Writing

1. Writing

2. Writer’s Workshop • During writer's workshop the children are exposed to a variety of genres. Children will be exposed to these genres through read alouds. We will then discuss where writers get their ideas, author's craft, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.

3. Writer’s Workshop • September/October – Launching with Small Moments & Writing for Readers • October/November – How-To Books • December – Authors as Mentors

4. Writer’s Workshiop • January – CCLS ELA- Task Insects • February –Persuasive Letter Writing. • March/April –CCLS ELA Task-Communities . • May/June – All About Books. (incorporating How-To)

5. Background on Writer’s Workshop • Writer’s Workshop is one period. We use Teacher’s College Writing Program founded by Lucy Calkins. • Writer’s Workshop begins with our mini-lesson (about 10-15 minutes). Here we focus on one writing strategy. First I model the strategy, then the children have the opportunity to practice the new strategy, finally I summarize what we have learned and send the children back to their seats to start independent writing. While the children are writing I have an opportunity to meet with them individually for conferences. These conferences allow me to work with each child individually and focus in on what they specifically need. • All children will have writing goals. • Children will have a writing partner.

6. WritingStages • Children’s writing develops in stages: • First, children use pictures to tell a story. • Next, they will progress to listening for and writing the beginning sounds in their words. • The next stage is to write both the beginning and ending sounds of their words. Once children have mastered writing the beginning and ending sounds they will begin to listen for the middle sounds in their words. Consonant sounds will be easier for the children to hear and write. Vowel sounds are more difficult for many kindergarten children to hear and they will develop an ear for them later on in the year. Here is an example of the stages your child may follow: • Stage 1: Draws a picture of a cat and tells a story about having a pet cat. • Stage 2: Draws a picture of a cat, tells a story about having a pet cat and writes the letter “C” to represent the word cat. • Stage 3: Draws a picture of a cat, tells a story about having a pet cat and writes the letter “CT” to represent the word cat.

7. Goals for each Unit • Generating a true story from one’s life • Zooming in-focusing on the small things Unit 2 • Drawing and writing a sequence of steps Unit 3 • Study an author to enhance their own writing skills

8. Units Goals Continued: Unit 4: Task- Collect information and put it in their own Unit 5 : Persuasive Letter Writing- convincing the reader of their point of view. Unit 6: Task-Community- back to information gathering information on a community worker to be aware of that profession. Unit 7: All About Books- child selects a topic and finds out as much as they can to teach the reader.