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Projecting a Writing Unit:
Grade 3
Grade 4

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Serravallo (2017)

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I enjoyed looking at the progression and genre/modes to have a better understanding of where my students are and where we are headed. I wanted more time to process and to then make some decisions. This was our first time talking about this unit so we just needed more time to think about it.

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Suggestions for doing this through VLE, because it is likely we will be virtual for some time...they are very reluctant right now with writing online.

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Want - Good places for professional opinion/argument mentors. 

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Want - Good places for professional opinion/argument mentors. 

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I was on a team that actually worked with Matt Glover (he was in the room with us) to find relevant text samples for a persuasive unit and it was a struggle to find mentors that more approximated the kind of writing we wanted the kids to do but were also on topics accessible to them (the 5-paragraph essay may help build some serious structure chops for academic writing, but it does not thrive in that form outside).. Since then, we were able to find some possible pieces on Newsela, but that resource often works by removing text from larger pieces - we found that the reasons felt half-baked. We eventually were able to project out a unit, but it never felt quite as strong as the other units we projected because the mentors were all over the place. I once heard an editorial written by a third-grader on the radio, and I have clutched that with all my might - it was luck hearing that one.. But where else can we find good, accessible professional mentor texts for persuasive/opinion?

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It's great to have devoted time to think through units. I worked with Matt at my last school and love the idea of pulling stacks and that teachers also write a piece before the unit starts so we know what it's like as well. Thinking about where to find good mentor texts that kid have written to inspire our students.

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CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE MENTOR TEXT DROPBOX
Finding mentor texts can often be one of the most challenging - and time consuming! - parts of effective writing instruction.

Why spend hours flipping through books and surfing the web when we can share? The link above will take you to our Mentor Text Dropbox where we've curated hundreds of mentor texts by genre, technique, topic, and activity.
Please note: We do not grant access to the documents in the dropbox directly to students. If you would like your students to have copies of these documents, you need to make a copy for your drive and distribute that to your students.
Join the sharing love by submitting your own mentor texts!

Share it with movingwriters@gmail.com as a Google doc, or share several mentor texts in a Google folder.

Email it as an attachment to movingwriters.org.

Tweet us a link (@allisonmarchett, @rebekahodell1). Use #movingwriters.

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CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE MENTOR TEXT DROPBOX Finding mentor texts can often be one of the most challenging - and time consuming! - parts of effective writing instruction. Why spend hours flipping through books and surfing the web when we can share? The link above will take you to our Mentor Text Dropbox where we've curated...

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TV Reviews - Kids TV | Common Sense Media

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Read age-appropriate tv reviews for kids and parents written by our experts.

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Daily questions inspired by Times content from across sections. Join the conversation!

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Kids News is a free, news-based literacy tool for classrooms.
Register your email now to use kidsnews.com.au free and sign up for the Kids News newsletter. You will find the link on the homepage under Sign Up Free.

View our Privacy Collection Statement here.

How it works

Kidsnews.com.au is a ready-to go literacy resource for teachers using current daily news stories for students in the classroom.

The content is written into educational stories in child appropriate language and filtered/censored to remove any inappropriate content or imagery. The site does not link to any outside news sources or sites, therefore pupils can use it safely in an unsupervised environment or for independent learning.

Kids News is suitable for children from Grade 3 to Year 8, although teachers tell us it is being used with some students above and below this range.

The Articles

A minimum of two new articles are added to kidsnews.com.au each school day.
All new content is featured at the top of the homepage. The articles are divided into two main categories which have been tested as most popular with students:

1. News - covering current affairs, key curriculum topics, interesting stories about people, animals and things

2. Sport - Australian and international sports events and people.

News stories are also sub-categorised into Key Topics which include:

Each article, which can be viewed in digital format or printed, includes:

A headline, lead image and text.

Multiple secondary images help tell the story visually and sometimes articles contain picture galleries.

We have included an audio file (using SoundCloud) so students can listen to the text as they read and assist with comprehension.

Each story contains a Glossary of terms and words that students may be unfamiliar with.

Video is included where possible.

A feedback comments box is featured at the base of the article and children are encouraged to write their thoughts on the news stories. These comments are moderated by Kids News and comments posted on the stories. Comments that include a student's surname will not be published. Encourage students to write comments that contribute to the views of the article

Reading level of articles

A traffic light system to help teachers direct students to appropriate content depending on their comprehension levels.

Green- Simple to medium vocab, story content easily understood, accessible to all readers (especially with audio option)

Orange- medium level of vocabulary, story content a little more complex but still able to be read and understood at middle to senior primary level (audio option and glossary to assist)

Red - contains complex vocabulary and content that is of a higher level, suited to more able readers, requires teacher scaffolding for less capable readers.

Classroom Activities

Kids News provides 3 classroom activities per news article. These are written by teachers for teachers and are linked directly to the Australian curriculum.

The activities vary each day and are specific to the article. Each activity also includes an extension for higher students. The types of activities include:

Written projects for literacy, comprehension and storytelling.

Art projects

Geography

Speech writing

Persuasive text

Maths etc.

There are also daily VCOP (vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation) activities on each article.

Everyday Activities

Under Everyday Activities, teachers can find secondary everyday classroom activities that can be used for ALL Kids News news article. These are:

Harness a Headline

The 5 Ws

Grammar, Go! Focus on adjectives, punctuation etc.

Fact v opinion

Read to remember. Memory activity.

Archive

We have a rich collection of previously published stories filtered under each category and colour coding.
You can find the colour coding in the navigation bar.
You can search for curriculum based content under KEY TOPICS.

Or you can search using the Search Bar for any key words or topics.

Kids News Newsletter

Teachers who sign up receive an email at 3pm on Sundays alerting them to some of the Kids News content that will be featured in the coming week.

The newsletter allows teachers to plan and prepare lessons for the week ahead.

Sign up for the newsletter on the homepage where you see SIGN UP FREE

Kids News Contact

Editor: Kamahl Cogdon
Email: kidsnews@news.com.au
Postal Address:
40 City Rd, Southbank, Vic 3006

Who produces Kids News?

Kids News is proudly supported by News Corp Australia. Articles on kidsnews.com.au are based on content from the many publications within the News Corp Australia network including:

Herald Sun

Daily Telegraph

Adelaide Advertiser

Courier Mail

The Mercury

NT News

Cairns Post

Townsville Bulletin

Geelong Advertiser

Daily Mercury

The Morning Bulletin

The Observer

NewsMail

Fraser Coast Chronicle

The Gympie Times

Sunshine Coast Daily

The Queensland Times

Warwick Daily News

The Northern Star

The Daily Examiner

The Chronicle

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Kids News is a free, news-based literacy tool for classrooms. Register your email now to use kidsnews.com.au free and sign up for the Kids News newsletter. You will find the link on the homepage un...

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Time Out | Best Things To Do and Events In Cities Worldwide

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Your ultimate guide to the best art and entertainment, food and drink, attractions, hotels and things to do in the world's greatest cities.

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Autumn Peltier, 13-year-old water advocate, addresses UN

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Xiuhtezcatl - Tlahuiliz/Light (Official Video)

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2017 CAP Awards: Sara Abou Rashed "I am America."

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When is skipping school more important than attending? When is a child's design more effective than a professional's? When are children more responsible than adults? On September 20th, millions of children, led by the activist Greta Thunberg, took to the streets to protest the world's inaction on climate change. Here are some of the signs made by children who participated in the New York City march. Inspiring and confrontational, these signs provide a visual counterpoint to the individual voices of our children as they plead with the powers that be to act, and act responsibly.

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Children Lead the Way: A Gallery of Youth-Made Climate-Strike Signs

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When is skipping school more important than attending? When is a child's design more effective than a professional's? When are children more responsible than adults? On September 20th, millions of children, led by the activist Greta Thunberg, took to the streets to protest the world's inaction on climate change.

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Choosing Work for the Bends/Mapping Bends

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Choosing Work for the Bends/Mapping Bends

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I really enjoyed this session and felt like we made a lot of progress with our unit goals. The resources you provided helped guide our thinking and create clear goals.
Next time I would love to look at student samples/data and make new goals for what is needed next and reflect on which goals have been achieved or not.

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Choosing Work for the Bends/Mapping Bends

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Choosing Work for the Bends/Mapping Bends

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Projecting a Writing Unit:
Grade 3
Grade 4

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It was helpful to look at student work and identify the next teaching points.

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It was nice to have some time with student work. That is always a goal, but can be tough to do when meetings are tight.

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I really enjoyed time to analyze student work and make some goals and teaching points based off of those needs. I want to consider the final bends and discuss what assessment might look like.

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Gots
Sorting student work is hard since it's all digital, but we were able to share our screens to share examples of student work. Planning bends the way I would normally is challenging/different because we don't write every day (we can send 2 activities every day to the kids, so for G3 it means they are writing 2-3 times per week). The kids lose momentum between the weeks so the bends are more disjointed than normal.

Wants
More virtual teaching ideas. Since teaching virtually is new for all of us, it would be great to hear what other schools/teachers/EKC suggests doing to best teach writing virtually, especially in the early years when kids are still acquiring foundational skills.

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Strategies for Remote Teaching & Learning

The professional development for online teaching and learning that you've been asking for

An unprecedented pandemic may change the definition of classroom, but it doesn't have to change your definition of good teaching. Jennifer Serravallo's Connecting with Students Online gives you concise, doable suggestions based on her own experiences and those of the teachers, administrators, and coaches she has communicated with during the pandemic.

Watch Jen's webinar about the book!

Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

The professional development for online teaching and learning that you've been asking for

An unprecedented pandemic may change the definition of classroom, but it doesn't have to change your definition of good teaching. Now that you're making the shift to online teaching, it's time to answer your biggest questions about remote, digitally based instruction:

How do I build and nurture relationships with students and their at-home adults from afar?

How do I adapt my best teaching to an online setting?

How do I keep a focus on students and their needs when they aren't in front of me?

Jennifer Serravallo's Connecting with Students Online gives you concise, doable answers based on her own experiences and those of the teachers, administrators, and coaches she has communicated with during the pandemic. Focusing on the vital importance of the teacher-student connection, Jen guides you to:

effectively prioritize what matters most during remote, online instruction

schedule your day and your students' to maximize teaching and learning (and avoid burnout)

streamline curricular units and roll them out digitally

record highly engaging short lessons that students will enjoy and learn from

confer, working with small groups, and drive learning through independent practice

partner with the adults in a student's home to support your work with their child.

Featuring simplified, commonsense suggestions, 55 step-by-step teaching strategies, and video examples of Jen conferring and working with small groups, Connecting with Students Online helps new teachers, teachers new to technology, or anyone who wants to better understand the essence of effective online instruction. Along the way Jen addresses crucial topics including assessment and progress monitoring, student engagement and accountability, using anchor charts and visuals, getting books into students' hands, teaching subject-area content, and avoiding teacher burnout.
During this pandemic crisis turn to one of education's most trusted teaching voices to help you restart or maintain students' progress. Jennifer Serravallo's Connecting with Students Online is of-the-moment, grounded in important research, informed by experience, and designed to get you teaching well-and confidently-as quickly as possible.

Jen will be donating a portion of the proceeds fromConnecting with Students Online to organizations that help children directly impacted by COVID-19.

(click any section below to continue reading)

Sneak Preview

Contents

Chapter 1: Holding True to Priorities as We Move Online

Connection and Relationships

Emotional Wellbeing

Engagement

Clear, Strategic, and Focused Direct Instruction

Guided Practice

Differentiated Instruction

Assessment

Balance

Chapter 2: Partnering with Adults at Home

Make a Video-or Host a Short Live Workshop-to Welcome Caregivers to Your Online Classroom

Survey Students and Families to Understand Needs

Share the Weekly Schedule

Share Notes on Students' Work and Progress

Record How-To Videos for Using Technology

Offer Advice About Setting up a Learning Space at Home

Encourage Caregivers to Develop a Schedule and Routines

Help Families Know What to Do When Things Get Frustrating

Chapter 3: Planning and Revising Curriculum Units for Online Instruction

Step 1: Identify Goals and Skill Progressions

Step 2: Find Anchor Texts

Step 3: Try Out What You'll Ask Students to Do

Step 4: Design Assessments

Step 5: Map Out Daily Reading Lessons with Goals and Strategies

Step 5: Map Out Daily Writing Lessons with Process and Strategies

Streamline and Simplify: Connect Goals Across Subject Areas

Choose Monthly and Unit Focuses: Genre, Content, Independent Projects, or a Mix

Organize Your Curriculum and Resources in a Learning Management System

Approach Your Teaching with Flexibility and Feedback

Chapter 4: Managing Your Time Across a Day, Across the Week
Chapter 5: Setting Up Students' Independent Practice at Home Chapter 6: Methods and Structures for Teaching Online

Understand the Pros and Cons of Synchronous and Asynchronous Teaching

Invite Your Students Online with You for Some Time Each Day

Plan and Record Short Whole Class Lessons

Host "Office Hours" For Student-Initiated Response Time and to Support Adults at Home Who Are Helping Children

Make a Schedule for Conferences and Small Groups

Preserve Space for Professional Learning and Collaboration

Map Out a Weekly Schedule and Set Boundaries

Virtual-Classroom Videos, Featuring Jen and Her Colleagues

Ask Students to Read Every Day

Give Students Access to Paper Books

Adapt Your Teaching to Support Students Who Are Reading E-Books

Adapt Your Teaching to Support Students Who Are Listening to Audiobooks

Create Short Text Packets for Shared Reading Experiences

Rethink What It Means to Match Readers with "Just Right" Texts

Ask Students to Write Every Day

Decide How Your Students Will Compose Their Writing

Give Students Access to Writing Materials and Tools

Set Up a System for Students to Share Some of Their Writing with You

Hold On (Tightly) to Writer's Notebooks

Ask Students to Do Math Every Day

Ask Students to Engage with Content Study Every Day

Develop Community Agreements and Norms for Participating Online

Set Yourself (And Your Students) Up for Videoconferencing

Convert Your Live Mini Lessons to Recorded Micro Lessons

Make Your Micro Lessons More Engaging

Monitor and Guide Independent Practice Time

Read Aloud (Live!) to Build Community

Record Read Aloud to Engage, Support Comprehension, and Collect Data

Study a Mentor Text Together for Writing Craft

Confer with Students Live

Confer with Students When Your Schedules Don't Align

Set Up and Support Reading and Writing Partnerships and Clubs

Engage Reading Partnerships and Clubs with Written "Conversation"

Engage Writing Partnerships and Clubs with Written Feedback

Engage Partnerships and Clubs with Asynchronous Video "Conversation"

Meet with a Small Group of Students with the Same Goal (Strategy Lessons)

Move Your Guided Reading Online

Apply the Tech Tools and Strategies You've Learned to Lead Any Type of Group Online

How to Join Google Meets: Raffaella orients students and their at-home adults to an online environment

How to Check Comments: Raffaella helps students and their at-home adults navigate comments in the online environment

Example Video Lesson: A three-minute writing minilesson video created by Barb on Loom

Example Video Lesson: A three-minute minilesson video about "Unpacking the Facts" created by Jen on Clips

Example Video Lesson: A two-minute minilesson video about setting created by Jen on Clips

Conferring Online with a Kindergartener: One-on-One Video Conference Utilizing Digital Texts and Screensharing

Conferring Online with a Sixth Grader: One-on-One Video Conference without Screensharing

Small Groups Online with Sixth Graders: Coming Up with Ideas

Small Groups Online with Eighth Graders: Mentor Text Study

Related PD Services

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The professional development for online teaching and learning that you've been asking for An unprecedented pandemic may change the definition of classroom, but it doesn't have to change your definition of good teaching. Jennifer Serravallo's Connecting with Students Online gives you concise, doable suggestions based on her own experiences and those of the teachers, administrators, and coaches she has communicated with during the pandemic.

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Fisher, Frey, Hattie

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From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

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From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

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Fisher, Frey, Hattie

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M. Colleen Cruz

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Mistakes are not the problem. The shame we attach to mistakes and inability to grow from them is.

Mistakes are part of learning. Every educator knows this. But what happens before and after a mistake that facilitates that learning is rarely explored practically. Colleen provides research, examples, and tools that help teachers destigmatize mistake-making so that they and their students can do the real work of growth. In Risk. Fail. Rise. teachers will learn how to address their own teaching mistakes, model with their own mistake-making, and improve their responses to others' mistakes.

The more aware we are of why we make mistakes, what we can do to avoid unnecessary ones, and respond to useful ones, the more our classroom will be a place of risk-taking and growth for all students. Lay the groundwork for a mistake- welcoming school culture and embrace positive risk-taking and productive failure in your classroom. The outcomes for you and your students are worth it.

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Mistakes are not the problem. The shame we attach to mistakes and inability to grow from them is. Mistakes are part of learning. Every educator knows this. But what happens before and after a mistake that facilitates that learning is rarely explored practically.

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Take away- teaching the writer not the writing, always a good reminder!

Wonderings - mixing groups so we're not always with the same people who we work with all year. Having teachers write more so everyone gets the experience that we want the students to have.
Looking at student work along a progression so we can see where our students/grade fits in along the continuum

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I appreciated the time to analyze our unit before implementing it and create unit goals. Then we had the chance to look at student samples to create new goals for the upcoming bend, and reflect on the rubric we would use for assessment. This process was extremely enlightening and one I hope to replicate in the future. I will take away the value of the process and the prep work that goes into making it happen. I wonder how the ES team can better use our meeting times (PYP/Grade band meetings) to incorporate some of this work into those meetings.

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It was good to look at how some of these elements of writer's workshop could be translated to virtual learning, even though the dynamics of a virtual class and Seesaw activities take away some of the power of a workshop model.

It was also nice to go through this process as a team so we have common understanding and language.