in which students engage in a close read-aloud of The Invisible Boy. In Session 4, students explore the connection between being "invisible," Brian's feelings, and the drawings of Brian throughout the book. Additionally, students use Justin's appreciation for Brian's drawing abilities as an introduction to the habit of character respect in the closing of the Close Read Aloud

This is the third of six close read-aloud sessions of Off to Class. In this session, students read the first few paragraphs of "Out of the Rubble" and learn about the problem this community faces in sending students to school. Similar to Sessions 1 and 2, students continue listening for important details and practicing taking notes

This is the fourth of six close read-aloud sessions of Off to Class. In this session, students continue reading the section of text they began reading yesterday: "Out of the Rubble "(pages 18-19). Students learn about how this community solves its problem in sending students to school. They also continue listening for important details and practicing taking notes.

This lesson follows a similar pattern to Lessons 4-5. In Work Time A, students participate in Session 5 of the close read-aloud. Similar to Lessons 4-5, students listen closely to sections of the text read aloud and turn and talk to an elbow partner to discuss answers to text-dependent questions. Unlike Lessons 4-5, students' discussions in today's close reading session will serve as Part I of the Unit 2 Assessment and provide formative assessment data on their progress toward RI.2.1, RI.2.2, and L.2.4.

This lesson follows a similar pattern to Lessons 4-6. In Work Time A, students participate in Session 6 of the close read-aloud. Similar to Lessons 4-6, students listen closely to sections of the text read aloud and turn and talk to an elbow partner to discuss answers to text-dependent questions. As in Lesson 6, today's close reading session will serve as part of the Unit 2 Assessment and provide formative assessment data on students' progress toward RI.2.1, RI.2.2, and L.2.4.

This lesson begins the exploration of the similarities and differences between a student's school and the schools they read about. In this unit, students will reread two sections from Off to Class, as well as a new section, to develop skills around comparing and contrasting. In this unit, contrasting will often come first because it is easier for students to recognize differences. Materials will also be named with contrast first for consistency.
Unit 3 continues the studies from Unit 2 of schools around the world.

This lesson follows a similar pattern to Lesson 1. Students complete another focused read-aloud of a familiar section from Off to Class and then respond in writing to consider how the school in the text is similar to their own school.

In this lesson, students research in small groups to learn more about one of the schools they have learned about in Lessons 1-3. Students will use photographs and videos of the school to collect new information and will pull from the public notes to collect existing information. Students will then use information to help them write their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book for the performance task in Lessons 6-9.
This is the first lesson in which students are introduced to shared or independent research.

In this lesson, students use their notes from their Comparing and Contrasting Research note-catcher as they write the next part of their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book: information about similarities between two schools. (W.2.2)
Similar to Lesson 6, during the Closing students give kind, specific, and helpful feedback to their classmates based on the writing they have done during this lesson. (W.2.5)

In the Opening, students use their experiences from sharing their work in Lessons 6-7 to add to the Writing Partners anchor chart. (W.2.5)
During Work Time A, students finish writing their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books by drafting, revising, and editing their conclusions. (W.2.2, L.2.2).
During Work Time B, students work with their writing partners to revise their entire "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book using the Revising and Editing Checklist at the back of their books. Students focus more heavily on revising the content of their descriptions in this lesson. In the following lesson, they will have the opportunity to edit their writing.