ELA  /  Kindergarten  /  Unit 4: Falling in Love with Authors and Illustrators

Falling in Love with Authors and Illustrators

Students explore the works of four award-winning authors and illustrators, Grace Lin, Yuyi Morales, Monica Brown and Jerry Pinkney, learning about their lives and inspirations.

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ELA

Unit 4

Kindergarten

Unit Summary

In this unit, students explore and experience the works of four award-winning authors and illustrators: Grace Lin, Yuyi Morales, Monica Brown, and Jerry Pinkney. Students will think critically and make connections between the author or illustrator's life and the stories he or she writes or illustrates, and how each author's unique personality is reflected in the words or pictures. By studying a wide variety of authors and illustrators, we hope that the foundations will be set for a lifelong interest in reading and books. In future units and grades, students will read additional award-winning stories written or illustrated by the different authors and illustrators from the unit.

This unit builds on Welcome to School, Noticing Patterns in Stories, and Celebrating Fall and assumes that students are inquisitive consumers of text, asking and answering questions while listening to and enjoying a story. Students will continue to work on retelling a story, including key details about the setting, characters, and major events. Students will also continue to be challenged to "read" the illustrations and think about how the illustrations help a reader better understand what is happening in the story. At the end of this unit, students should also be able to clearly articulate and define the role of the author and illustrator and why they are both important. 

To build speaking and listening skills, students continue to work on clarifying and sharing their thoughts while engaging with the thinking of others. Students practice continuing the conversation through multiple exchanges, asking and answering questions and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Students continue to work on building writing fluency by writing daily in response to the Target Task question. Students learn strategies for crafting statements and questions orally and in writing, and practice using end punctuation when writing statements or questions. In this unit students return to opinion writing, continuing to work on crafting opinions. After learning about each author or illustrator, students will write a letter to the author/illustrator explaining which book was their favorite. Additionally, students will begin to explore narrative writing, narrating a single event, with a beginning, middle, and end.

Please Note: In May 2025, this unit and its lesson plans received a round of enhancements. The text Pelé, King of Soccer by Monica Brown is out of print and has been removed from the unit. This unit is now 24 instructional days (previously 27 days).

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Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Supporting Materials

Text Selection Rationale
All Course Materials

Assessment

The following assessments accompany Unit 4.

Content Assessment

The Content Assessment pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.

Cold Read Assessment

The Cold Read Assessment tests students' ability to comprehend a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer standards-based questions. The Cold Read Assessment can be given in addition to the Content Assessment as a pulse point for what students can read and analyze independently, a skill often required for standardized testing.

Unit Prep

Intellectual Prep

Unit Launch

Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.

Essential Questions

  • Where do authors and illustrators get their ideas for writing?

Reading Focus Areas

  • Authors and illustrators work together to tell a story or share ideas. 
  • Readers "read" the illustrations in a text to notice clues about events, setting, and key events. 
  • Readers notice details about character feelings and actions. 

Writing Focus Areas

Narrative Writing Focus Areas

  • Writers brainstorm the beginning, middle, and end of their story.
  • Writers tell about the setting in the beginning, tell about the problem in the middle, and tell about how the problem is solved at the end.  
  • Writers revise by adding words to tell how a character feels. 

Opinion Writing Focus Areas

  • Name an opinion. 
  • Write an introduction to an opinion piece. 
  • Provide reasons based on personal experience.
     

Emergent Writing

Use the Emergent Writing Teacher Tool to regularly study students' Target Task responses. During Independent Writing, prompt students using the supports relevant to their individual Emergent Writing phase. By the end of Unit 4, students should demonstrate mastery of the majority of skills within Phase 3: Transitional Writing. 

Speaking and Listening Focus Areas

  • Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.  
  • Asks and answers questions about key details or to get information. 
  • Requests clarification if something is not understood. 
  • Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly. 

Vocabulary

Text-based

attachchallengecontagiouscourageousconfidentcontenderdefeatdim sumfamousfortuneimaginationimmigrantjealouskitelonelyovercomepatientprepareproudsteadytalentugly

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 4, view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.

Supporting All Students

In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.

Content Knowledge and Connections

  • An author is a person who writes a story.
  • An illustrator is a person who illustrates, or draws the pictures, for a story.
  • A person can be both an author and an illustrator.
  • Authors use things they are passionate about in their own lives to influence what they write about.
  • Authors are often recognized for their outstanding writing or illustrations. Some awards that authors can receive:
    • The Pura Belpre Award is given to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience. 
    • The Coretta Scott King Book Award is given as a way to recognize outstanding books for young adults and children by African American authors and illustrators that reflect the African American experience.
    • The Caldecott Award is given to the illustrators of the most distinguished picture books.

Future Fishtank ELA Connections

Lesson Map

22
Lesson
Writing
Overview

Write a narrative text to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. 

Materials
  • Narrative Writing Rubric (GK)
  • Single Point Narrative Writing Rubric (GK, U4, L22)
  • Narrative Writing Brainstorm Graphic Organizer (GK–2)
  • Mentor Text (GK, U4, L22)
  • Editing Checklist (GK, U4)
Day 1 - Brainstorming

Brainstorm a story with a beginning, middle, and end using a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing.

Materials
  • Narrative Writing Rubric (GK)
  • Single Point Narrative Writing Rubric (GK, U4, L22)
  • Narrative Writing Brainstorm Graphic Organizer (GK–2)
  • Mentor Text (GK, U4, L22)

Standards

L.K.1.bL.K.2.aL.K.2.bW.K.3W.K.5

Day 2 - Drafting

Draft a story with a beginning, middle, and end using a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing

Materials
  • Narrative Writing Rubric (GK)
  • Single Point Narrative Writing Rubric (GK, U4, L22)
  • Narrative Writing Brainstorm Graphic Organizer (GK–2)

Standards

L.K.1.bL.K.2.aL.K.2.bW.K.3W.K.5

Day 3 - Revision & Editing

Revise a narrative story by adding words to tell more about the characters' feelings. 

Materials
  • Narrative Writing Rubric (GK)
  • Single Point Narrative Writing Rubric (GK, U4, L22)
  • Narrative Writing Brainstorm Graphic Organizer (GK–2)
  • Phase 3: Transitional Writing (GK, U4, L22)
  • Editing Checklist (GK, U4)

Standards

L.K.1.bL.K.2.aL.K.2.bW.K.3W.K.5

Common Core Standards

Core Standards

L.K.1
L.K.1.b
L.K.1.f
L.K.2
L.K.2.a
L.K.2.b
L.K.2.c
L.K.2.d
L.K.4
L.K.6
RI.K.2
RI.K.3
RI.K.6
RI.K.7
RL.K.2
RL.K.3
RL.K.6
RL.K.7
SL.K.1
SL.K.2
SL.K.3
SL.K.5
SL.K.6
W.K.1
W.K.3
W.K.5
W.K.7
W.K.8

Supporting Standards

L.K.1.a
L.K.1.d
L.K.1.e
L.K.5
RI.K.1
RI.K.10
RL.K.1
RL.K.4
RL.K.9
RL.K.10

Read Next

Falling in Love with Authors and Illustrators
Lesson 1
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