Unit Title: Stuck in a Snow Globe

Grade: 3rd
Length: 3 weeks
Essential Question(s):
1. How can storytelling help us express our feelings and attitudes about
situations?
2. How can our experiences effect what we write about?
Colorado State Standards:
Content Area: Reading, Writing, and Communicating
Standard 3: Writing and Composition
Concept 1: A writing process is used to plan, draft, and write a variety of
literary genres
Evidence Outcome b, i.: Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or
characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
Concept 3: Correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are
used when writing
Unit Goals:
1) By the end of the first week, students will be able to analyze the key
concepts of several literary genres.
2) By the end of the second week, students will be able to plan, draft, and
write a complete and grammatically correct story.
3) By the end of the unit, students will be able to revise stories and give
constructive feedback to the authors.
4) By the end of this unit, students will be able to list events in a
meaningful and chronological order.
Unit Assessments:
Pre-assessment: a pre-test will be given at the beginning of the unit to test
students knowledge of grammar, capitalization, and how to identify the
introduction, body, and conclusion of a story. This assessment will be in short
answer format and will be questions about the structure of stories.

Homework Assignment: Students will be required to do a graphic organizer

identifying components of what they want to add to their story and why. This
will help students plan for their rough drafts.
Writing Journal: A Writing Journal will be kept that will contain their graphic
organizer and key concepts from lecture.
Mid-unit check: Students will work in groups to revise and critique each
others stories looking for grammar errors, story line progression and
character progression.
Unit Evaluation: Students will be grade upon completion of their story.
Students will be graded on their ability to analyze the key concepts of
several literary genres, plan, draft, and write a complete and grammatically
correct story, and list events in a meaningful and chronological order.
Main Idea(s):
Being able to construct sentences in a grammatically correct way and with
meaningful understanding is an important part of life.
Unit Calendar:
Lesson 1: Pre-assessment given at the beginning of class. A brief overview of
the unit will be presented to the students. This lesson will begin to cover the
basic structures of stories. They will be given samples of correct and
incorrect sentence structure.
Lesson 2: The structures learned from the previous day will be reviewed and
the importance of these structures for story writing will be addressed in
class. Students will be given a piece of a story and must work collaboratively
to place to story parts in a meaningful, and chronological way.
Lesson 3: Students will go over the pre-writing step of the writing process.
They will begin to plan their story in their story in their Writing Journal.
Homework will be assigned to be done for the next day.
Lesson 4: A brief overview of each students writing plan will take place. If
students planned well they will begin the drafting step of the writing process
in their Writing Journals.

Lesson 5: We will continue drafting, students should have their introduction,

body and conclusion done by the end of this lesson.
Lesson 6: Students will be shown how to proof read their stories. What a
grammatically correct sentence looks likes and check for run-ons.
Lesson 7: Students will begin the revising step of the writing process. Making
sure their stories are complete and grammatically correct and events are in a
meaningful and chronological order.
Lesson 8: Students will get in groups of two and switch stories in order to get
a second pair of eyes on their papers. Students will revise their partners
stories in the same way they revised their own. (Mid-Unit Check)
Lesson 9: Students will rewrite their stories fixing any mistakes identified by
themselves, a peer, or the teacher.
Lesson 10: Students will continue the rewriting step of the writing process.
Double checking grammar and order along the way.
Lesson 11: Students will be taught how to proofread their stories to attain
best results. Correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation, and order errors.
Lesson 12: Students will begin the proofreading step of the writing process.
Making sure their story is perfect. If time allows students will partner up
again and proofread their peers stories.
Lesson 13: Students will make a snow globe to put with their stories. On a
piece of circular paper students will draw themselves doing an action from
their stories.
Lesson 14: After the drawing is done the students will use coffee dome lids
as the cover to their snow globe.
Lesson 15: Stories will be published in the hallway completing the last step of
the writing process, allowing faculty, students, and parents to admire.
Resources Needed:
Writing notebooks, pencils, graphic organizer, markers, colored pencils,
coffee dome lids.