Unit 4: Using Conventions to Give Clarity & Voice to Writng

  • A Note About This Unit:

    This mini-unit, along with a second one later in the year, is a short inquiry about conventions and their importance as carriers of meaning for the writer. In this unit, writers are reminded that language is flexible and powerful; that writers play with language in other to communicate their message in truer ways. Children will have opportunities to play with language structures orally before they apply them in their writing. We embed these brief explorations into the Writing Workshop because “we believe that learning grammar must be linked to the process of discovery, to intellectual thought. As a series of received ideas, grammar instruction has little impact – students must construct knowledge of grammar as they discover what it means to write.” ~ Ehrenworth & Vinton in The Power of Grammar, 2005. The convention mini-units are heavily supported by the work of Mary Ehrenworth, Vicky Vinton, and Janet Angelillo. The content of the unit is driven by the CCS.