INTERESTING BEGINNINGS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH AUTHORS: Mischa Nall & Trichelle Nishida GRADE: 2 SUBJECT: UNIT TOPIC: CONCEPT: Language Arts: Writing Writing an autobiography Change - Growth GENERALIZATIONS Change is necessary for growth. Changes in your life and around you help shape who you are today. Change is sequence of cause and effect. FACTS/TERMS: Autobiography Purpose Graphic Organizers Draft Revise Edit Proofread Audience STANDARDS SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES: Organization and Focus 1.1 Group related ideas and maintain a consistent focus. Penmanship 1.2 Create readable documents with legible handwriting.
Evaluation and Revision 1.4 Revise original drafts to improve sequence and provide more descriptive details. Capitalization 1.6 Capitalize all proper nouns, words at the beginning of sentences and greetings, months and days of the week, and titles and initials of people. Writing 2.1 Write brief narratives based on their experiences: a. Move through a logical sequence of events. b. Describe the setting, characters, objects, and events in detail. Why you are writing is your purpose. Autobiographies can be about your entire life, a certain time in your life, or some events that are special. Effective beginnings make your readers interested in what you ve written ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is the most interesting thing that has happened to you and what led up to it? MATERIALS Open Court Grade 2 PRE- ASSESSMENT: Informal and formal assessment based on previous writing assignments and district assessments.
What is an Autobiography? Differentiation based upon interest Generalization: Changes in your life and around you help shape who you are today. Objectives: After a class discussion about what an autobiography is, students will listen to examples given by the teacher. In pairs or individually, students will then select an autobiography, available in various reading levels, and read it together. Differentiation based upon interest The Writing Process Generalization: Objective: Changes in your life and around you help shape who you are today. Introduce the steps in the Writing Process and focus on planning/prewriting today. Students will choose their audience and their purpose for writing their autobiography. (Writer s Workbook, page 2) Individually, students will fill out a graphic organizer with basic information about themselves. (Autobiography Planning Page)
Timeline Differentiation based upon interest Generalizations: Change is necessary for growth. Change is sequence of cause and effect. Objective: Students will use another graphic organizer (a timeline) to plan events in their life in order. They can either choose a brief sequence of events, or their life as a whole. Interesting Beginnings Differentiation based on student readiness Generalization: Change is necessary for growth. Teach a lesson on drafting and creating interesting beginnings. Objectives: In heterogeneous groups of four, students will brainstorm ideas for an interesting beginning sentence and share these with the whole class. Individually, students will start their drafts of a single paragraph. Students who are ready will include an engaging beginning.
Drafting a Paragraph Differentiation based on student readiness Generalizations: Change is necessary for growth. Changes in your life and around you help shape who you are today. Change is sequence of cause and effect. Objective: Students will continue working on their drafts. The teacher will give mini-lessons and individual help as necessary. Revision and Proofreading Differentiation based on student readiness Generalization: Change is sequence of cause and effect. Objectives: Further Teach a lesson on revision and proofreading. Students will revise their own work. Based on student readiness, they will either make 2 or 5 revisions on their work. Students will then pick a partner and read their papers to each other and make constructive suggestions. The teacher will continue to give mini-lessons and individual help as necessary.
Editing Objectives: Teach a lesson on punctuation and editing. Students will edit their papers individually using a rubric as a checklist. When they are finished, they will choose a partner, and edit each other s papers. After they edit with a partner, they will conference with the teacher. Publishing Differentiation based on student interest and readiness Generalizations: Change is necessary for growth. Changes in your life and around you help shape who you are today. Change is sequence of cause and effect. Objective: Students will begin publishing and the teacher will continue to meet with those who are finished with peer editing. Teach a lesson on publishing. Anchor Activity for All Students: Based Upon: Readiness, Interest, Student Profile Objective: After making a timeline and writing a paragraph based on students lives, he/she can create either: o A cartoon strip based on the events of their life, still using appropriate sequence and voice, or o A play that they can perform for the class based on events from their life
Autobiographical Sketch Tiered based upon Readiness and Interest Less advanced students: After students have created a timeline based on any of their personal experiences, they will write a paragraph listing these events. They will exhibit proper capitalization, ending punctuation, legible penmanship, and a logical sequence. They will then make at least two revisions. Students at grade level and above: After students have created a timeline based on any of their personal experiences, they will draft a paragraph using these events and adding descriptive details, as well as an engaging beginning to interest the reader. They will then make at least five revisions, using appropriate proofreading marks. They will also try to find their own creative voice by using interesting word choice. Their final copy will exhibit proper capitalization, ending punctuation, legible penmanship, a logical sequence, and will stay on topic. Assessment: Students writing will be graded based on Six Traits of Writing Rubric.
Six Traits of Writing Rubric Student Self-Evaluation Content 4 Stays on topic and has great supporting details 3 Stays on topic and has some good supporting details 2 Not always on topic, few or unrelated details 1 Off the topic or unrelated information Organization 4 Has very good beginning, middle and conclusion 3 Has beginning, middle and conclusion 2 Some beginning-end, but not a sense of wholeness 1 Not organized Word Choice 4 Excellent, effective word choice 3 Good word choice 2 Word choice is mostly simple and plain 1 The words don't paint a picture Sentence Fluency 4 Well written variety of sentences 3 Some variety of sentences 2 Sentences are almost all the same 1 Sentences are all the same, or incomplete Voice 2 The voice of the writer comes through 1 Some voice of the writer comes through 0 It's hard to tell who it is written by Capitalization and Punctuation 2 Correct capitalization and punctuation 1 Mostly correct capitalization and punctuation 0 Incorrect capitalization and punctuation Verbs and Complete Sentences 2 Correct use of verbs, complete sentences 1 Mostly correct use of verbs, complete sentences 0 Incorrect use of verbs, incomplete sentences Spelling 2 Correct spelling of common words 1 Usually spells common words correctly 0 Often spells common words incorrectly Teacher Evaluation Content 4 Stays on topic and has great supporting details 3 Stays on topic and has some good supporting details 2 Not always on topic, few or unrelated details 1 Off the topic or unrelated information Organization 4 Has very good beginning, middle and conclusion 3 Has beginning, middle and conclusion 2 Some beginning-end, but not a sense of wholeness 1 Not organized Word Choice 4 Excellent, effective word choice 3 Good word choice 2 Word choice is mostly simple and plain 1 The words don't paint a picture Sentence Fluency 4 Well written variety of sentences 3 Some variety of sentences 2 Sentences are almost all the same 1 Sentences are all the same, or incomplete Voice 2 The voice of the writer comes through 1 Some voice of the writer comes through 0 It's hard to tell who it is written by Capitalization and Punctuation 2 Correct capitalization and punctuation 1 Mostly correct capitalization and punctuation 0 Incorrect capitalization and punctuation Verbs and Complete Sentences 2 Correct use of verbs, complete sentences 1 Mostly correct use of verbs, complete sentences 0 Incorrect use of verbs, incomplete sentences Spelling 2 Correct spelling of common words 1 Usually spells common words correctly 0 Often spells common words incorrectly
Autobiography Timeline Name Introduction First... Then... Next... Later... Finally...