Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
Unit Six—The Craft of Fiction: Using Figurative
Language, Symbolism and Point of View to Highlight
Themes
Welcome to the Unit
Following the test, students will return to narrative writing with the unit The Craft of
Fiction: Using Figurative Language, Symbolism and Point of View to Highlight Themes. For
this unit, and especially for the start of the unit, you’ll want to rejuvenate your writing
workshop and build a renewed atmosphere of engagement and stamina. You will find that
your students are dying to write fiction, and their zeal is something to behold—they are
ready to invest heart and soul in this unit and eager to write more and work harder than
before. You want your writers choosing what moments from a story they will tell. They
should think not only what happens in those moments but also about how they can write
those moments well enough that readers can experience them. You’ll want to encourage
your fourth graders to carry forward everything they learned about narrative craft in
earlier units, especially in The Arc of Story, using what they know in service of writing
compelling, realistic, craft-filled fictional stories.
At it’s heart, this unit is about reading-writing connections. Either in February or now, your
students will be engaged in Interpretation Text Sets, revisiting texts again and again in
order to do the complex work of laying these texts against each other and looking for
themes, symbols, and metaphors which run across them all. Students will be making
connections, comparing, contrasting and analyzing all that they notice, and will therefore
be primed and ready to transfer the CCSS reading standards 4, 5, and 6 to their writing.
That is, they’ll learn to make choices as authors (just as they study the choices other
authors make), and to use figurative language and other narrative techniques to bring forth
important themes and messages. Students will learn to play with word choice, symbolism,
metaphor, perspective, just as they see published authors doing. In the end, we know that if
they can do it as writers, they can recognize it as readers, and vice versa.
The energy created by this unit will be both a wonderful resource and a challenge.
Youngsters are no sooner out of the starting gate when they are writing stories that are
longer than anything they have ever written. As wonderful as this is, conferences can
become cumbersome. Partnerships become awkward simply because sharing the stories
can take forever. Students begin to focus on plot and forget about the qualities of good
storytelling. Finally, they often outstrip their powers, taking on projects that lead to long,
unwieldy, and sometimes never-ending stories! Don’t despair. In this second fiction unit of
the year, students will have the chance to tackle fiction yet again, bringing a deeper, more
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
sophisticated knowledge to the genre. You will consistently remind them of what they
learned back in the fall, all-the-while putting a new emphasis on the relationship between
meaning and craft. This will mean that children are no longer telling stories for story-sake.
Instead, they approach the writing of a story with an intended message (perhaps sharing
the harshness of bullying with readers, or revealing the trials and tribulations of growing
up) and making choices throughout the writing process to forward that meaning. That is,
once a writer knows what they want to say, they make purposeful choices while planning,
rehearsing, drafting, revising and editing. In this unit, you will teach children the power of
craft, figurative language, perspective, and the like when attempting to bring forth meaning
in a story.
Overview
Essential Question: How can I use word choice, symbolism, metaphor, perspective,
and other narrative techniques to bring forth important themes and messages in
fictional stories?
Bend I: Creating and Developing Stories that Bring Forth Meaning
How can I be purposeful in my use of figurative language and writing craft, using both to bring
forth meaning in my fictional stories?
Bend II: Drafting and Revising with an Emphasis on Bringing Out Our Intended
Meaning
How can I use perspective, comparisons, setting descriptions and other kinds of craft to show my
reader what my story is really about?
Bend III: Drafting and Revising a New Story, This Time Relying On Mentor Texts
and Reading-Writing Connections to Raise the Level Our Work
How can I draft and revise a new story, this time relying on mentor texts and reading-writing
connections to raise the level of my work?
CCSS/LS Standards Addressed in this Unit
This unit builds on all of the writing skills your students have been accumulating in the
years before fourth grade, and your year thus far. As mentioned in The Arc of Story, the
Common Core State Standards call for extremely high achievement levels in the writing of
narratives, charging fourth graders to write with an awareness of audience and careful
attention to craft, expecting that writers will “orient a reader,” and “use concrete words
and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.” (W 4.3 a, d).
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
In addition, the Common Core expects fourth grader writers of narrative to show more
control over how stories unfold, asking them to “organize an event sequence that unfolds
naturally,” “use a variety of transition words and phrases to manage the sequence of
events” and “provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events”
(W. 4.3 a, c, e). Writers must show a strong grasp of craft moves and in addition, consider
the meaning they want to bring out in their narrative in order to meet these expectations.
This unit addresses these standards and more, building on the proficiencies your students
began to attain in the fall, and moving students yet closer to the end-of-year standards.
This unit also teaches students to bring a writerly consciousness to the reading of literary
texts, and in turn, to wrestle with writerly choices in their own writing. That is, as students
study mentor texts and decide what and how to convey in their writing, they will be
working toward Common Core State Standards 4, 5, and 6 for reading literature.
Assessments
Establishing a Baseline before the Unit Begins
If you have been following the course of units we’ve laid out for fourth graders, then your
students will now be entering their second narrative unit of the year. Chances are good that
they showed great progress during the first unit of study, and that you have data on the
ways in which they grew during that unit, and the teaching you still need to do. You will
want to have data-in-hand as you plan for this unit, tailoring it to meet the specific needs of
your students. In order to establish a fresh baseline (and see what children have held onto
from your teaching in September), we recommend that you administer an on-demand
assessment prior to beginning this unit. As you did earlier in the year, we suggest you use
the following prompt:
“I’m really eager to see how you’ve grown as narrative writers, writers of stories, since the
beginning of the year. So today, will you please write the best personal narrative, the best
small moment story, that you can write? Make this be the story of one time in your life. You
might focus on just a scene or two. You’ll have only forty-five minutes to write this true story,
so you’ll need to plan, draft, revise, and edit in one sitting. Write in a way that allows you to
show off all you know about narrative writing. In your writing, make sure you:
●
●
●
●
●
“Write a beginning for your story
Use transition words to tell what happened in order
Elaborate to help readers picture your story
Show what your story is really about
Write an ending for your story”
At this point in the year, you are familiar with the tools we set forth in Assessment Ladders,
and you’ll want to rely on these learning progressions, rubrics, benchmarks pieces and
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
checklists to assess the work children do on this initial assessment. Your data will be
infinitely more powerful if you compare it to the data you collected at the beginning of the
year. Remember that each level on the learning progression represents a full year’s worth
of growth. Therefore, don’t be surprised if your student who was at Level 4 in September is
still at Level 4. Instead, study the growth students have made in relation to specific
descriptors (say, “elaboration” or “organization”). Chances are good you will find places
where children have made growth, and other places where they have remained stagnant.
You’ll want to take note of these specifics, sharing them with each individual child. “At the
beginning of the year, you organized your writing like this (and then name out the
descriptor for Level 3 organization). But now you are organizing like this (and then name
out or show an example of organization at Level 4). What growth! One thing I’m noticing is
that you are still elaborating by doing...” and then teach the child how to move his or her
use of elaboration up a level.
Then too, you will want to take careful note of children who are not yet at-standard. While
it was okay for children to write at Level 3 at the beginning of the year (remember, Level 3
represents end-of-third grade standards), a child who is still writing at Level 3 should raise
alarms. Why didn’t they make progress during The Arc of the Story? In which areas are they
struggling most? Are there sessions you should revisit before teaching anything new? You’ll
want to tailor your individual and small group teaching to ensure that these children leave
this unit writing as close to grade-standards as possible. Of course, don’t forget about your
students who are writing above grade-level! You might consider looking at the fifth grade
book--Narrative Writing--to plan for individualized teaching that will meet the needs of
these advanced writers. Last but not least, consider sharing your assessment data with
your colleagues at a grade meeting. It can be incredibly illuminating to see the differences
across classrooms. Why, exactly, did one teacher’s children make incredible growth in
elaboration, but not organization, while another’s seem to have mastered the art of
structuring a compelling story? Recognizing each other’s pockets of expertise and then
sharing methods and best practices can help spread the wealth amongst you and your
colleagues. Ultimately, it’s not only the teachers but the students that win out from this sort
of collaboration!
Getting Ready
Organizing for the Unit and Gathering Materials
We suggest you take a bit of time to get ready for this unit and gather materials. As always,
you’ll want to begin by reading through this write-up, first getting a general sense of the
terrain and reading more specifically for the teaching points that will guide each day’s
teaching. You’ll also want to consider the materials you’ll need to support this unit. Just as
you have with other writing units, decide on the mentor piece you will write alongside the
children. You’ll want to develop a story idea that is different from the one you used in
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
September, and will want to choose something that lends itself to the work of the unit. That
is, make sure to choose a story that has a significant meaning behind it, and one that is
replete with opportunities to ‘play around’ with various forms of author’s craft. You’ll also
want to consider the topic you’ll write about. We recommend choosing something your
children can identify with, and ideally something that will grab their intention. So while a
story about the difficulties of letting go as your children grow older may be something that
you care deeply about, it is unlikely that your students will be able to relate to your
experiences. A story about growing up, dealing with parent pressure, or navigating the
tricky tides of friendships is more apt to be a topic that seizes and holds their attention.
Then too, because they can relate to the message you are attempting to convey as a writer,
students will be able to contribute to the thinking you do about your story.
In addition to your own mentor text, you will want to consider the published texts you will
rely on. If you followed the unit, The Arc of Story, your students know Julie Brinckloe’s
classic Fireflies! well. This will be a text you can return to again in this unit, this time
focusing even more on Brinckloe’s use of craft to convey meaning. We also recommend you
choose another, new text to mine with children. We recommend using the text you have
chosen for Interpretation Text Sets. If you follow the suggestions made in our curricular
calendar write-up for that unit, this will mean beginning with Sharon Creech’s Love That
Dog (Lexile Level 1010, Fountas and Pinnell Level T) and then bringing in a paired text
such as “Stray” from Every Living Thing by Cynthia Rylant (Lexile Level 870, Fountas and
Pinnell Level R). The text of Love That Dog is not complex, the fact that it is a narrative told
in verse, however, does invite (even require) more interpretive reading. The two texts in
tandem offer an opportunity for a study on the representation of dogs, and the similarities
and differences in writing style and representation will offer ample ideas to your writers.
Bend I: Creating and Developing Stories that Bring Forth Meaning
Generating Meaningful Story Ideas and Revising As We
Collect
If you taught The Arc of Story, you will remember beginning
with the sessions “Imagining Stories from Ordinary
Moments” and “Imagining Stories We Wish Existed in the
World.” Both of these collecting strategies likely yielded
powerful story blurbs for students, and you’ll want to begin
this unit by reminding them of the generating strategies they
already know. Then too, even on day one of the unit, you
might remind students that writers find strategies less and
less essential as they grow as writers. That is, it is likely they
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"Writers, today I want to teach
you that the moments that
stand out in our lives are often
more than we realize. When
these moments feel important it
is usually because they have big
issues or feelings hiding behind
them. Therefore, one way to
generate an idea for a story is to
not just write down what will
happen in the plot, but what the
story is really about. Then write
a story blurb that tells not just
what happened but about the
bigger meaning or significance."
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
will find themselves coming to writing workshop each day already knowing the story they
want to try writing, or the character they want to develop. Writers develop story ideas all
day long, not just during writing workshop, and often these ideas come to them when they
aren’t even writing at all! Of course, though, you’ll want to offer children a few concrete
strategies they can add to their repertoire. You might begin this unit again with ordinary
moments, this time emphasizing the fact that fiction writers get ideas for stories from small
moments in their lives with big meaning. In order to write powerfully in this unit, children
will need to begin with significant story ideas. So, you might help them realize that the
swing set story they wrote is not really about a day at the park at all, but really about
wanting to be just like their older sibling. “The moments that stand out in our lives,” you
might begin, “are often about more than we realize. When moments feel important, it is
usually because they have big issues or feelings hiding behind them. When we develop an idea
for a story, it’s important to not just write down what will happen in the plot, but what the
story is really about.” Show children how you can ask, “What is this story really about?” and
then write a story blurb that tells not just what happened, but about a bigger meaning or
significance. For instance, you might model writing something like this:
I could write a story about an eight year old girl named Sam. Sam goes to the park with her
older sister, Becka, and they swing on the swings together. When the swing is in mid-air,
Becka flies from the swing, showing off a big, fancy trick she has learned. Sam decides to try
the same thing, even though Becka tells her not to. Sam falls on her wrist and begins to cry.
This story will not just be about a swing-trick, though. It is really about how Sam wants to be
just like Becka. She tried to impress Becka by trying the trick, but it seems like no matter what
she does Becka always thinks she is just a pesky little sister.
There are other collecting strategies you might
“Today I want to teach you that another
teach, too. For instance, you can teach students that
way writers generate ideas for stories is to
writers first consider issues that are important to
first consider issues that are important to
them, such as bullying, parent problems or
them (bullying, parent problems, and kindness to
kindness to others, and then imagine
others) and then imagine stories that have that
stories that have that issue and start there
issue at the forefront. Then too, show children how
(with that issue.)"
the same story can be twisted to highlight different
messages and themes. For instance, the story about
the swing might involve Becka mocking Sam to showcase sibling bullying. Or it might
include a twist where Becka pressures Sam to try the same trick, thus putting the spotlight
on a form of peer pressure. One of your primary goals during these first few days of the unit
will be volume, and you’ll want to ensure that students know of ample ways to keep the
pen flying down the page. One way is to imagine new ideas for stories using a variety of
strategies.
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
A second way is to imagine different versions of a story, or
"Today I want to teach you,
writers, that while you are
ways a story might go, by attempting to highlight different
looking for deeper meaning
messages. Then too, you’ll want to emphasize the importance
for your story, one way to
of writing using all we know about narrative craft, even from
do that is to imagine
different versions of a story,
the start. After students have spent a couple of days collecting
or ways a story might go by
story blurbs, teach them that one way to rehearse stories is by
highlighting different
trying out a scene or two. As a writer, you can try starting from
messages.”
the beginning of the story, or perhaps from a moment of
tension or conflict, imagine how that part of the story will go,
and then write to capture it on the page. Because students have taken a few months off
from narrative writing, it won’t be overly surprising if their “scenes” feel more like
summaries. Use this as a teaching opportunity. You might return to Session 7 of The Arc of
Story, reminding children the ways in which they can experience a story through a
character’s skin before drafting a part of it. Then too, you might ask them to pull out their
Narrative Checklists, self-assessing their notebook work and setting goals to make it better.
It is often helpful to model having the same struggle many of
your children are having, and then show students ways “out” of
"Today I want to teach you
that one way to rehearse
the trouble. So, if many of your students seem to be writing
stories is by trying out a
blurbs that are too big and will lend themselves to large,
scene or two. As a writer,
unwieldy stories, have the same problem yourself during a
you can try starting from
the beginning of the story,
minilesson and teach students that writers rehearse the parts
or perhaps from a moment
of a story across their fingers, making sure they can tell the
of tension or conflict,
whole story in about five parts. Alternately, if the majority of
imagine how that part of
the story will go, and then
your children are summarizing, begin your minilesson with a
write to capture it on the
summary of a scene that looks a lot like your students’ writing
page--bit-by-bit."
and show them how you put yourself in the shoes of the
character, experience the sights, sounds and feelings of a
moment, and then write to capture that experience in words.
All in all, it will be important to emphasize a few things at this early stage. First, you want to
make sure that students are generating ideas that have significance and meaning they can
identify. Second, you’ll want to ensure that they write using all they know--keeping stories
focused, storytelling not summarizing, and more. Be ready to put any constraints that you
want in place. Many teachers tell students that a story works best if the main character is
approximately the same age as the writer, and if the story is set in a time and place that is
at least somewhat familiar to the student (this prevents the deserted-on-a-tropical-island
or awful-car-crash stories). Other teachers tell students that stories work best if there are
no more than two or three main characters, and if the story can be told in two to three
scenes. This helps focus the work children do, thus lifting the level of the writing and
preventing the need for abundant amounts of summary. You’ll also want to be crystal clear
about volume expectations, making it clear that you expect students will collect multiple
pages of story blurbs and scene-tries per day.
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
Rehearsing and Planning with a Focus on Bringing Out Meaning
After students spend about three days collecting and revising in the notebook, you’ll want
to remind them that writers reread all their possible ideas and choose one story idea they’ll
take through the writing process. Because this unit focuses so heavily on the craft of fiction,
you will want to ensure that all students choose a story that is replete with opportunities
for bringing out meaning. The sophistication of the meaning will no doubt differ from child
to child. One student may settle on a story that feels significant only because it involves
friends being mean, while another student may recognize that a story is really about how
sometimes we act in ways we don’t like so as to be popular or well-liked. These levels of
sophistication are to be expected: What is important is ensuring that all students have some
meaning behind their story. For this reason, we suggest having children reflect on their
story blurbs before choosing one. You might teach them to ask, “What do I want my reader
to know, think, or feel when reading this story?” or “What issues does my character
struggle with in this story?” If a student is able to answer these questions, he or she is likely
to have a strong start to a story.
After students have settled on a story-idea, they will
instinctually want to dive right into writing the story. Try to
stave them off, however, and remind them about the importance
of rehearsal in the writing process. You might begin by
reminding them that writers plot using a story arc, this time
emphasizing the importance not only of story structure, but of
meaning. That is to say, a writer’s story arc should highlight
what a story is really, truly about. So, for instance, I could tell the
story of Sam flying off the swing to impress Becka like this:
"Today I want to teach you
that writers plan using a
story arc. They certainly
consider the structure, but
with this story arc they pay
extra special attention to
meaning as well. Writers
always ask, "What is the
story, really, really about?"
● Sam and Becka ran to the swing set. Becka started pumping her legs.
● Before long, Becka was high above Sam. “Watch me,” she said.
● Becka flew from the swing, landing perfectly on two with feet with her hands
high in the air.
● Sam watched in awe and decided to try the same
● Sam landed on her elbow and immediately began crying from pain
● Becka helped Sam up and they walked home together, Becka’s arm around Sam
However, if my intent is to show that this is a story about how peer pressure can make us
do dumb things, I might instead decide to add in a moment where Becka mocks Sam, saying
that she is too much of a baby to do anything scary. Sam might doubt whether she should
fly off the swing but then do it anyway. Then, at the end, maybe Becka realizes how she
pressured Sam and feels bad, or, perhaps Becka does not learn her lesson and Sam is left
alone, crying at the park and realizing she shouldn’t have listened to Becka. Regardless of
the mentor you choose, you’ll want to model trying out several versions of your story arc,
considering how each brings out a different meaning in the story. Writers can add and
delete scenes, start and end at different places, or simply place an emphasis on different
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
parts of the story. You might also model studying the plotline of Love That Dog, where Jack
moves from a tentative, unwilling poet, to one that is curious and intrigued by poetry. Next
he experiments, trying out different styles and emulating various poets. Soon, inspired by
the poems and visit of Walter Dean Myers, Jack begins to find his own voice. He is shy, even
scared at first, but gets braver as the days go on. In the end, he is able to write about what
affects him most--the loss of his dog, Sky. Model noticing the way Sharon Creech has
created a character that slowly transformed-- from poem hater, to curious novice, to an
uncertain writer, and finally to a brave poet. Rather than
"Writers, I want to teach you
creating an arc, Sharon Creech creates a plotline that is a bit
how to slowly transform your
like a diagonal plane, with the growth, growth, growth of her
character. You might start
protagonist, Jack. Jack’s journey shows us that anyone can be
with what your character is
struggling with. Then ask
a writer, with a little help from those around them. Then,
yourself, 'How does your
consider changing your own story arc to an upward plane,
character deal with that
showing perhaps how Sam matures from a little sister
struggle? How does she grow
from it slowly? How does it
swinging beside Becka, to a sister who thinks that acting
get a little better?' Then even
unafraid will make her popular, to a girl who realizes that
better growing and changing
responding to her sister’s taunts will only get her hurt.
along the way'"
You will also want to teach children to rehearse by
developing their characters, which should be a familiar notion following the work you did
in The Arc of Story. We recommend teaching students to develop characters once they have
a general sense of how their story will go. This prevents the familiar scenario where
children develop a character that is either left in the notebook and/or distinctly different
from the character that winds up emerging in the drafting of the story. So, once children
have considered their story arc, teach them to rehearse not just for the external plotline,
but the internal plotline. That is, as the story develops, the character’s thoughts and
emotions develop, too. You might model plotting out the external plotline of Love That Dog
(Jack’s class begins a poetry unit. Jack is forced to write poetry and writes about how much
he hates it. Jack’s teacher praises him for his poem. Jack begins to write more.) followed by
the internal plotline (Jack is unhappy that his class is studying poetry and that he needs to
write poems. He thinks he is bad at writing poetry. When his teacher praises him, he begins
to feel a bit proud of his writing work. Jack is still unsure, but begins to feel braver.) You
might teach children to try out a double timeline, where they plot the external events on
one timeline and the internal thoughts, feelings and
emotions of a character on another. Alternately, you might
"Today I want to teach you to
teach children to consider the relationship between their
develop your characters. Ask
internal and external plotlines by filling in the line:
yourself, 'Where in the story
does my character feel
“Somebody wanted... But... So.” For some writers, especially
strongly about something?'
those who are less advanced, it is easier to isolate one or
Then circle that place in your
two places where they will spotlight their character’s
story arc and write a few
words describing the
emotions. In this instance, teach the child to look at his or
emotions or thoughts that
her story arc and ask: ‘Where in the story does my character
your character experiences."
feel strongly about something? They can circle that place on
their story arc and write a few words describing the
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
emotions or thoughts their character experiences. Then, either during rehearsal or
drafting, teach the child to zoom in on that one moment, that particular scene, and write it
in a way that shows, not tells what the character is feeling.
It will be important for you to plan not only a minilesson or two on character development
but also the small group and conferring you will be apt to do on these days. The Arc of Story
will be immensely helpful when considering this, as will the Narrative Checklist. You’ll most
likely need to help some students understand that developing a character is not just about
listing attributes and characteristics, but about creating a unified, cohesive portrait of a
person. You can anticipate, then, that you might need to pull a small group to remind kids
that no individual aspect of a character exists in a vacuum. Instead, characters’ internal
feelings and thoughts are affected by external traits and vice versa. For instance, on a page
of a child’s notebook under the heading “External Characteristics,” a child might write
“short.” Then, it will be important for the writer to consider the implications this might
have on the character. Perhaps the character has always dreamed of following in his
father’s footsteps and playing basketball, but is unable to make the team. As a result of this,
he feels as if he lets his dad down. Or, maybe the other kids pick on him for his short size,
leaving him feeling lonely, self-conscious, or like he doesn’t fit in. Then too, maybe the
child’s internal characteristics affect his externally. Maybe he walks around with his head
down and his shoulders shrugged in, and as a result, kids think he is weak and scared.
Maybe he acts like a bully because he’s so angry, and that results in him not having friends.
As you do this work, be sure to remind students of the endless work they’ve done studying
characters in texts. You might even consider pulling out the charts from your character
reading unit and teaching students that questions like, “What motivates this character?”
“What does s/he wish for?” can be just as useful when creating their own stories. In fact,
the most suspenseful and tension-filled stories are built around a character who wants or
needs something. You also might find it helpful to refer to the old writing unit of study
book, Writing Fiction: Big Dreams, Tall Ambitions (Heinemann 2006). You’ll find a
particularly helpful chart on page 44 titled, “We Can Develop Characters by Thinking About
Their....”
Bend II: Drafting and Revising with an Emphasis on Bringing Out
Our Intended Meaning
Drafting
Once students have rehearsed a few possibilities for their external and internal plotlines,
you will want to ask them to put the two together and flash draft their story as a whole. You
might begin the session by having students rehearse quickly with a partner or in their
minds, tapping each part of their story arc as they recount that particular part of the story.
You’d be wise to revisit Session 6 and 7 in The Arc of Story, reminding children that writing
scenes is, in a sense, the same as writing Small Moment stories. Writers often begin by
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
putting the character into action or by laying out the character’s exact words and then
unfolding the moment step by step. Then too, you might remind them that fiction writers
experience the world through their character’s skin, letting the story unfold as it happens
to them. You might give students the option to choose whichever strategy works best for
them, knowing that the goal of today is not perfection, but instead to support the
development of a cohesive first-draft which will lend itself to several days of large-scale
revision.
Revising: Using Literary Devices to Bring out What a Story is Really About
After drafting, you’ll want to rally students to engage with you in revision. As with prior
units, you are aiming to avoid the little, ticky-tacky sort of revision where students add a
word here and cross out a word there. Instead, you’ll want to teach them a few ways they
can alter their piece (and ultimately make it stronger!) in big ways. First, you’ll want to
encourage children to revisit what their stories are really about and ask: “Did I show this
meaning in my first draft?” Chances are good the students left meaning behind as they
focused on getting down the plot. You might then teach
children to redraft by considering perspective and point of
"Today I want to teach you that
when writers revise they consider
view. Consider modeling how you write a scene in the first
perspective and point of view. A
person and then the third person, asking the students to
writer might try a scene in first
engage in a mini-inquiry regarding the differences in tone
person and then rewrite it in third
person considering the
and mood. You might model thinking aloud about the
differences in mood and tone.
benefits of each, noticing that when writing in the first
Then asking yourself, "Which way
person you can let the reader in on your every thought
brings out the true meaning of my
story?"
and emotion, whereas the third person allows for more of
a birds-eye view. Model considering the choices at your
disposal. “If I write from Sam’s point of view,” you might say, “then I can really let my
reader what she saw and felt. It might sound something like: I watched as Becka pumped
her legs harder and harder, flying higher and higher into the air. I felt my mouth drop and my
eyes widen. ‘I wish I could do that,’ I thought to myself. On the other hand,” you might
continue, I could write it from a narrator’s point of view. That would give me a chance to
describe things from an outsider’s point of view. It might sound like this...”
You also might find that students need your help in relation to the structure of their story,
and if this is the case, you might first consider revisiting some of the lessons in The Arc of
Story that help students imagine possibilities for the way their stories will go. They include
Session 5, “Plotting with a Story Arc,” and Session 17, “Planning and Drafting Stories with
Agency.” Remind writers that there are variations in the ways stories are structured,
perhaps revisiting your mentor texts to understand the specifics of some of these plot lines.
Often a story is shaped more like an arc--a character wants something and over the course
of the narrative that motivation is somehow addressed. For instance, Sam wanted to be like
her big sister Becka and garnered the courage to impress her. In the sequence of the story,
there is not always one, single turning point though. It is helpful to teach children this
explicitly, and to experiment with the shapes of the story arc. In our story about Sam, the
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
Writing Curricular Calendar, Fourth Grade, 2013-2014
Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
plotline in fact has two turning points-- when Sam wants to be like her big sister Becka and
garners the courage to impress her, and then when Sam hurts herself and realizes that
impressing her sister is not worth it, that she will always be the ‘little sister’ in Becka’s eyes.
While considering the exact turning points of a story can be helpful, especially when trying
to help students bring forth meaning, the more crucial work is thinking about the overall
shape of the story and revising with that shape in mind.
You’ll also want to consider the literary devices students have noticed in their mentor texts
and are ready to try out in their own stories. We found that students were often eager to
try out a metaphor, and you’ll want to make sure they do this not just for the sake of trying
out a ‘new move,’ but instead to show something significant about a character or a place.
You might model thinking aloud about your main character, first asking: “What do I most
want to show about this person?” and then pondering the
"Today I want to teach you that
possibilities for doing that through metaphor. Then too,
writers consider the setting in their
we suggest you channel students to think a bit about
story. Asking themselves, 'How can I
setting and the role it plays in their story. You might begin
match the setting to the mood or
tone of a scene? How might I hold
by teaching them that setting can quite literally shape the
onto the character's feelings and
sequence of events in a text (for instance, the snow is a
bring out the setting to emphasize
welcome presence in “Stray,” from Cynthia Rylant’s Every
those feelings?'"
Living Thing. In this particular story, the snow clearing is
an ominous thing--meaning that the roads clear and Doris’ father can bring the stray puppy
to the shelter. In other instances, you might teach children that setting plays a role in
creating the mood or tone of a scene. For instance, later in “Stray,” the author describes the
sounds of the father’s car coughing and choking smoke as he loads the stray puppy into the
trunk and drives away with it. The sounds of coughing engines and the sight of choking
smoke help the reader further experience Doris’ desperation and sadness.
Don’t expect that students will do this work perfectly-- it is heady, complicated stuff! Do
expect that they revise with a spirit of experimentation, though, trying out multiple
versions of the story before deciding on their final draft. Also, encourage children to be
brave and try new things, but to ensure that the work they try as a writer is ultimately in
service of the message they hope to leave readers with.
Before ending Bend 2, you will want to spend a day or two helping students edit. We
recommend pulling out the editing checklists from prior units, reminding children that
what they know about grammar and punctuation should be evident in all of their writing.
The same rule should apply for spelling. Whether you are using Words Their Way or
another program, ask children to pull out the work they’ve done in word study and
remember the rules they’ve learned. Then, using those rules as lenses, revisit their writing
to ensure they’ve spelled words correctly. Then too, you might give students an
opportunity to partner edit, reading their pieces aloud or swapping with a partner, relying
on each other’s help to spot mistakes. Last but not least, ask children to pull out their
Narrative Checklists once again and do a bit of self-assessment. By this point in the year,
students are likely quite familiar with this process and will simply need to be reminded of
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
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Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
the importance of self-reflection and goal setting. After assessing the work they did in Bend
2, we recommend asking children to set their first drafts aside (probably by placing them in
their writing folders) and get ready to begin anew, goals for the next round of work inhand.
Bend III: Drafting and Revising a New Story, This Time Relying On
Mentor Texts and Reading-Writing Connections to Raise the Level
Our Work
In Bend 3, you will ask students to choose a new story idea (this time doing it quickly,
picking from those they collected at the beginning of the unit or deciding on a new idea),
and move right to the planning and rehearsing stage of writing. We do this because we
want to maximize the time students spend thinking about craft and revising their pieces,
rather than having them return to their notebooks for a second round of collecting ideas.
We recommend asking students to choose a seed idea for homework, or to pick on at the
beginning of your lesson on the first day of this bend, circling or starring their choice right
there in the meeting area. From the get-go, then, you’ll be freed up to move to the bigger
work of the unit.
It is likely that the stories students first imagined were somewhat simpler in structure than
those you are hoping for this time around. To address this, you might first remind students
of the strategies they’ve learned to raise the level of their story plots. Remind them that
they know how to study the structure of mentor texts, as well as how to construct stories
that revolve around more than one turning point. Increased complexity in plot, however,
will off course require increased complexity of character. So, you’d be wise to teach them a
few rehearsal strategies intended to explore their characters’ wants, needs and emotions.
We recommend drawing on all the interpretative work students are doing in reading
workshop. It is likely you are teaching them (or taught them back in February) to consider
the connections between their character ideas and evidence. If you are sticking closely to
the curricular calendar for Interpretation Text Sets,
Today I want to teach you how to
than you’ve probably taught children to ask
develop and craft your characters to
themselves whether the connection between their
deepen them and make them more
character ideas and evidence seem totally obvious, or
complex. To do this you might explore
what your character wants, needs and
a bit hard to see. If their ideas are hit-you-over-thetheir motivations. You can use
head obvious, then this often means their
prompts such as: 'At first I
understanding of a particular character may not be as
thought_________, but now I
realize__________.' 'On the outside this
complex as it needs to be. When writing, students can
character seems_____. But really she
rely on the same prompts they use to deepen ideas
is_____.' 'On the one hand this character
about characters in texts. They can try exploring their
wants_____. On the other hand, she also
wants_____.”
characters wants, needs and motivations by using
prompts like:
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
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Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
● “At first I thought ______, but now I realize ______.”
● “On the outside this character seems ________. But really, s/he is ______.”
● “On the one hand this character wants _____. On the other hand, s/he also wants
_____.”
Once students have developed a more complex idea about their character, perhaps
realizing that her motivations are two-fold, or that he wants conflicting things, they can
revisit their story plans and decide (a) If they need to make revising to the plot in order to
make room for the character, and (b) Plot out not only the external storyline, but the
internal one, as well. Finally, after rehearsing for how their stories will go with partners or
to themselves, you’ll ask students to engage in a day of fast-drafting.
Once students have drafted their story, they’ll be ready to engage in revision work. We
recommend beginning by reminding students of all they know from this unit, as well as the
fiction unit in the fall. You might create a class chart, titled, “Revision Strategies Narrative
Writers Use,” and then ask children to share out the multitude of strategies they’ve learned
this year. Remind them that even though they’ll learn a few more “tricks” in this round of
writing, it will be important for them to revise using all they’ve learned previously, as well.
In fact, if students are not actively employing strategies you’ve previously taught, you may
find that they need a day of revision to simply revisit some of what they’ve learned in prior
bends and units. For a Share or Mid-Workshop Teach, you might remind students to pull
out their Narrative Checklists and goals from a few days ago, holding themselves
accountable to those things, as well.
You might also spend a day or two asking students to revisit
mentor texts that are replete with craft moves, to ask “What
"I want to teach you that
has this author done that I might try?” and then try out the
writers revise by using
symbolism to convey
same in their own writing. Among other things, channel
bigger meaning. Remember
students to notice that writers often use symbolism to convey
how when studying "Stray"
big meaning. You have likely done some of this work in your
you thought about what the
dog could stand for. He is
reading workshop and read aloud that you can draw from. For
much more than a puppy.
instance, what does the puppy in “Stray” really stand for? He is
He represents
certainly more than just a puppy. Is he a vehicle the author uses
companionship that Doris
longed for. What object or
to show that sometimes (in this instance, Doris’ dad), people
image in your story could
can surprise us? Does he stand for the companionship Doris so
stand for something
longs for? What about the dog, Sky, in Love that Dog. As
larger?”
students ponder questions like these in reading workshop, you
can teach them to do the same as writers. Specifically, you
might teach children that writers first consider what they most want to show in a story.
Then, they consider whether or not there is an image or object that can stand for that big
meaning. Often writers will refer to this image or object a few times across the story, or
make a point of elaborating on it so that readers know it is important.
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
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Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
Finally, we recommend teaching students to revise their endings. You might teach them
that writers try out different endings by imagining different lessons their story might
impart on the reader. Once again, this will build on the work you’ve been doing in reading
workshop. There, you taught students to consider more than one possible lesson in a text.
For example, if you demonstrated with Bridge to Terabithia, you probably thought aloud
about lessons Jess may have learned. Your thoughts may have
sounded something like: “If I think about what Jess learned
"Writers, I want to teach
about another character--say, Leslie--I could say, ‘While at first
you to revise your endings.
Ask yourself, 'What did the
Leslie seemed like someone he wouldn’t like, Jess learned that
main character learn? What
he judged her too quickly.’ That could help me think more
made the good things in the
about life lessons in general. I could say something like, Jess
story happen? What could
have prevented the bad
learned... ‘People in life are not always what they seem’ or
things from happening?'
‘Jesse learned that he could be a kind of person he didn’t think
Then try out different
he’d like.’” The most important part of this work is that you
endings by imagining
different lessons their story
modeled thinking about more than one lesson a character could
might teach the reader."
have learned. You may have also sent them off with a series of
questions they could use to guide their own interpretations
work.
Questions like:



What did the main character learn?
What made the good things in the story happen?
What could have prevented the bad things in the story from happening?
Now, teach students to use these same questions to develop their own lessons. For
instance, if I want to convey the idea that peer pressure is a negative thing, I might end my
story by having Sam realize that yielding to her sister’s bullying was a bad move.
Alternately, I could end by having Becka learn to appreciate her sister, perhaps by tending
to her sister’s wound or showing care in some other way. This suggests that Becka learned
from the error of her ways, that you can count on big sisters to come through for you.
Remind students to also study the mentor texts around them, noting how particular
authors ended and trying the same in their writing. Sharon Creech ends Love That Dog with
Jack’s final poem about Sky. You might think aloud about how this ending leaves you feeling
like Jack has finally found his voice, and that perhaps your ending, too, could show (rather
than tell about) a resolution to a character’s ongoing struggle. Encourage students to study
several mentor texts, laying each beside the other and noting the different options for
ending stories. Then, channel them to try out multiple possibilities in their own notebook,
only settling on an ending after they’ve experimented with a multitude of possibilities.
As students come to the end of Bend 3, you’ll want to think about the final revision and
editing lessons you’ll teach them. We recommend making these decisions based on your
students’ needs, perhaps even holding a workshop-long series of seminars on different
topics related to editing and conventions. You might look at your students’ work, ask what
they need most, and then invite them to take part in a small group on ending punctuation,
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Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
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Unit Six- The Craft of Fiction
rereading for sense, using commas to write more complex sentences, or any number of
other strategies. You also might consider teaching children to expand their understanding
of conventions-- recognizing that they are not only to make writing “correct,” but also to
impart meaning. Remind students of the lessons you taught in The Arc of Story on playing
with punctuation for effect, and teach them another strategy. Children often benefit from
learning a bit more about the use of paragraphing and white space to clarify meaning and
create dramatic effect.
Last but not least, you’ll want to end this unit with a celebration of all the students’ efforts.
You might help children prepare for the celebration by laying their earliest writing against
their final pieces, noting several, concrete ways in which they grew as narrative writers.
Then too, you’ll want to acknowledge the importance of audience. Students will be dying to
share their pieces with family, friends, peers, anyone! Give them an opportunity to do this
in any way that feels feasible for you. Perhaps students can visit a younger class and share
their stories with them, or meet in small groups to listen to each other’s writing. The choice
is yours!
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