We've got the POWER to Write!

This year I am piloting a new ELA program in my classroom. I teach in a SMALL town. A REALLY small town. We do not have curriculum developers, language arts consultants, or any other authorities on curriculum. What we do have is an awesome principal and a staff full of creative teachers. SO when tasked with the challenge of aligning our current ELA program to the Common Core we realized there were huge gaps. This led to some research of new Common Core alligned programs where we discovered the Common Core Progress series from Sadlier Schools.
The Common Core Progress text contains nonfiction and informational text units aligned to the Core and surprisingly to our science and social studies topics! Between each reading unit is a writing unit that draws from the previous reading unit. Talk about keeping everything connected!
This week I am beginning a fictional narrative writing unit. So far my class is doing a fantastic job analyzing the student sample and using the included graphic organizers to plan their piece. Overall I am VERY pleased with this new series thus far!  I also found a catchy tune over at Flocabulary to help students understand the steps involved in creating a piece of writing. From that song came this great acronym POWER which inspired the classroom poster below: