ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Data from the 2004 North Dakota State Assessment, the district School Improvement Plan, scientific research, and personal observations were the rationale for developing this unit. After viewing the North Dakota Reading Assessment, I compared the overall performance levels of our district’s fourth grade students to the overall aggregated performance results of fourth graders statewide. The test was given on February 23, 2004. The data showed me that the fourth graders in our district rated at the following overall performance levels in reading: Advanced, 36% (state, 24%); Proficient, 52% (state, 56%); Partially Proficient, 6% (state, 15%); and Novice, 6% (state, 4%). In matching that information to Standard 2: Engage in the Reading Process, I find that our fourth graders rated slightly higher than the state average with 82% correct in Benchmark 2: Make/confirm predictions to understand text; and 75% correct in Benchmark 5: Use clues to determine the meaning of words.  The state aggregate scores on those two benchmarks were 77% and 74% respectively. Our district’s fourth grade scores relating to Standard 1: Gather and organize information, were also higher than the state average. On Benchmark 1: Understand main idea and supporting details,  our fourth graders scored at 80% while the state average was at 76%. This information gives me a foundation for the second grade standards that I am using in this unit: Standard #1: Students engage in the research process; Standard #2: Students engage in the reading process, and Standard #3: Students engage in the writing process.
Tierney and Shanahan’s research reveals that reading and writing should go hand in hand to promote higher order thinking. They state that classrooms that actively foster meaning construction through reading and writing will produce better thinkers. This research supports my rationale to blend reading and writing activities to promote higher level thinking in my classroom. By linking the reading process to the writing process students will meet Language Arts, Standard #2: Students engage in the reading process and Standard #3: Students engage in the writing process.
As our School Improvement goals moves towards improving the writing skills of our students, it has been my experience that the students’ interests in writing are decreasing. I have observed many times that when I approach a writing assignment the majority of students groan, sigh, and become frustrated. In an effort to alleviate this growing problem, I want to bring enthusiasm back to reading and writing with this unit.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: Since a love of reading often encourages lifelong learning, engaging students in the reading and writing process will lead to happy and productive adults. I want my students to have competent skills as they approach reading and writing tasks. Competency in these areas will give them confidence so that they can communicate effectively, both professionally and personally.
Goal(s): 1. Students will develop reading and writing skills.  2. Students will demonstrate a competency in writing, believing that they, too, are authors. 3. Students will develop an appreciation for different authors writing styles.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. How does an author develop his/her writing style? 2. Where do authors come up with their ideas? 3. How does what’s “in your head” get on paper?
Objectives: 1. Given an author to research and a checklist, the students will be able to identify at least three characteristics that make that author a “fun author.”  2. After discussing various samples of writing, students will be asked to bring in two different literary works of interest to them (i.e. short stories, poems, kids magazines, etc.) and identify that writing occurs in various forms.  3. Using internet resources, the students will research authors and describe what influenced their writing, scoring in the A/B range on a rubric.  4. Given many opportunities to view resources on authors, the students will write their personal author page with 100% accuracy.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer)will provide evidence of understanding?
Students will be assessed based on their accurately returning two different literary work samples.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
Many open ended questions will be asked to assess if they can identify various authors, types of literary works, and the benefits of writing.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
1. Students will create a web showing what they’ve learned about different types and purposes of writing. 2. Students will invite guests to the “Meet the Second Grade Authors” party where they will share the class authors book. They will sign their pages and they read their page to the guests.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
A large indicator for me will be a change in the student’s attitude to the prompt that it’s time to begin a writing assignment. I will watch for journal writing to improve in not only content, but interest.

Instructional Strategies

Students will use a combination of inquiry-based and problem-based to answer the questions: “Why is writing important?” or “Who can write?”. Some questions presented will be individually answered, and some will be think, pair, share. Project- based activities will also take place as the students design a web of knowledge and end with their author page and Kid Pix slideshow illustrating a poem. The opportunity for whole group activities will be provided. The students will be doing research and sharing in cooperative learning groups throughout the unit.