Unit Title: CKLA Unit 1: Personal Narratives

Unit Dates: 17 days

Teacher Name: Mrs. Potter

Duration of Unit: 3 weeks

Unit Summary
The first unit of Grade 5 CKLA instruction contains 10 daily lessons, each of which intentionally focuses only
on reading and writing, plus four Pausing Point days that may be used for differentiation of instruction. In this
way, students are immediately immersed in CKLA reading and writing routines during their first few weeks back
in school after summer break. Each entire lesson requires a total of 90 minutes. (As noted earlier in this
introduction, explicit instruction in morphology, grammar, and spelling, important in satisfying all aspects of the
CCSS-ELA, starts in Unit 2.) This unit examines the personal narrative genre. Students will identify, describe,
and use elements of the genre both in reading and writing. These elements include stories told from the first
person point of view; stories focusing on one or more events or experiences important to the author; narrative
elements of setting, characters, plot, and dialogue; and descriptive language using sensory details and figurative
language. Examining the genre in this way will help students build their knowledge of descriptive writing. Some
of the genre features are elements students have studied in previous grades in literary, fiction-based units. This
genre is unique in that authors describe real events or experiences but may embellish the story with additional
fictional details to make the story more enjoyable for readers.
Previous Unit
Students who have received Core Knowledge
Language Arts instruction in Grades k-4 will already
have pertinent background knowledge for this unit.
Units in which students have been taught this relevant
background knowledge are:
Nursery Rhymes and Fables (Kindergarten)
Stories (Kindergarten)
-Identity the sequence of events in a given story
-Identify the characters of a given story
-Identify the plot of a given story
-Identify the setting of a given story

Next Unit
The next unit in 5 grade CKLA is Early American
Civilizations.
th

 Fables and Stories (Grade 1)

Different Lands, Similar Stories (Grade 1)
-Explain that stories have a beginning, middle,
and end
-Describe the characters, plot, and setting of a
given story
Fairy Tales (Grade 1)
Fairy Tales and Tall Tales (Grade 2)
Classic Tales: The Wind in the Willows (Grade 3)
-Identify from which characters perspective the
story is being experienced
-Demonstrate understanding of literary terms,
such as authors, characters, setting, plot,
dialogue, personification, point of view,
perspective, biography, autobiography, theme,
narrator, and narration.
Cross-Curricular Connections
Students will be reading multiple examples of personal narratives in their readers and will then be engaging in
writing their own personal narratives. This is a natural connection between reading and writing. Additionally,
some of the stories students will be reading are historical.
Core Knowledge Sequence
Writing, grammar, and usage.
Vocabulary
Stories

CCSS
The following website shows a correlation chart for CKLA and CCSS (Note: 5th grade is in green):
http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/521/CK_CCSS_ELAAlignment.pdf

Unit Objectives
Lesson 1: Core Connections: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify elements of
personal narrative and apply that knowledge to the biography genre category. Reading: By the end of this
lesson, students will be able to contrast the narrators attitude toward team sports with his attitude toward
horseback riding.
Lesson 2:Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to summarize the events from this part
of the story. Writing: By this end of this lesson, students will be able to respond to writing prompts, by
attending to the correct order of events, and providing details when possible.
Lesson 3: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to summarize the events from this part
of the story. Writing: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to analyze journal responses for
personal narrative elements.
Lesson 4: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify examples of literary devices
in the text. Writing: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to plan a mini personal narrative by
completing a graphic organizer.
Lesson 5: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify characterization through
interaction and dialogue in the text. Writing: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to draft an
introductory paragraph for their mini personal narrative.
Lesson 6: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify characterization of the
narrator through character responses to events in the text. Writing: By the end of this lesson, students will
be able to sequence plot events to plan body paragraphs for their mini personal narratives.
Lesson 7: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe different points of view of
characters from, Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes, Part I. Writing: By the end of this lesson,
students will be able to draft the plot of a story from a previously planned sequence of events.

 Lesson 8: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to apply understanding of the entire
story and insights from, Notes from Walter Dean Myers to explain the significance of the experiences he
wrote about. Writing: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to use a graphic organizer to generate
and select reflections about a life experience, which will inform drafting a conclusion for a personal
narrative that conveys that importance of the experience.
Lesson 9: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe the settings from the story
and apply knowledge of Reverend Abbotts character to explain his point of view. Writing: By the end of
this lesson, students will be able to provide respectful feedback to peers and use feedback to self-reflect
and set revision goals for their own writing.
Lesson 10: Reading: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify how energy, or the amount
of emotion or action, changes across the plot events of a story. Writing: By the end of this lesson, students
will be able to use a rubric to evaluate their own writing and make revisions accordingly.
Lesson 11: Assessment Day 1: Purpose is to determine students preparedness for Grade 5 CKLA
instruction.
Lesson 12: Assessment Day 2: Grammar Assessment
Lesson 13: Assessment Day 3: Morphology Assessment
Lessons 14-17: Pausing Point for Differentiation of Instruction: Remediation: If students demonstrate a
need for remediation on any of the elements of the Personal Narratives unit, refer to the reader story
covering that element. You may wish to reteach any such story as a teacher Read-Aloud, regardless of the
type of reading lesson initially used for that story. Additionally, you should focus more heavily on the
questions labeled support in the teacher guide materials for that lesson. Enrichment: If students have
mastered the reading comprehension and skills in the Personal Narratives unit, their experience with the
concepts may be enriched by the following activities: Students may read the enrichment story contained in
the reader, Flying by Reeve Lindbergh. Students may respond to additional writing prompts in their
journals. Students may share, either with a small group or with the class, the writing they generated in this
unit or response to the writing prompts in the enrichment selection.
Key Questions

Vocabulary

 What are some elements that determine whether

or not a story can be characterized as a Personal
Narrative?
How can you use the vocabulary words we have
studied during our word work to enrich your
writing and your spoken vocabulary?
Comprehension questions: Literal, nonliteral,
inferential, evaluative, and supportive from the
stories we will be reading (here are a few
examples):
Why would noting that it was him with the
horse, him against no one be important to
Michael?
What effect does the dialogue have on this scene?
What does the length of this sentence
communicate to the reader?
A metaphor is a literary device authors use to
compare two things, usually by saying one thing
is another thing without using the words like or
as. In which sentence in this paragraph does the
author use a metaphor?
What adjectives would you use to describe
Gibby?
Discuss some of the ways in which the story,
Pegasus for a Summer, and Reverend Abbott
and Those Bloodshot Eyes are similar.

Pegasus for a Summer: stable, divvy, rein, gait,

skittish, docile, obstinacy, bridle, canter, gallop,
rapport, buck, shock, crouch, dismount, mare,
muzzle, evaluation, execute, certificate, reverie
Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes:
reverend, crucifix, chaperone, compromise,
sermon, girth, gangster, undermine, pillar,
carouse, amplified, congregation

Lesson Outline

 Lesson 1: Core Connections (45 min.) Introduce the Personal Narrative Genre and read-aloud Pegasus for
Summer, Part 1 by Michael J. Rosen (45 min.). Word Work: Trot, canter, gallop, stride, gait
Lesson 2: Reading whole group: Pegasus for a Summer, Part II by Michael J. Rosen (45 min.) Word
work: Shock. Writing: Respond to Writing Prompts (45 min.)
Lesson 3: Reading small group: Pegasus for a Summer, Part III by Michael J. Rosen (45 min.). Word
work: Reverie. Writing: Analyze Journal Responses (45 min.)
Lesson 4: Reading: Close Reading, Pegasus for a Summer, Part I by Michael J. Rosen (45 min.). Word
Work: Rapport. Writing: Plan Mini Personal Narratives (45 min.)
Lesson 5: Reading: Whole Group: Pegasus for a Summer, Part II (45 min.). Word Work: Boost. Writing:
Draft an Introductory Paragraph.
Lesson 6: Reading Small Group: Pegasus for a Summer, Part III (45 min.). Word Work: Evaluation.
Writing: Sequence Plot Events (45 min.).
Lesson 7: Reading: Read-Aloud, Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes, Part I by Walter Dean
Myers (45 min.). Word Work: Compromise. Writing: Draft Body Paragraphs (45 min.)
Lesson 8: Reading: Small Group: Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes, Part II by Walter Dean
Myers (45 min.). Word Work: Undermine. Writing: Draft a Concluding Paragraph (45 min.)
Lesson 9: Reading: Close Reading, Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes, Part I by Walter Dean
Myers (45 min.). Word Work: Chaperone. Writing: Share Mini Personal Narratives (45 min.)
Lesson 10: Reading: Whole Group: Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes, Part II by Walter Dean
Myers (45 min.). Word Work: Amplified. Writing: Evaluate and Revise Mini Personal Narratives (45 min.)
Lesson 11: Beginning-of-Year Assessment Day 1. Reading Comprehension Assessment (90 min.)
Lesson 12: Beginning-of-Year Assessment Day 2. Grammar Assessment (45 min.). Word Reading in
Isolation Assessment and Fluency Assessment.
Lesson 13: Beginning-of-Year Assessment Day 3: Morphology Assessment (45 min.). Word Reading in
Isolation Assessment and Fluency Assessment.
Lesson 14: Pausing Point Day 1 (90 min.)
Lesson 15: Pausing Point Day 2 (90 min.)

 Lesson 16: Pausing Point Day 3 (90 min.)

Lesson 17: Pausing Point Day 4 (90 min.)
Resources
For Teachers:

For Students:

Glossary for More Childhood Memories

Individual Code Chart
Anecdotal Reading Records
Test Recording Chart and Tens Conversion Chart
Using Chunking to Decode Multisyllabic Words
Sound and Spelling of Schwa
Beginning-of-Year Assessment Materials
Personal Narrative Game Directions
Personal Narrative Game Board
Personal Narrative Game Cards
Xylophone
Mini Personal Narrative Rubric
Mini Personal Narrative Editing Checklist
Sample Personal Narrative
Resources for Enrichment Selections in More
Childhood Memories
Activity Book Answer Key

Unit 1: Personal Narratives Activity Book

Unit 1: Personal Narrative, More Childhood
Memories, Reader
What Every Fifth Grader Needs to Know
Anchor charts and bulletin boards throughout the
classroom
Language Arts Interactive Notebook
Dictionaries/Thesauruses
Glossary in student reader

Unit Reflection