Unit Plan: Literary Elements in Fiction
Language Arts / Grade 4
Big Ideas
Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works.
Texts can be understood from different perspectives.
Concepts:
- Language
- Perspective
- Elements
Essential Questions
Students will keep considering…
- What makes a great story?
- How do you write a great story?
Evaluative Criteria
Rubric
- Collaboratively created with students prior to commencing writing.
- To include assessment of the use and effectiveness of each element, language feature, structure, and convention taught
- Could include assessment of art and comments with regards to use of technology as a tool.
Adaptation
- Peer scribes can be used to support slower printers/typist.
- Speech to text tools can be utilized for the above.
- As an extension once text is produced, voice recording features can be uses to create oral stories to remove barrier for less developed readers.
Monitoring Progress
Teacher will monitor progress:
Teachers can monitor progress through ongoing formative assessment including but not limited to:
N/A
Resources
WEBSITES
Reflection
How will teachers and their students reflect on and evaluate the completed project?
A self-reflective journal writing in answer to the essential questions for this unit:
- What makes a great story?
- How do you write a great story?
Teacher Unit 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?
Teacher:
Next time I teach this unit I would…
Student:
My students needed:
Process:
Product:
Content:
Downloads
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Big Ideas
Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works.
Texts can be understood from different perspectives.
Concepts:
- Language
- Perspective
- Elements
Transfer Goals
Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
- Deepen appreciation and understanding of fictional text through knowledge of literary elements.
- Skillfully use literary elements to create effective and engaging original stories for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Meaning
Students will understand that…
- Understanding literary elements helps us to become better readers, writers and thinkers.
- Literary elements are essential to creating stories for different purposes and audiences.
- There are literary elements common to all stories in all cultures.
Students will keep considering…
- What makes a great story?
- How do you write a great story?
Acquisition
Students will be skilled at…
- Comprehend and connect (reading, listening, viewing): Recognize how literary elements enhance meaning in texts.
- Create and communicate (writing, speaking, representing): Use writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create texts for a variety of purposes and audiences.
CONTENT
Students will know…
- Story/text
- The literary elements of:
> Character
> Setting
> Plot
> Conflict
> Purpose
> Theme
- Language features, structures, and conventions:
> Paragraph structure
> Sentence structure and grammar
> Conventions
> Elaborations: parts of speech
> Elaborations: common practices in punctuation, such as use of the comma, quotation marks for dialogue, and the apostrophe
Which Core Competencies will be integrated into the unit?
Communication
- Acquire, interpret, and present information
Critical and Creative Thinking
- Generating Ideas
- Developing Ideas
- Analyze and critique
First People's Principles of Learning
The unit will make connections with:
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.
Core Competencies
Communications 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
Thinking Competency
The knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development
Social Competency
The set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society
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.
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.
