Our community: Creating ABC books as assessment
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=844
A lesson plan for grades K–2 English Language Arts
Students study the theme of community and collect vocabulary words and key concepts from areas they study in class. Using this information, they create alphabet books that relate each letter of the alphabet with a fact, keyword, or phrase from the unit of study. In addition to learning about the steps of the writing process, students will learn to skim and scan print and online resources. After the teacher engages students in conversations about the definition and elements of community, students can craft an individual, group, or class alphabet book, depending on grade and ability level. This lesson provides opportunities for collaborative groupwork and offers several options for adapting activities.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 1
- Goal 2: The learner will develop and apply strategies and skills to comprehend text that is read, heard, and viewed.
- Objective 2.02: Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of texts (storybooks, short chapter books, newspapers, telephone books, and everyday print such as signs and labels, poems, word plays using alliteration and rhyme, skits and short plays).
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.04: Extend skills in using oral and written language:
- clarifying purposes for engaging in communication.
- using clear and precise language to paraphrase messages.
- engaging in more extended oral discussions.
- producing written products.
- completing graphic organizers.
- Objective 4.05: Write and/or participate in writing by using an author's model of language and extending the model (e.g., writing different ending for a story, composing an innovation of a poem).
- Objective 4.06: Compose a variety of products (e.g., stories, journal entries, letters, response logs, simple poems, oral retellings).
- Objective 4.04: Extend skills in using oral and written language:
Grade 2
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.06: Plan and make judgments about what to include in written products (e.g., narratives of personal experiences, creative stories, skits based on familiar stories and/or experiences).
- Objective 4.07: Compose first drafts using an appropriate writing process:
- planning and drafting.
- rereading for meaning.
- revising to clarify and refine writing with guided discussion.
- Objective 4.08: Write structured, informative presentations and narratives when given help with organization.
Kindergarten
- Goal 2: The learner will develop and apply strategies and skills to comprehend text that is read, heard, and viewed.
- Objective 2.02: Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of types of books and selections (e.g., picture books, caption books, short informational texts, nursery rhymes, word plays/finger plays, puppet plays, reenactments of familiar stories).
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.06: Write and/or participate in writing behaviors by using authors' models of language.


