What strengths, capacities, and interests, in terms of students’ content understanding (prior knowledge), academic and literacy development, personal and cultural abilities, and development as a learning community, are you taking into account in planning this unit?

Students are familiar with the writer’s workshop format and have just finished a unit on opinion writing. Students also finished a unit on narratives where they practiced writing on numerous pages, but will need practice writing that much again.

I know some students may need extra help and work better in a small group with Mrs. Lloyd. I may also give some students a template to help them focus their thoughts. I ended up giving all students this template and it worked well to help them focus in on what they needed to write.

What particular needs of your students—academic, social, personal, language (ELLs)—have you taken into account in planning the unit? What will they need to be able to do in order to meet the learning goals?

Students will need to write multiple pages on one topic, which can be quite difficult. I will teach different strategies to help students continue to think about what they can write in their books. Some students will need a graphic organizer or template to help them get started, so I will try to provide that for the students who need it.

Because teaching strategies was overwhelming when students were not yet ready to write multiple pages, we took a step back and instead planned out the writing before using writing paper. This really helped my ELLs who struggle with all of the vocabulary, and those students who take longer to write. Because writing four pages is so daunting, they began by answering four questions in four boxes. Each box corresponded to a page, labeled with a heading at the top. This structure was easy to copy over on writing paper, and students were very successful.

Explain how research and best practice ideas have informed your plan.

I originally planned my unit around Lucy Calkins, Kristine Mraz, and Barbara Golub’s book Nonfiction Chapter Books. I incorporated her writer’s workshop model into an informational writing unit, pulling mini lessons and anchor chart ideas from her. However I soon realized that my students needed additional structure and support during their writing process, and did not yet have enough stamina or practice to write prolifically. Knowing this I took a step back from Lucy Calkins, and went back to Pauline Gibbons and her research on ELLs. All of my lessons included multiple points of entry, through discussion, modeling, written and spoken directions, mini conferencing, and through independent and group work. All of my lessons featured the “I do, we do, you do strategy,” and began with clear modeling of my expectations. As I modeled I was thinking out loud, asking students questions, and getting their help with my writing. I made sure my students were supported, but that there was enough choice to make it engaging.

The graphic organizer also helped my students address each component successfully and incorporate them into their writing. First, key questions at the top of the box guided students to think about different aspects of an animal. The written headings also helped ELL students because it gave them key vocabulary words that students could use to write their sentences. The questions also focused their attention on one detail, so students were less overwhelmed with the process and could focus on writing prolifically.