Unit Plan: Imagine!
Creative Writing

English Language Arts / Grade 4-5

Big Ideas

English Language Arts 4-5

  • Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works.

Visual Arts 4-5

  • Creative expression is a means to explore and share one’s identity within a community.
  • Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging.

Concepts:

  • Creativity
  • Imagination
Essential Questions

Students will keep considering…

  • How can I express my creative ideas effectively in oral and written language?
Evaluative Criteria

Formative Assessment

  • Participation in classroom activities: reading circles, listening to peers, reading stories, etc.
  • Planning and drafts of story writing : editing and revising
  • Journaling: students write weekly journals and choose one to hand in
  • Teacher observation in class

Summative Assessment

  • Creative story: “What happens on your perfect day”?
  • Storytelling: share story out loud with the class
  • Journaling: students hand in one journal assignment (they choose the best from the unit)
Monitoring Progress

Teacher will monitor progress:
Teachers can monitor progress through ongoing formative assessment including but not limited to:

  • N/A
Resources

TEXTS

  • Imagine by Bart Vivian
  • Imagine a Day by Rob Gonsalves and Sarah L. Thomson
  • Imagine a Place by Rob Gonsalves and Sarah L. Thomson
  • Imagine a Night by Rob Gonsalves and Sarah L. Thomson
Reflection

How will teachers and their students reflect on and evaluate the completed project?

Teacher Reflection

  • What aspects of the unit went well?
  • What did students struggle with?
  • What did you struggle with?
  • What would you add/revise the next time you taught this unit?
  • Were there any unintended outcomes?
  • Were students engaged?

Stage 1 – Desired Results

Big Ideas
  • Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works. (English Language Arts 4-5)
  • Creative expression is a means to explore and share one’s identity within a community. (Arts 4)
  • Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging. (Arts 5)

Concepts:

  • Creativity
  • Imagination
Transfer Goals

Students will be able to independently use their learning to understand that…

  • Creativity and imagination are important parts of our life.
Meaning

UNIT UNDERSTANDINGS:

Students will understand that…

  • Creativity and imagination are important parts of our life.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Students will keep considering…

  • How can I express my creative ideas effectively in oral and written language?

> Click here to learn more about Essential Questions

Acquisition

CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

Students will be skilled at…

  • Consider different purposes, audiences, and perspectives in exploring texts
  • Apply a variety of thinking skills to gain meaning from texts
  • Identify how differences in context, perspectives, and voice influence meaning in texts
  • Recognize the role of language in personal, social, and cultural identity
  • Recognize how literary elements, techniques, and devices enhance meaning in texts

 

CONTENT

Students will know…

  • writing processes
  • features of oral language
  • Story/text: forms, functions, and genres of text, text features, literary elements, literary devices, evidence

 

CORE COMPETENCIES

Which Core Competencies will be integrated into the unit? 

Creative Thinking & Communication

  • I can get new ideas, build on other’s ideas and add new ideas of my own, or combine other people’s ideas in new ways to create new things or solve straightforward problems. My ideas are fun, entertaining, or useful for me and my peers, and I have a sense of accomplishment. I can usually make my ideas work within the constraints of a given form, problem, or materials if I keep playing with them.
  • I can develop a body of creative work over time in an area of interest or passion.
  • I gather basic information I need for school tasks and for my own interests, and present it in ways I have learned. I am becoming an active listener; I ask questions and make connections. When I talk and work with peers, I express my ideas and encourage others to express theirs; I share roles and responsibilities. I recount and comment on events and experiences.

The following resources are made available through the British Columbia Ministry of Education. For more information, please visit BC’s New Curriculum.

Big Ideas

The Big Ideas consist of generalizations and principles and the key concepts important in an area of learning. The Big Ideas represent what students will understand at the completion of the curriculum for their grade. They are intended to endure beyond a single grade and contribute to future understanding.


Visit the Ministry of Education for more information

Core Competencies

orangecommunicationCommunications Competency

The set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media

bluethinkingThinking Competency

The knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development

greensocialSocial Competency

The set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society


Visit the Ministry of Education for more information

Curricular Competencies & Content

Curricular Competencies are the skills, strategies, and processes that students develop over time. They reflect the “Do” in the Know-Do-Understand model of curriculum. The Curricular Competencies are built on the thinking, communicating, and personal and social competencies relevant to disciplines that make up an area of learning.


Visit the Ministry of Education for more information

Additional Resources

First People's Principles of Learning

To read more about First People’s Principles of Learning, please click here.

For classroom resources, please visit the First Nations Education Steering Committee.