Units of Study Grades 3-5 Writing, 3rd Edition

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A boxed set of educational materials titled Units of Study in Writing, Grade 3 by Lucy Calkins. The set includes a large blue storage box and five matching books arranged in front of it. Visible book titles include: • The Art of Information Writing • Changing the World • Structuring Episodes • An Introduction to Literary Essays.

Discipline

Literacy

Copyright

2024

Grade(s)

3 - 5

Delivery Method

Print & Digital

Imprint

Heinemann

The brand-new Grades 3–5 Units of Study in Writing complement the K–2 units for a full K–5 trajectory of state-of-the-art instruction in writing. The units have been thoroughly revised in ways that make them easier to use, more research-based, and updated for today’s classroom. For the first time, they include a sequential standards-based curriculum in grammar, opportunities to tap the power of digital technologies, far more discipline-based writing, and a compendium of tools to support responsive small-group instruction.

Alt Text: A boxed set of educational materials titled Units of Study in Writing, Grade 4 by Lucy Calkins. The set includes a large red storage box and five matching books arranged in front of it. Visible book titles include: • Spinning True Stories into Gold • Boxes and Bullets • Literary Essay • Discipline-Based Writing. — **What does the series contain for Grades 3-5?**

**Units of Study in Writing**

Each of the four units offers a sequenced set of daily sessions that invite students along a path of writing development in narrative, information, argument, or literary essay writing.

**Supporting All Writers: High-Leverage Small Groups and Conferences, 3–5**

This book supplements the units, providing teachers with easy access to ready-to-teach small groups and conferences around major writing goals. It includes work times that especially support children who are either below or above benchmarks, ensuring that all children progress along a trajectory of development.

A boxed set of educational materials titled Units of Study in Writing, Grade 5 by Lucy Calkins. The set includes a large blue storage box and five matching books arranged in front of it. Visible book titles include: • Turning Life into Literature • Research-Based Argument • Literary Essay • Journalism. — **Grammar and Spelling Conventions**

This resource contains grade-specific grammar lessons that are designed to integrate closely with the Units of Study in Writing. The grammar instruction is sequenced so that students can apply the lessons they learn to their ongoing writing. This resource also includes spelling minilessons that can be woven into the teaching of each writing unit as needed.

**Spelling Modules: Essential Building Blocks, 3–5**

This resource contains carefully sequenced modules for students who need more targeted support in phonics and spelling. It draws on the latest research on the science of reading, supporting students in the foundational skills needed to be strong writers.

A Guide to the Writing Workshop, Grades 3–5

This guide serves as an overview of the essentials of a writing workshop, describes the four core writing genres included in the series, helps with allimportant methods, introduces practical management tips, and guides teachers in leading the writing workshop.

Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions, Grades 3–5

This contains the assessment system for the Units of Study in Writing, 3–5. In it, teachers will find a chapter that provides an overview of writing assessment, plus progressions, checklists, exemplar texts, and annotated pieces of writing, at each level for all four genres.

Anchor Chart Sticky Notes

The Anchor Chart Sticky Notes feature each day’s teaching point to help teachers create and evolve anchor charts across the units.

Online Resources

Digital Content

The NEW Units of Study in Grades 3–5 are on the Heinemann Flight platform. They provide a deeper digital experience for teachers and—for the first time—a digital experience where students can submit writing. Teachers can use AI-suggested comments, informed by Units of Study instruction, to provide each student with customized feedback. The feature also helps teachers more easily see patterns in students’ writing and identify areas of support.

The Digital Teacher License also provides digital access to all the printed books in the core units of study set (Units, Guide, etc.), along with a rich array of resources to support each unit. These resources include downloadable versions of charts, handouts, book lists, exemplar texts, supports for Spanish-speaking students, and more, all arranged session by session to streamline each day’s preparation.

Digital Writing Experience for Grades 3–5

Included in every Digital Teacher License for Grades 3–5 is access to a brand-new digital writing experience in the Heinemann Flight platform. Generative AI-suggested feedback uniquely tuned to the instruction and style of Units of Study makes this the most powerful version of our Writing units ever.

The digital writing experience:

Gives teachers the ability to respond quickly and easily to students with high-quality, AI-suggested feedback at key moments of each unit
Allows students to submit writing work and act on teacher feedback as they write and revise

Teacher Experience

Teachers access digital writing functionality and share AI-suggested feedback with students.
Teachers can review work written within the platform or import previous student work.
Teachers can review student submissions all on one screen.

Student Experience

Resources are presented side-by-side to make the experience seamless for students.
Students can use text-to-speech, change menu items to Spanish, chat directly with their teacher, and more!
Students can easily access new comments from their teacher on their work to help drive their revision.

About the Units

Unit 1, The Art of Information Writing, teaches students a particular template for strong information writing. You will get kids into the swing of thinking of a topic, imagining the different things they know about that topic, and writing about those different things on different pages.

In Unit 2, Changing the World, students will not only learn to write argument texts but also realize that they are changemakers, channeling their passions and ideas into writing that aims to better the world.

In Unit 3, Structuring Episodes: Writing Series Fiction, students will learn to develop short, realistic-fiction stories, which supports their comprehension of all stories and helps them to understand one-way stories go.

In Unit 4, An Introduction to Literary Essays, kids will write a variety of stories about characters’ feelings and traits which help them learn to write clear, structured essays that center around an idea, or claim, and are supported by text evidence.

Grade 3 Unit Titles

The Art of Information Writing (Unit 1)
Changing the World (Unit 2)
Structuring Episodes: Writing Series Fiction (Unit 3)
An Introduction to Literary Essays (Unit 4)

Unit 1, Spinning True Stories into Gold, serves three purposes: to launch the fourth-grade writing workshop, to introduce students to the art of keeping writers’ notebooks, and to reinforce and extend students’ understanding of the essentials of narrative writing.

Unit 2, Boxes and Bullets: Writing Essays and Arguments, is an introduction to academic essay writing and includes entirely new minilessons to support the all-important work of writing to learn.

Unit 3, Literary Essay: Writing About Fiction, strengthens not only students’ writing, but also their reading. It gives young writers access to the skill of writing quick, well-structured essays about texts and includes lots of scaffolding, repetitive practice, and clear, straightforward tips.

Discipline-Based Writing, Unit 4, aims to deepen students’ skills with both independent and collaborative research, and to help them write compelling nonfiction.

Grade 4 Unit Titles

Spinning True Stories into Gold (Unit 1)
Boxes and Bullets: Writing Essays and Arguments (Unit 2)
Literary Essay: Writing About Fiction (Unit 3)
Discipline-Based Writing (Unit 4)

Unit 1, Turning Life into Literature, introduces students to personalized writing toolkits which include versions of narrative checklists, copies of charts, exemplar texts, and other resources which will help them as they learn about personal narrative writing and writing about the things that matter most to them.

In Unit 2, Literary Essay: Opening Texts and Seeing More, students read to comprehend, interpret, and analyze texts, and then take that work onto the page by crafting an essay that clearly conveys those arguments and ideas.

In Unit 3, Research-Based Argument, students will build on and practice their ability to structure their writing so that it includes claims that are supported by reasons that are backed by evidence that they gather from sources.

Unit 4, Journalism: Researching and Writing Articles, strengthens students’ information writing skills, rallying them to live as reporters, noticing article ideas all around them, conducting interviews, making observations, and writing news articles.

Grade 5 Unit Titles