Once you complete your narrative writing unit, it is time to pilot it and note what worked and what didn’t. In this book’s epilogue I suggest closing exercises.
As discussed in the previous section, appendices A, B, and C offer a thorough overview of narrative and descriptive text types, elements of literature, and literary devices and figurative language with literary examples respectively should you need more in-depth information. If not, you may bypass these sections or perhaps skim them to find and incorporate any of the material in lessons you devise. If you need a technical overview of dependent clauses and complex sentences to accompany a lesson in chapter 4 on sentence structure, read appendix D.
Next, appendix E lists a compilation of resources for you and your students that I have divided into sections for easy access. This list is a reference for many resources that I mention throughout the book, as well as additional ones you might find useful. As a reminder, the foundational book in the series, The Fundamentals of (Re)designing Writing Units (Glass, 2017a), lists general offerings and a comprehensive array of electronic tools and applications.
Finally, appendix F lists figures and tables for templates, checklists, rubrics, student activities, and more. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy to access these free resources, which you can use to design your narrative unit and conduct lessons.
CHAPTER
1
Building a Narrative Unit Map
This chapter shows a narrative unit map example that features learning outcomes, specifically what you want students to know, understand, and do (KUD), along with guiding questions to frame your units and lessons. These components represent the beginning stage of backward planning. When you reach the exercise later in this chapter, you may download the featured narrative map (visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy) and make revisions, or refer to it as a guide to develop your own map using the blank unit templates. As you read this book, each chapter will provide resources you can use to continue building this map and begin drafting lessons for the narrative genre you will teach. As mentioned in the introduction, should you need background information on narrative writing and what it entails—or perhaps want material to use within lesson planning—refer to appendices A, B, and C on pages 123–148.
To understand the map and the design process, you need to be familiar with backward planning. If this approach falls outside your knowledge and experience and the following section does not provide you with enough information, please consider reading The Fundamentals of (Re)designing Writing Units (Glass, 2017a), which covers each component of backward design in detail, along with examples to illustrate aspects of this approach.
A Review of Backward Design
As a brief review, backward design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) means that you initiate planning your unit (or lesson or course) by reviewing and grouping pertinent content-area standards. Using these standards as a guide, you will identify learning outcomes (KUDs), craft guiding questions, and determine a culminating assessment with success criteria, specifically a checklist and rubric. You can use analytic rubrics and checklists as instructional tools; the former serves as a scoring mechanism as well.
Developing KUDs and guiding questions allows you to determine learning outcomes based on the content standards your state, district, or province expects you to implement. These components provide clarity and direction for determining evidence of learning and then planning meaningful, effective lessons. In doing so, you can expressly construct and implement classroom experiences to meet the targeted goals that you have articulated in the KUDs. Figure 1.1 (page 8) details the components and a suggested sequence, from top to bottom, for developing your units guided by backward design. After identifying the content standards, though, you may change the order of how you develop KUDs from figure 1.1; just remember that designing lessons occurs after you articulate these overarching learning outcomes.
Figure 1.1: Unit-planning components of backward design.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for a free reproducible version of this figure.
The Role of Standards
A unit map is a guide for curriculum development that emanates from content standards. Since narrative writing is the focus, input grade-level literacy standards to support students in producing a genre within this text type. For example, table 1.1 shows examples of writing standards for grade 8 from the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; NGA & CCSSO, 2010), the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS; Texas Education Agency [TEA], 2010), and the Ontario Curriculum (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006). Some standards, like the first two entries in table 1.1, clearly specify narrative or aligned terminology; others, like the Ontario Curriculum (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006), are open ended and rely on the teacher, school, or district to determine what the writing focus entails. You will also need to address other writing standards, such as those related to the writing process, development, coherence, style, and organization, as well as considering the task, purpose, and audience. Additionally, add key writing skills related to grammar and conventions that might appear under a strand or category other than writing.
In addition to narrative writing standards, target other literacy expectations, such as reading, listening, and speaking. Because students will read and examine many texts from published authors and students for a variety of purposes, it is imperative to target standards related to these other strands. Furthermore, if you teach a core or humanities class that combines language arts and history, you might ask students to integrate the two. For example, students can demonstrate understanding of what they have read and learned about the events, places, and individuals of a particular time period by writing historical fiction. Or they can compose a myth that represents cultural values of a specific civilization. If this resonates with you as a viable and effective direction for your unit, incorporate relevant history and social studies standards too. Inputting a combination of all applicable standards—literacy and subject specific—will serve to guide you as you design the key learning outcomes and the culminating assessment, which then focuses your lesson design.
If you do not know the content that you are expected to teach well enough, or the standards do not supply enough information (which is often the case), conduct research to increase your own professional expertise. To do so, rely on multiple references, such as textbooks that span different grades. These could include college-level texts and materials, online resources, and colleagues who are more experienced in the area. Additionally, find anchor papers and examine published and student writing samples that exemplify excellence so that you operate under correct assumptions about the