K-5 Overarching Concepts

• Writing is communication.

• Writing is power.

• Writing is personal and gives voice to ideas.

• Writing is generating ideas and refining thinking.

• Writing is impacted by audience and experience.

• Writing is embedded in a community of inquiry, reflection, and collaboration.

• Writing is an ongoing creative process.

• Sharing writing connects people with one another.

Grade 3 Writing Course Description

Third grade students experience increasing complexity in the following three types of writing:  narrative, informative, and opinion. Students experience the writing process of planning, drafting, revising, editing, and sharing/publishing through writer’s workshop which includes a mini-lesson, writing time (writing, conferring, peer work), and sharing.  Conversations about writing are framed by essential questions and mini-lessons support what students need to know, do, and understand as third grade writers.  Writing for research is embedded in each type of writing.  Students apply conventions through the editing component of writer’s workshop.  Third grade students also use writing as a response to reading through read alouds, small group and independent reading using evidence from the text to support ideas in their writing.  Students also begin to use evidence from the text as a part of their analysis reflected in their writing.  Mentor texts play a key role in providing models during independent writing.

Writer's Workshop Instructional Framework

Unit 1 Our Lives Are Stories:  Narrative Writing

• Narratives connect people with each other’s experiences, interests and beliefs through telling and listening to stories

• Narratives can inform, persuade and/or entertain.

• In every context of life, there is  a story, including past, present, and future events.  

• Narratives come from real or imagined experiences that people can relate to or find believable.

• Narratives tell about events and how characters responded to or felt about them.

• Narratives tell how the events ended or were resolved.

• Narratives can be told from many points of view (ex. narrator, character).

• Story elements interact to  provide a framework for narratives.

• Narratives establish a situation and end with a sense of closure.

• Narratives have a clear event sequence.

• Events in a narrative relate to the situation and move the plot forward.

• Engaging narratives are organized to signal when events happen and how they are connected.

• Writers  elaborate on their narrative by using descriptive language.

• There are many narrative formats.  The best one depends on the writer’s purpose and audience.

Unit 2 Gain and Share Knowledge:  Information Writing

• Writing that informs and explains can create interest in and correct misunderstandings about a topic.

• Informative or explanatory writing is useful when it examines and clearly conveys accurate and relevant information and ideas about a topic.

• Informative or explanatory writing develops points through facts, definitions, and details.

• Informative or explanatory writing sometimes uses text features to help the reader understand.

• Informative or explanatory writing  teaches the reader something by naming specific points about the topic and providing closure.

• Organizing related ideas and grouping them together impacts your reader by making writing more clear

• Writers can gather ideas and knowledge from more than one source or different types of sources.

• Writers can make sure what they write is true by checking multiple sources.

• There are many ways that information and explanations can be shared, and the best format depends on the writer’s purpose and audience.

Unit 3 Understanding Empowers People: Opinion Writing

• People write to express opinions related to a topic.

• People can write opinions to make someone else think, feel, or act differently.

• Opinions come from what writers read, hear, and see.

• Writers’ opinions are shaped by their interests, experiences, who they know, and what they care about.

• Opinion pieces take a clear position or point of view.

• Opinion pieces present reasons that are linked to the topic, supported by facts and details, and presented in a logical order.

• Opinion pieces begin by explicitly introducing the topic and conclude by referring to the overall opinion.

• Opinion pieces have power when organized.

• Opinions can be more or less persuasive

• Opinions must be clear before they can be persuasive. (The audience has to know what the writer is saying before they can decide whether they agree!)

• An opinion becomes persuasive when it  makes a difference in the way someone thinks,  feels, or acts  about something.

• There are many ways to express opinion pieces, the best way depends on the writer's purpose and audience.

Unit 4 Our Lives Are Stories:  Narrative Writing

• Narratives connect people with each other’s experiences, interests and beliefs through telling and listening to stories

• Narratives can inform, persuade and/or entertain.

• In every context of life, there is  a story, including past, present, and future events.  

• Narratives come from real or imagined experiences that people can relate to or find believable.

• Narratives tell about events and how characters responded to or felt about them.

• Narratives tell how the events ended or were resolved.

• Narratives can be told from many points of view (ex. narrator, character).

• Story elements interact to  provide a framework for narratives.

• Narratives establish a situation and end with a sense of closure.

• Narratives have a clear event sequence.

• Events in a narrative relate to the situation and move the plot forward.

• Engaging narratives are organized to signal when events happen and how they are connected.

• Writers  elaborate on their narrative by using descriptive language.

• There are many narrative formats.  The best one depends on the writer’s purpose and audience.