Writer's Workshop

   During Writers' Workshop, our young authors develop their craft and skill in a variety of genres.  The workshop often begins with a mini-lesson in which we study the craft of different authors or work together on shared writing. Students head off to work on their own writing. They plan their writing, revise it for content, conference with their teachers and peers, edit, and publish.               

     They begin the year by writing personal narratives - stories about themselves and their own experiences. These are often the simple stories that make up their daily lives. Children may write about playing at a friends house, Grandma coming to visit, a lost tooth, or a trip to the park. We call these stories "small moment" stories because the children learn to zoom in and expand upon a smaller moment in the story that is most meaningful. These young writers begin to include detail and description. They learn to use dialogue and convey emotion to bring stories and characters to life. 

The students also gain practice writing to share information. They learn to research a topic and organize their information books to include many features such as a table of contents and labels. 

Our young writers also develop their skills with opinion writing in which they persuade the reader to agree with their points of view. They try to capture the reader's attention and support their viewpoints with convincing reasons. They consider other points of view and make compelling arguments in support of their own opinion. Finally, they wrap up their piece by restating their opinion.

Finally, children explore the art and craft of writing realistic fiction. Realistic fiction includes stories that are written from the writer's imagination. The stories have realistic characters and settings. The characters experience problems, challenges, and adventures that could happen in real life. Our writers reach back to much of what they learned when writing their small moment stories, They strive to bring their stories to life with dialogue, action, and description, 

September-October - Personal Narratives "Small Moments"

Writers are currently focusing on "Bringing their Stories to Life"! We are using strategies to "unfreeze" our characters by writing to get them moving and talking. We are writing to convey emotion in our characters. Writers continue to stretch out those small moments by telling their stories in little steps.

Helpful hints to families: As you read with your children, spend some time thinking like writers. How does the author of the book you are reading bring the characters to life? How does the author tell the story in small steps...bit by bit?  Think about the author's craft and talk about it with your child. 

November - December - Writing to Teach -  Information books

The first graders are moving on to a new genre in writing. They are developing their skills as writers of information books.  The children love being asked what they know about and they love to teach others about these topics.   During this unit, writers devote much time to exploring informational text from the classroom library. They notice what other writers do to help teach readers about a topic. Some feature include table of contents, pictures with labels, and headings for different parts of the book. Students recognize that good writers of information books create strong beginnings to catch the reader's attention. They consider possible questions a reader may have to help plan the book. They organize the information in a way that presents this information in a clear way that engages the reader.  

As you are reading with your child at home, take some time to explore information books. Talk about the author's craft and notice the many ways that the author engages the reader and organizes information about the topic.

 January-February 

Opinion writing. Our young writers learn to write reviews! We begin to explore the elements of persuasive writing. Students learn to engage their readers with a strong beginning. They support their opinions with several compelling arguments and provide example. Our young writers consider opposing viewpoints and speak to those opinions. Finally students wrap up their pieces with a strong ending.   

March - April       Realistic Fiction

April - POETRY!

May - June.          Writers' Choice