1. Feature Article Unit of Study
4th Grade
Carmen Hart Jensen, Sue Myette, Ruth Cerna

2. Immersion:
Spend several days immersing students in texts of the type they are being asked to write, to identify the characteristics of the genre. 
Have students read several feature articles to learn about the genre. 
Identify characteristics of feature articles.  What commonalities do they notice among the articles? 
Be sure to look beyond text features at the characteristics of the writing itself.  For example, an article might include a mini-story even though it is informational.  In addition, many articles quote experts or other relevant people. 
Authors of feature articles might even express an opinion, even though their primary purpose is to inform rather than to persuade.
You could create a living bulletin board like the one shown on the next page OR create groups of 3-4 students to take apart a Feature Article – slide 4.

5. Brainstorm Topics and Choose One
Next spend a couple of days generating topics to write about and maybe doing some quick writes.  Students should choose something they already know a fair amount about, and want to learn even more.  One way to identify potential topics is to use the published articles as jumping off points:
Fire & Ice:  What is a science topic you know a lot about?
King’s Dream:  Who is a famous person you know a lot about? 
More Than a Game:  What is an activity or hobby you’re really into?
The Future of Libraries:  What is a trend you notice that causes you to wonder something?
Robots:  What’s a new, cool thing? 
Schools for Girls:  What is something you’ve learned about on TV? 
Seed Vault:  What is something you never thought about but read something interesting about recently?
What is an animal you know about?  (there are tons of examples in National Geographic Kids)
Place?
Sport?
Food?
If you want to assign a specific focus for the unit, be sure to choose mentor texts that include some of that content. For example, if your focus is on historical concepts, include feature articles on the people and places of that time.

6. If using PUBLISHER, spend a few days in the computer lab, teaching kids about the program.

7. Possible teaching points include:
Project your unit of study using Lucy’s lessons, rubrics & checklists. Include CCS Standards.
Possible teaching points include:
Immersion Day
Immersion Day and choosing a topic
Learning about Publisher (you may choose to do this toward the end of the unit when kids are ready to publish)
Learning about Publisher
How to take notes & Conducting Research on the Internet (Lucy Unit 3 p.43)
Organizing my notes (Lucy Unit 3 p.10 & p.87)
Planning the structure of Writing (Lucy Unit 3 p.15)
Chronologically, Categorically, Cause & Effect, Compare/Contrast
What subtopics will you use?
What will my Publisher Page look like?
Elaboration: using facts and details to help your reader (Lucy Unit 3, p.38)
How to develop more writing stamina.
How to digitally compose into Publisher using my research notes.
Writing leads - hooking the reader by using:
Surprising fact, Big picture, Why the subject matters (Lucy Unit 3 p.112)
Deciding what text features to use (Lucy Unit 3 p.113)
Diagrams, photos, clipart, charts, heading, bold words, definition boxes.
Bringing Information Writing to Life: micro-stories inside non-fiction texts (Lucy Unit 3, p.47)
Using a teaching tone in informational writing.
Writing effective informational transitions (Lucy Unit 3 p.20)
Using quotes to accentuate importance. (Lucy Unit 3 p.
Writing effective Conclusions (Lucy Unit 3 p.110)
Using comparisons and figurative language to clarify points.
Countdown to our celebration: checking my Publisher page for errors, readability last minute additions
Celebration!!

8. Student samples - courtesy of Carmen Hart’s 5th graders at Sunset