Welcome!
Key Qualities Because covering everything about a mode or a trait is overwhelming, we’ve broken each one down into teachable characteristics—or “key qualities.” For example, the grades K–5 key qualities for the narrative mode are plot, character, and setting, and the grades 3–5 key qualities for the ideas trait are finding a topic, focusing the topic, developing the topic, and using details. Spiraling key qualities across the year, as we’ve done in the unit plans on pages 4–27, allows students to refine their writing skills over time. It reinforces the fact that writing modes and traits work together. A Weekly Plan Now consider how your rich collection of mode lessons and trait lessons might fit into a week of instruction. Here’s what we propose:
We’ve always known the power of teaching students the modes of writing (i.e., narrative, informational, and opinion) and the traits of writing (i.e., the skills to craft their work). But in recent years, we’ve found that linking modes and traits results in stronger writing overall. After all, the modes are WHAT we write and the traits are HOW we write. Our students need both! This guide contains grade-specific unit plans for combining Modes in Focus and Trait Crate Plus and sequencing their 42 lessons. It shows you how to pace the lessons across the school year. For each grade, K–5, we’ve organized the lessons into six four-week, mode-specific units: two narrative, two informational, and two opinion. The units are flexible. You can teach them in any order you wish, but keep these two points in mind: • Keep each unit intact so that your students get the full benefit of writing in the mode, applying all six traits, and using conventions. • Avoid teaching two units on the same mode back-to-back, and instead stagger the modes across the year (e.g., narrative > informational > opinion > narrative > informational > opinion). By doing that, you prevent mode-fatigue—and you are more likely to see your students progress in all three modes across the year and not just in one mode over an eight-week period. Mentor Texts Picture books are powerful teaching tools for every mode and every trait. That’s why we include 12 of them between the two crates, six for teaching modes and six for teaching traits. Each book in Trait Crate Plus represents each trait well. You and your students will notice how the author applied all the traits expertly, but particularly the target trait. Some of the books in Modes in Focus , however, may diverge a bit from the mode for which they were chosen. For example, a book we chose as an informational mentor text may contain an opinion. An opinion mentor text may contain a story. And a narrative text may contain factual information. We call these books “hybrid texts” and believe they represent well what skilled writers do: mix modes. For more information on mode mixing, see pages 66–67 in Teach Writing Well , the professional book in your Modes in Focus crate. For more information on using mentor texts to teach writing, see Chapter 7.
Days 1 and 2: Mode Lesson From a MIF Teaching Guide
Days 3 and 4: Trait Lesson From a TCP Teaching Guide
Day 5: Conventions
• Prepare
Assign Writing Inspired by the Mentor Text
Teach the Lesson
Go Further With the Key Quality
Teach a grade-level standard for conventions and have students apply
Students for the Lesson
it by editing a piece of their writing from this week.
• Teach the Lesson
Start by spending about 45 minutes a day on each lesson, if possible. You’ll likely slow down or speed up lessons, based on your assessment of how they’re going. (See page 28 for assessment guidelines.) It’s writing after all—so that’s expected! Also, if your students are working on long- term, curriculum-based writing projects, consider devoting Day 2 and/or Day 4 to those projects, rather than continuing the mode lesson and/or trait lesson. For Day 5, consult your grade-level standards by school, district, or state for a spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or grammar and usage skill to teach and have students apply to a piece of their writing. Final Thoughts
Companion Websites To access lesson pages for students, assessment tools, video interviews of mentor text authors, and other useful resources, go to each crate’s companion website: Modes in Focus scholastic.com/modesresources password: confidence Trait Crate Plus scholastic.com/traitplusresources password: trait
Don’t expect mastery overnight. Remember, you are working with writers who are learning day by day, lesson by lesson, unit by unit, draft by draft. Over time, trust they will show expertise and understanding. Trust that at the end of the year they will know a lot more about modes and traits than they did at the beginning. By doing that you, too, will learn more about writing right along with your students, and grow professionally. You’ll begin to spot the modes and traits in books and other teaching materials, and create your own lessons and activities—this process is addictive. Teaching writing using mentor texts is a powerful way to invigorate writing instruction.
2 • Modes & Traits: Writing Lessons Across the Year
How to Combine Your Crates and Sequence the Lessons • 3
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