1. 3 Week Genre Units to Teach Reading & Writing Presented by: Michelle Antonacci, M. Ed., Reading Specialist Lori Gross, M. Ed., Assistant Principal Virginia Beach City Public Schools michelle.antonacci@vbschools.com lori.gross@vbschools.com

2. Why 3 Week Genre Units? The purpose of the 3 Week Planning Model is to…  Help teachers manage the Language Arts curriculum which is often overwhelming.  Help teachers manage the minutes contained in a Language Arts block.  Integrate science and social studies content.  Ensure that reading and writing are a reciprocal process.

3. What Are The Benefits of the 3 Week Model? The benefits of the model include:  A cohesive focus that allows instruction to “go deep vs. going wide”.  Instruction that is deliberate and purposeful as all components of language arts are aligned through the common genre.  Common language across all students/levels within a classroom.  Opportunity for students learn how to “read like writers” as they read various genres and analyze author’s craft within each one; thereby increasing writing ability.

4. What Does the Research Say About Reading and Writing?  Teachers can support their students’ reading and writing development through focused re-readings of text followed by opportunities for students to apply literary elements and techniques in their own writing.  Young writers must balance the demands of creating content while deliberately attending to the physical demands of writing such as spelling, handwriting, or typing. The opportunity to examine an author’s craft while reading like writers, serves as a bridge between the two literary activities.  Teaching students the writing skills and processes that go into creating text is linked to significant growth in students’ reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word reading skills.

5. 3 Week Genre Unit – Components & Instructional Delivery Models  Whole Group Shared Reading or Shared Writing Lessons  Small Group Learning – guided reading or guided writing focus  Inductive Activities/Literacy Tasks  Independent Daily Reading (IDR)  Vocabulary Lessons  Greek & Latin Roots Lessons

6. What Does a 3-Week Unit Look Like?  Week 1  Has a predominant reading focus, meaning the teacher is primarily delivering instruction that teaches/explains the characteristics of the genre and models how to approach the genre as a strategic reader.  Explicit connections are also made to the author’s purpose and craft so that students understand that reading a particular genre enables them to write in that same genre.  All reading in whole group/shared lessons and in small group learning requires a verbal and written response. This response is in the form of various graphic organizers and teacher created response packets.

7. What Does a 3-Week Unit Look Like?  Week 2  Has a predominant writing focus, meaning the teacher is primarily delivering instruction that teaches/explains the characteristics of the author’s craft and models how to approach the genre as a strategic writer.  All writing in whole group/shared lessons and in small group learning begin with a prompt and prompt analysis prior to the prewriting/brainstorming and subsequent steps of the writing process.

8. What Does a 3-Week Unit Look Like?  Week 3  Provides time for teachers and students to wrap up the instruction from Weeks 1 & 2 – time is available for re- teaching and/or remediation based on formative assessment data gathered.  New instructional components in Week 3 are vocabulary instruction lessons (teacher created based on the research of Beck, McKeown, and Kucan in Bringing Words to Life – Robust Vocabulary Instruction) in grades 4 & 5 and Independent Daily Reading (IDR) in grades 2-5.  IDR is being implemented with the primary goals of: exposing students to grade level text and building stamina for reading as students are required to complete multiple drafts of reading.

9. 3 Week Genre Unit - Gr. 5 Realistic Fiction Strategy Focus:  Predicting (make, confirm, revise)  Make Connections (within and across texts & situations)  Summarize (during and after reading w/details) Skill Focus:  Describe the development of plot & explain the resolution of conflict  Describe character development to include: feelings/traits/motives  Identify theme Inductive Activity: Feeling/Trait/Motive Snapshot Sort Related Writing:  Personal Narrative IDR: Basal Selection: Going with the Flow Vocab Lesson: Mr. Peabody’s Apples by Madonna

10. Example of Narrative Writing Prompt  Think about problems you have solved in your life. These problems may have been with your family, at school, or with a friend. What actions or words did you use to help you solve the problems? Based upon the actions or words you used, identify character traits that best describe you.

11. TAPF o Topic –Problems I have solved in my life o Audience- 5 th grade teacher o Purpose- To entertain o Format- 5 paragraph essay

12. Additional Information Bringing Words to Life Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown & Linda Kucan Approaching Text as Writers by Holly H. Robbins, Radford University