** I chose this topic because M.L. King Jr. is an important historical figure in American history. You could use any historical figure for this lesson, as long as you have an informational text that has details for the students. My class had done a previous lesson, M. L. King, Jr., His Story, about this character, so they brought a lot of ideas to the unit.
In Part 1 of this writing unit, Organize Your Narrative, students used an organizer to write a sequence of main ideas and details about Martin Luther King, Jr. In part 2, Draft & Edit a Star Narrative, students wrote a rough draft and edited it. In this final lesson of the unit, students will create a final draft and then make a project to demonstrate what they know - a 'trading card' about Martin Luther King, Jr.
Second graders need time to work through these writing steps of the writing process (brainstorm, organize, rough draft, edit, final draft). The district expectation for my students is to create a five paragraph essay, aligning with the Common Core Standards of composing a variety of types of essays, including narratives that recount a sequence of events. (W.2.3).Guiding students through each step and giving them practice will ultimately be independent writers.
To give you more background about how to help students write a five paragraph essay, I encourage you to look at an earlier unit - Writing with Main Idea and Details - that I taught about writing expository essays.
Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics. The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students’ academic vocabulary. My words are color coded ‘pink’ for literature/’blue’ for reading strategies/’orange’ for informational text/'yellow' for writing/’green’ for all other words)
Common starting point
My goal in this short introduction is to remind the students of why we are writing about this famous man and to expose them to some details of his life, especially the quotes. This information will be needed for the project.
Give the purpose and background of the lesson
Give students time to write
I make a BIG deal out of creating this final paper. The students have worked for THREE long days creating this paper and I want them to be proud of all of their hard work. Writing a five paragraph essay is not easy for a second-grader, but as they finish, they are proud of how nice their writing looks. This is a intrinsic pay-off... they feel good that they've worked hard.
Explain and Demonstrate
This is a fun website, but still educational. I love the fact that it asks kids to reflect about why they admire this person and also asks for a quote. I did print this out for my kids and they glued the cards together. We put them in the hall with our final drafts. As students add these visual displays to their recounts of they clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings about this person (SL.2.5)
Let kids work
Kids Reflect for me
This information about their opinions about the project and writing is invaluable to me. Now that we've finished this 3 day project, I want them to reflect back. I have some reluctant writers and I am curious about their thoughts about the writing.