Skip to main content
Search Mobile Navigation

Calkins Units of Study Resources / K-5 Writing

Units of Study in Writing, Grades K-5

Help students grow and develop strong writing skills

New Units of Study in Writing for Grades 3-5
coming for back-to-school 2024!


The Units of Study in Writing is a dedicated writing curriculum built on a classroom-tested, research-based workshop framework to enable responsive teaching and help students develop essential skills while honing their writing craft.

Comprehensive units provide clear structure, routines, goals, assessment, professional development, and grab-and-go resources. Diverse mentor texts and newly-streamlined print and digital tools aligned to science of reading and writing principles enable educators to provide responsive teaching and support for all students' skill development as they grow their writing craft.

The Units of Study in Writing for Grades 3-5 include an interactive digital writing experience for students, with optional AI for educators, which helps increase educator capacity and gives students essential practice in keyboarding and digital writing.

Download the sampler to see how skills and strategies are introduced, practiced, reinforced, and deepened.

Writing Sampler, Grades K-2

Coming for back-to-school 2024!

Have a Sales Rep contact you about ordering the brand new Units of Study in Writing, Grades 3-5.

Units of Study in Writing, Grade K

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 1

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 2

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 3

The Units of Study in Writing, Grades 3 includes:

  • Four Units of Study for each grade level.
  • A Guide to the Writing Workshop, 3–5
  • Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions, 3–5
  • Supporting All Writers: High-Leverage Small Groups and Conferences, 3–5
  • Grammar and Spelling Conventions
  • Spelling Modules: Essential Building Blocks, 3-5
  • Access to Online Resources
  • Anchor Chart Sticky Notes
  • Trade Book Pack

Unit 1, The Art of Information Writing, teaches students a particular template for strong information writing. You will get kids into the swing of thinking of a topic, imagining the different things they know about that topic, and writing about those different things on different pages. In Unit 2, Changing the World, students will not only learn to write argument texts but also realize that they are changemakers, channeling their passions and ideas into writing that aims to better the world. In Unit 3, Structuring Episodes: Writing Series Fiction, students will learn to develop short, realistic-fiction stories, which supports their comprehension of all stories and helps them to understand one way stories go. In Unit 4, An Introduction to Literary Essays, kids will write a variety of stories about characters’ feelings and traits which help them learn to write clear, structured essays that center around an idea, or claim, and are supported by text evidence.

Request a Quote

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 4

The Units of Study in Writing, Grade 4 includes:

  • Four Units of Study for each grade level.
  • A Guide to the Writing Workshop, 3–5
  • Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions, 3–5
  • Supporting All Writers: High-Leverage Small Groups and Conferences, 3–5
  • Grammar and Spelling Conventions
  • Spelling Modules: Essential Building Blocks, 3-5
  • Access to Online Resources
  • Anchor Chart Sticky Notes
  • Trade Book Pack

Unit 1, Spinning True Stories into Gold, serves three purposes: to launch the fourth-grade writing workshop, to introduce students to the art of keeping writers’ notebooks, and to reinforce and extend students’ understanding of the essentials of narrative writing. Unit 2, Boxes and Bullets: Writing Essays and Arguments, is an introduction to academic essay writing and includes entirely new minilessons to support the all-important work of writing to learn. Unit 3, Literary Essay: Writing About Fiction, strengthens not only students’ writing, but also their reading. It gives young writers access to the skill of writing quick, well-structured essays about texts and includes lots of scaffolding, repetitive practice, and clear, straightforward tips. Discipline-Based Writing, Unit 4, aims to deepen students’ skills with both independent and collaborative research, and to help them write compelling nonfiction.

Request a Quote

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 5

The Units of Study in Writing, Grades 5 includes:

  • Four Units of Study for each grade level.
  • A Guide to the Writing Workshop, 3–5
  • Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions, 3–5
  • Supporting All Writers: High-Leverage Small Groups and Conferences, 3–5
  • Grammar and Spelling Conventions
  • Spelling Modules: Essential Building Blocks, 3-5
  • Access to Online Resources
  • Anchor Chart Sticky Notes
  • Trade Book Pack

Unit 1, Turning Life into Literature, introduces students to personalized writing toolkits which include versions of narrative checklists, copies of charts, exemplar texts, and other resources which will help them as they learn about personal narrative writing and writing about the things that matter most to them. In Unit 2, Literary Essay: Opening Texts and Seeing More, students read to comprehend, interpret, and analyze texts, and then take that work onto the page by crafting an essay that clearly conveys those arguments and ideas. In Unit 3, Research-Based Argument, students will build on and practice their ability to structure their writing so that it includes claims that are supported by reasons that are backed by evidence that they gather from sources. Unit 4, Journalism: Researching and Writing Articles, strengthens students’ information writing skills, rallying them to live as reporters, noticing article ideas all around them, conducting interviews, making observations, and writing news articles.

Request a Quote

Units of Study in Writing, Grades K-5 Guides and Bundles

Previous Editions

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 3

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 4

Units of Study in Writing, Grade 5