You are here

The Common Core Companion: Booster Lessons, Grades 3-5
Share
Share

The Common Core Companion: Booster Lessons, Grades 3-5
Elevating Instruction Day by Day

Additional resources:


280 pages | Corwin

You can find hundreds of literacy lessons in hundreds of places—but none of them will do for students what the ones in this book do. What’s the magic bullet? Potent integration.

In this follow-up to her Common Core Companion, Grades 3-5, Leslie Blauman provides an ample supply of connected lessons you can use as booster shots when your students need a good dose of integrated reading and writing instruction. The 50+ lessons are divided into five learning sequences that span the ELA standards, bringing a Monday-through-Friday clarity to a process that often overwhelms teachers and coaches alike.

Follow each sequence and week by week, you’ll build the instructional potency to help students achieve a year’s worth of growth as you integrate:

1.       Reading Craft and Structure with Opinion Writing

2.       Opinion Writing with Evaluating Argument in Informational Text

3.       Narrative Writing with Craft and Structure (words, phrases, key ideas, setting, character, and events)

4.       Informative/Explanatory Text Writing with Reading for Key Ideas

5.       Research to Build and Present Knowledge with Integration of Knowledge and Ideas in Reading

Need a great kickoff to a unit of study or review/intervention lessons toward the end of a unit? Leslie’s booster lessons are eminently “dippable.” Or use her book and its companion website as a planner for deeper, longer-term instructional design. The Common Core Companion Booster Lessons, Grades 3-5, is the resource you’ll turn to again and again for various purposes throughout the year. 

 

 
Introduction
 
LESSON SEQUENCE 1: Integrating Opinion Writing With Evaluating Argument
What Teachers Guide Across the Week

 
What Students Do Across the Week

 
Booster Reading Lesson 1: Understanding Point of View

 
Adapting This Lesson for Other Text Types: Informational

 
Companion Writing Lesson 1: Launching Opinion and Persuasive Writing

 
Snapshot of a Turn-and-Talk Peer Conference on POV

 
Booster Reading Lesson 2: Co-Constructing and Close Reading

 
Companion Writing Lesson 2: Determine Structure and Essential Elements

 
Language Connections: Formal Versus Informal English

 
Booster Reading Lesson 3: Reading and Annotating Fairy Tales

 
Companion Writing Lesson 3: Planning and Drafting

 
Booster Reading Lesson 4: Compare/Contrast Writing

 
Companion Writing Lesson 4: Revision Focus on Transition Words

 
Booster Reading Lesson 5: Complete Compare/Contrast Piece

 
Companion Writing Lesson 5: Edit and Finalize Piece

 
Third-Grade Adaptation

 
Fifth-Grade Adaptation

 
 
NEXT INSTRUCTIONAL STEPS
What Do I See? A Student Sample of Persuasive Writing

 
What Do I See? A Student Sample of Compare and Contrast

 
Authentic Assessment: Student Reflection and Evaluation

 
Peer Power: How to Use Student Work as Mentor Texts

 
If/Then Chart

 
Mentor Texts

 
Unit Planning: How to Build Out Three Weeks

 
 
LESSON SEQUENCE 2: Integrating Reading Craft and Structure With Opinion Writing
What Teachers Guide Across the Week

 
What Students Do Across the Week

 
Booster Reading Lesson 1: Explaining How an Author Uses Reasons and Evidence in Informational Text

 
Companion Writing Lesson 1: Expressing an Opinion in Response to Text

 
Booster Reading Lesson 2: Examining How Text Features Help With Main Idea and Evidence

 
Companion Writing Lesson 2: Modeling Opinion Writing

 
Language Connections: Determine or Clarify the Meaning of Unknown Words

 
Booster Reading Lesson 3: Using Essential Questions to Dig Deeper

 
Companion Writing Lesson 3: Launching Opinion Writing

 
Booster Reading Lesson 4: Moving to Independence

 
Companion Writing Lesson 4: Working Through the Writing Process

 
Booster Reading Lesson 5: Assessing Our Learning

 
Companion Writing Lesson 5: Wrapping Up the Writing

 
Snapshot of How to Move From a Written Opinion Piece to a Speech

 
Third-Grade Adaptation

 
Fourth-Grade Adaptation

 
 
NEXT INSTRUCTIONAL STEPS
What Do I See? A Student Sample of Response to Reading

 
What Do I See? A Student Sample of Response to Reading

 
Authentic Assessment: Student Reflection and Evaluation

 
Peer Power: How to Use Student Work as Mentor Texts

 
If/Then Chart

 
Mentor Texts

 
Unit Planning: How to Build Out Three Weeks

 
 
LESSON SEQUENCE 3: Integrating Narrative Writing With Craft and Structure
What Teachers Guide Across the Week

 
What Students Do Across the Week

 
Booster Reading Lesson 1: Elements of Myths

 
Companion Writing Lesson 1: Starting to Envision an Original Myth

 
Adapting This Lesson for Other Text Types: Informational

 
Booster Reading Lesson 2: Co-Constructing a Summary and Independent Reading

 
Companion Writing Lesson 2: Planning a Myth

 
Booster Reading Lesson 3: Mini-Book Clubs

 
Companion Writing Lesson 3: Adding Character Description and Dialogue

 
Language Connections: Eavesdropping on a Book Club Conversation

 
Booster Reading Lesson 4: Looking at Language

 
Companion Writing Lesson 4: Rich Language Equals Rich Writing

 
Booster Reading Lesson 5: Wrapping Up and Assessment

 
Companion Writing Lesson 5: Finalizing the Myths

 
Langage Connections: Reading With Fluency

 
Third-Grade Adaptation

 
Fifth-Grade Adaptation

 
 
NEXT INSTRUCTIONAL STEPS
What Do I See? A Student Response to Literary Elements

 
What Do I See? A Student Sample of an Original Myth

 
Authentic Assessment: Student Reflection and Evaluation

 
Peer Power: How to Use Student Work as Mentor Texts

 
If/Then Chart

 
Mentor Texts

 
Unit Planning: How to Build Out Three Weeks

 
 
LESSON SEQUENCE 4: Integrating Explanatory Text Writing With Reading for Key Ideas
What Teachers Guide Across the Week

 
What Students Do Across the Week

 
Booster Writing Lesson 1: Informative/Explanatory Text Makes the World Go 'Round

 
Companion Reading Lesson 1: Noticing Text Features

 
Adapting This Lesson for Other Text Types: Literature

 
Booster Writing Lesson 2: Grouping by Headings

 
Companion Reading Lesson 2: How Authors Use Headings

 
Booster Writing Lesson 3: Sequencing Information

 
Companion Reading Lesson 3: Close Reading a Text and Visuals

 
Language Connections: Vocabulary

 
Booster Writing Lesson 4: Vocabulary and Elaboration

 
Companion Reading Lesson 4: Assessing Understanding With Annotating and Summarizing Text

 
Booster Writing Lesson 5: Presenting the “All About” Pieces

 
Companion Reading Lesson 5: Presenting the “All About” Pieces

 
Snapshot of a Presentation

 
Fourth-Grade Adaptation

 
Fifth-Grade Adaptation

 
 
NEXT INSTRUCTIONAL STEPS
What Do I See? A Student Sample of Informative Text

 
What Do I See? A Student Sample of a Topic Written in Two Different Formats

 
Authentic Assessment: Student Reflection and Evaluation

 
Peer Power: How to Use Student Work as Mentor Texts

 
If/Then Chart

 
Mentor Texts

 
Unit Planning: How to Build Out Three Weeks

 
 
LESSON SEQUENCE 5: Integrating Research With Presentation
What Teachers Guide Across the Week

 
What Students Do Across the Week

 
Booster Writing Lesson 1: Introducing Research and Questions

 
Companion Reading Lesson 1: Evaluating Print and Digital Content

 
Adapting This Lesson for Other Text Types: Literature

 
Booster Writing Lesson 2: Determining Importance and Note-Taking

 
Companion Reading Lesson 2: Becoming a Media-Savvy, Critical Reader

 
Snapshot of Student Collaboration

 
Language Connections: Words in Their Best Order

 
Booster Writing Lesson 3: A Focus on Note-Taking

 
Companion Reading Lesson 3: Analyzing Notes

 
Booster Writing Lesson 4: Drafting

 
Companion Reading Lesson 4: Re-Reading and Refining Drafts

 
Booster Writing Lesson 5: Putting It All Together

 
Companion Reading Lesson 5: Compelling Conclusions

 
Third-Grade Adaptation

 
Fourth-Grade Adaptation

 
 
NEXT INSTRUCTIONAL STEPS
What Do I See? A Student Sample of a Nonfiction Article

 
What Do I See? A Student Sample of a Nonfiction Research Piece

 
Authentic Assessment: Student Reflection and Evaluation

 
Peer Power: How to Use Student Work as Mentor Texts

 
If/Then Chart

 
Mentor Texts

 
Unit Planning: How to Build Out Three Weeks

 
 
References

Supplements

Leslie A. Blauman

Leslie Blauman has been teaching reading and literacy in the Colorado public schools for over 30 years. Leslie’s classroom is a working model for child/staff development in reading, writing, and critical thinking. Partnering with the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), her classroom is frequently the subject of professional workshops, classroom reading enhancement films, and education journals.  While she works with teachers and students in a majority of the states and internationally as a consultant, her heart is in the classroom and she brings this to both her writing and her consulting.  She speaks... More About Author