Unit at a Glance Grade 2: Unit 2: Personal Narrative

Unit 2: Personal Narrative

Introduction
Second graders recognize personal narrative features during this unit. In Reading Workshop, students identify elements of
narrative stories. They contribute to the community of learners by sharing personal experiences, insights, and perspectives
towards stories. They also continue to develop strategies to comprehend text. In Writing Workshop, they learn crafts to
improve their writing skills and analyze other narrative text and learn to incorporate techniques of writing in their work.
As with all units of study, use these lessons as a guide. Adapt the lessons to meet your students’ needs and make the unit your
own. Depending on your students’ background and interest, add, eliminate, or modify lessons. The unit is expected to take five
to six weeks to complete.

⊕ Cultural Competency (CC) connection—The lessons throughout this unit are deliberately designed to promote the goals of
cultural competency. This icon identifies strategies and materials that address these goals.

› English Language Learner (ELL) connection—These planning guides were written to intentionally integrate transitioning ELLs’
needs. The star symbol indicates a strategy and/or additional support essential for transitioning ELLs and embedded
throughout the lessons. These suggestions may also benefit other learners. The Notes column shows details and reminders
related to ELL strategies, as well as additional information for teachers working with different student populations.

Standards

• Standard 1: Students read and understand a variety of materials.

• Standard 2: Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
• Standard 3: Students write and speak using formal grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
• Standard 4: Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
• Standard 5: Students read to locate, select, and use relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.
• Standard 6: Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.

Reading Workshop: Big Ideas Writing Workshop: Big Ideas

• Make text-to-self connections. • Write from own experiences.

• Read personal narratives and identify attributes for personal narrative
writing.
• Continue to develop reading strategies for decoding and comprehension.
• Use sequence of events to retell story with simple narrative structure.
• Answer questions to understand a story.
• Discuss important characters in a story.
• Use schema and inference as they visualize.
• Focus on small moments rather than bed-to-bed stories (focused
narrative).
• Tell story with sequence of events that has beginning, middle,
and ending.
• Create attribute charts and/or rubrics.
• Use writing techniques, such as effective leads and endings, rich
words, and figurative language.
• Revise for making sense, answering readers’ questions, showing
not telling, adding detail, and developing characters.
• Share and talk about their writing daily.

Reading Resources Writing Resources

• Making Meaning, Second Grade

• America's Choice, Genre Study: Personal Narrative, Grade 2,
• Variety of big books Version 2
• Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, Second • Using Rubrics to Improve Student Writing, Grade 1,
Edition, by Adrienne Herrell and Michael Jordan New Standards, NCEE
• Student narrative samples

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Unit at a Glance Grade 2: Unit 2: Personal Narrative

Lesson 1: Lesson 2: Thinking Lesson 3: Making Lesson 4: Making Lesson 5: Retelling

Workshop
Reading
Identifying the Before We Read Text-to-Self More Text-to- in Response
›
Lessons 1–5

Goal of Reading Connections Self Connections to Literature

› ›⊕ ›⊕ ›⊕
Workshop

Lesson 1: Telling Lesson 2: What Lesson 3: Moments Lesson 4: Lesson 5: Modeling

Writing

Our Stories Writers Write that Lead Expanding a Draft › ⊕

›⊕ About › ⊕ to Stories › ⊕ Topics › ⊕
Reading Workshop

Lesson 6: Exploring Lesson 7: Exploring Lesson 8: Lesson 9: Retelling Lesson 10: Telling
During-Reading During-Reading Explaining a Story with the Main Idea
Strategies I Strategies II Your Thinking a Narrative when
›⊕ ›⊕ › Structure ›
Lessons 6–10

Responding to
Literature
›⊕
Workshop

Lesson 6: Lesson 7: Using Lesson 8: Using Lesson 9: Writing Lesson 10:

Writing

Organizing with Cause and Effect Cause and Effect Problems and Developing
a List › ⊕ I› ⊕ II › ⊕ Solutions › ⊕ Setting › ⊕
Reading Workshop

Lesson 11: Using Lesson 12: Using Lesson 13: Lesson 14: Lesson 15:
Context Clues I Context Clues II Visualizing I › Visualizing II › Summarizing
›⊕ › When
Lessons 11–15

Responding to
Literature
›⊕

Lesson 11: Lesson 12: Using Lesson 13: Writing Lesson 14: Writing Lesson 15:
Workshop
Writing

Descriptive Unforgettable Endings › Great Beginnings Identifying

Writing › ⊕ Language › ⊕ › Narrative
Attributes ›

Lesson 16: Lesson 17: Lesson 18: Lesson 19: Using Lesson 20:
Workshop
Reading

Visualizing Explaining Identifying Text Talk Visualizing

Strategy Character Character to Increase Our Response to
Lessons 16–20

Practice › Importance › Motivation › Vocabulary › Literature ›

Lesson 16: Seeing Lesson 17: Lesson 18: Lesson 19: Lesson 20:
Workshop

Characters in Exploring Identifying Exploring How Analyzing How

Writing

the Mind’s Eye Characters Characters Characters Learn Characters Come

›⊕ in Books We Write About and Change Alive › ⊕
We Read › ⊕ ›⊕ ›⊕
Lessons 21–25

Lesson 21: Making Lesson 22: Finding Lesson 23: Lesson 24: Lesson 25:
Workshop

Inferences about Evidence from Identifying Self-Monitoring Reflecting

Reading

Characters › the Text › Characterization Beyond Word as a Reader ›

through Dialogue Level ›
›

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Unit at a Glance Grade 2: Unit 2: Personal Narrative

Lesson 21: Lesson 22: Using a Lesson 23: Editing Lesson 24: Lesson 25:
Workshop Creating Rubric to Revise › Celebrating Reflecting
Writing

a Personal › Our Writing › about Personal

Narrative Rubric Narratives ›
›

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