Island of the Blue DolphinsGilbert Running head: INTERDISCIPLINARY WRITING UNITInterdisciplinary Writing Unit: Narrative and Expository Writing Integrated into Language Arts and ScienceFor Third GradeAmy Evans GilbertValdosta State UniversityREAD 7140May 20061Gilbert Georgia Writing TestAccording to the Georgia Grade Three Writing Assessment, there are six stages inwhich a writer can be categorized. These are: Stage One – The Emerging Writer, Stage Two – The Developing Writer, Stage Three – The Focusing Writer, Stage Four – The Experimenting Writer, Stage Five – The Engaging Writer, and Stage Six – The Extending Writer (Georgia Department of Education, June 2001).The emerging writer is characterized by little or no evidence of topic development, organization, and/or detail, little awareness of the audience or the writing task, and errors in surface features that prevent the reader from understanding the writer’smessage.The stage two writer should be able to begin to develop a topic, begin to have an organizational plan, have a limited awareness of the audience and/or the task, and use simple word choice and sentence patterns. Errors in surface features interfere with communication.The focusing writer, stage three, should be able to have a clear topic, although development of the topic is incomplete, have an apparent plan with loosely organized ideas, have a sense of audience and/or task, have a minimal variety of vocabulary and sentence patterns, and have errors in surface features that interrupt the flow of communication. The stage four writer should be able to have a clear and developed topic although the development may be uneven. He or she should have a clear plan with a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning and/or ending may be clumsy. There should be evidence of writing for an audience, and evidence of experimenting with language and sentence patterns. Word combinations and word choice may be novel. Errors in surface features may interrupt the flow of communication.The engaging writer, stage five, will have a topic that is well developed, a plan with a clear beginning, middle, and end, organization that sustains the writer’s purpose, and audience awareness techniques that engage the reader. The engaging writer will also use a variety of language and sentence patterns. The surface errors will not interfere with the reader’s understanding of the writer’s message.Stage six is the extending writer. This stage of writer will elaborate their topic with rich details. The organization sustains the writer’s purpose and moves the reader through the piece. Audience awareness techniques engage and sustain the reader’s interest, and language is creative and novel. This writer effectively uses sentence patters and the surface errors do not interfere with the reader’s understanding or the writer’s message.2Gilbert According to the Georgia Department of Education’s Assessment and Instructional Guide for the Georgia Writing Grade Three Assessment (2001), all third grade students must participate in writing, including students with disabilities and limitedEnglish proficiency, unless alternate assessment plans are stipulated by their individualized education plan.The way third grade students’ writing is assessed is by their classroom teacher’s collection of the students’ work throughout the school year. The teacher uses his or her best judgment of the work based on content, personal expression, and surface features.3Gilbert Student Interest SurveyOne way of recording students’ growth in writing is by having students answer an interest survey. A list of possible questions comes from In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents (Atwell, N. 1987). These questions are: “Are you a writer?” “How do you feel about reading?” “Who are your favorite authors?” “How many books do you have?” “Have you ever reread a book?” and “What kinds of books doyou like to read?” Ms. Atwell is more interested in whether her students read and write independently than in whether they can answer a specific question regarding a specific book.Some additional questions may be “What topics do you find interesting?” “What would you like to learn more about?” and “Do you like poetry, short stories, novels or information books?” A fun way of learning about students’ interests would be to have them answer questions like these at the beginning of the year and to ask the same questions at the end of the year.Hopefully, the majority of students will be able to answer the questions in the affirmative and with lots of detail by the end of the school year.4Gilbert The Writing ProcessGrade Level: Third GradeMode of Writing: Narrative – Response to LiteratureStage of Writing: PrewritingContent Area Integration: Language ArtsContent Area Connection:Georgia Performance Standards for English Language Arts/Comprehension ELA3R4: The student uses a variety of strategies to obtain meaning from grade level text.The student:e. Recognizes plot, setting, and character within the text, and compares and contrasts these elements between texts. g. Summarizes text content. p. Recognizes the author’s purpose. ELA3W: The student demonstrates competency in the writing process. The student: i. Begins to include relevant examples, facts, anecdotes, and details appropriate to the audience. k. Writes a response to literature that demonstrates understanding of the text, formulates an opinion, and supports a judgment. m. Prewrites to generate ideas, develops a rough draft, re-reads to revise, and edits to correct.Student Materials: Gilbert, A. (2006). Narrative writing checklist. Valdosta State University, GA. (READ 7140). Gilbert, A. (2006). Narrative writing story map. Valdosta State University, GA. (READ 7140). O’Dell, S. (1960). Island of the blue dolphins. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.  pencil wide Ruled Notebook PaperTeacher Materials: Gilbert, A. (2006). Narrative writing scoring guide. Valdosta State University, GA. (READ 7140). 5Gilbert  Gilbert, A. (2006). Narrative writing story map. Valdosta State University, GA. (READ 7140). markers O’Dell, S. (1960). Island of the blue dolphins. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. overhead projector Traci’s lists of ten. Retrieved May 17, 2006, from http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/006.shtml This site has ten different ideas for story