A.  Provide at least three learning goals with measurable objectives (e.g., condition, behavior, and criterion) for your two-week unit of instruction based on your state and/or district content standards that will guide the delivery and assessment of the unit. Be sure to cite these standards.

Applicable Indiana Academic Standards for 4^th grade writing:

4. RV.1 Build and use accurately general academic and content-specific words and phrases. (Indiana Department of Education, 2014)

4. W.3.3 Write narrative compositions in a variety of forms that – Organize events that unfold naturally, using meaningful paragraphing and transitional words and phrases. (Indiana Department of Education, 2014)

4.W.4 Apply the writing process to – Generate a draft by developing, selecting and organizing ideas relevant to topic, purpose, and genre; revise to improve writing, using appropriate reference materials (e.g., quality of ideas, organization, sentence fluency, word choice); edit writing for format and conventions (e.g., spelling, capitalization, usage, punctuation).  (Indiana Department of Education, 2014)

Goal: Students will understand how to use the Ideas and Content trait to organize thoughts and ideas for a writing assignment.

Objective: Given a brainstorming and main idea graphic organizer, students will group related ideas that support the purpose of the essay. I will know a student has met the objective if the student completes the “brainstorm and organize” graphic organizer with ideas for their narrative essay.

Goal: Students will understand that a personal narrative can be fiction or nonfiction.

Objective: Given their completed brainstorming and main idea graphic organizer, students will write a topic sentence and supporting details for their narrative essay.  I will know a student has met the objective if the student completes the Topic Sentence and Supporting Details” graphic organizer providing a sentence that introduces their narrative essay and 3 or more supporting details that expand upon their topic sentence.

Goal: Students will understand the role of characters in a personal narrative.

Objective: Given the graphic organizers students have created in previous lessons in this unit, students will complete a first draft of their narrative essay.  I will know a student has met the objective if the student completes a narrative essay draft that includes their previously written topic sentence and their previously written supporting details organized into sentences and paragraphs.

Goal: Students will understand the role of a topic a sentence and a conclusion in writing a personal narrative.

Objective: Given a corrected copy of their first draft narrative essay, students will write their final draft of their narrative essay.  I will know a student has met the objective if the student writes a final version of their first draft essay using proper sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization with one error or less for every twenty words in the essay.

B.  Discuss how the learning goals and objectives you provided are aligned to your unit of instruction.

In this unit of study, students learn how to use the Six Traits Writing Process to complete a narrative essay writing assignment.  I have written multiple lessons that break this process down into the well-known and researched steps writers should use to complete a writing assignment using the Six Traits Process.

Each of my goals and objectives aligns to the grade level state standards for writing.  My lesson objectives guide students to “organize events that unfold naturally”. A standard calls for students to “Apply the writing process to – Generate a draft by developing, selecting and organizing ideas relevant to topic, purpose, and genre…” I have carefully planned engaging writing activities around this standard that are also tailored to meet the learning needs and abilities of these students.  I have incorporated the six traits process in a grade level appropriate structure, differentiating my instruction to meet the diverse needs of my students.  I have shared sentence starters and adjective lists to assist all students, particularly ELL and lower performing students, with word choices and topic ideas.  I have created challenge activities for higher performing students and early finishers.  I have incorporated partner and group learning activities to engage students with their peers and the learning at deeper and more comfortable level.

We start with the Ideas and Content trait where we learn about and choose a main theme and supporting details for an essay.  We continue with the Organization trait, which we utilize throughout the series of lessons.  As we move through first draft we focus on the Word Choice and Sentence Fluency traits.  We work on “show not tell” so that students are painting pictures with their words.  In modeling and guided instruction we work on the Voice trait in which we really consider our audience and the personality of our narrator.  Once we reach the point of final draft, we are focusing on the Conventions trait in which we critique for good spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. During model and guided we review word choices and sentence fluency so that we write a final essay we can be proud to share on our hallway bulletin board.

The students in my class are accustomed to generating a writing assignment in one single step. They have experience with writing larger projects over the course of days or weeks, but without a process in which they start at the very beginning and write in phases utilizing writing tools and guides such as graphic organizers and multi-step processes.  The Six Traits Process is challenging for them.  Some students are extremely resistant to following this process.  They want to just write and turn in one paper in one sitting because that is what they have always done.  This unit of study was a very valuable learning experience for all of us. 

C.  When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.

Indiana Department of Education. (2014, July). Indiana Academic Standards for English Language Arts. Retrieved March 20, 2016, from DOE.in.gov: http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/standards/enla/grade_4_ias_2014.pdf