Topics

Fiction and Nonfiction texts are very different.  Explain how you a reader would know that a text is nonfiction.

Where to begin with Expository Writing

Identify the characteristics of expository writing

• read a personal narrative with the students
• read an expository essay with the students
• compare/contrast the two pieces to identify the prominent features

Here is a quick comparison I did in dabbleboard. 
The list of how they are alike can go on and on, so I added the differences first.

Collecting Ideas as Essayist - Lucy Calkins Book 3 : Lesson 1 - This Lucy lesson talks to the kids about essay writing and how it is different  from personal narrative writing.  I really like how she starts off... 
         

"Writers, when I heard your personal narratives yesterday, I felt as if I was right there with you, experiencing the small moments of your lives.  Congratulations! I think you are ready to graduate.  The entries you have collected  and the stories  you have developed are wonderful - but writers don't just write about small moments stories................Today we are going to begin writing in a radically different way.  Instead of writing stories about small moments, we will write about big ideas"

I'm not sure our kids are ready to graduate.... haha.  However, this could be added to the comparison chart as well when the kids are ready for it.

Prompt Cookie Jar - This activity is an ongoing practice.  Once a day, pull a prompt from the cookie jar and read it aloud.  Allow the students to confer with each other and decie whether this prompt would be best suited for personal narrative or expository.  It may help to use your anchor chart that show the differences between the two types.

Generate Ideas for expository writing - Have the students make a table with four boxes of lists to keep in their writer's notebooks:  Things I like, Things I care about, Things I'm interested in, Things I do for fun. 

• insert image of four window foldable

Finding & Crafting  Thesis Statements - Lucy Calkins Book 3 - Lesson 6 - this lesson makes reference to lesson 5, so you may want to take a look at that one.

Boxes and Bullets: Framing Essays - Lucy Caulkins Book 3: lesson  7 - the lesson in the book shows how to take a central idea and develop three supports using the word because.  The video shares two other ways of thinking:  three kinds and three parts......see below

I found this online - so only look at the bottom half

Stand & Deliver Speeches- Short on the spot speech in a team of two or three.  Students will explain one of their supports for any given topic.  This would tie into the boxes and bullets lesson if you kept some of the samples on index cards.  They could pull out their samples.  Choose one and then have 60 seconds to explain one of their supports to a partner. 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
·         Identifying Characteristics of Expository Writing ·         Generate Ideas ·         Finding & Crafting a Thesis ·         Boxes & Bullets                                             Begin Cookie Jar
·         Continue with Boxes & Bullets ·         Begin To Develop your supports ·         Share a kid friendly rubric Cookie Jar