Week 1:
*"Today I want to teach you that when you are writing endings to your stories, you don't have to stray far from what's actually happening in your story. Writers know that we will usually get a better ending if we stay close-in to the moment. When I take your stories home and read them, I think, 'What a great small moment!' and I get really into the story you're writing. But then the ending is a big let down." Show with your hand how their small moments are tall and exciting and then at the ending, bring your hand down to show what a let down is. "Your stories go like this: Yesterday, I was collecting acorns outside. I had so many acorns, they were filling up my shirt! I asked my friend to help me put the acorns beside the tree for the squirrels. We had fun. It was really really fun. Then we went inside." Show how the last sentences were a big letdown. "What you do now is you usually write endings that jump away from the Small Moment. So you tell the story about finding acorns and then end it with 'it was fun' or 'then we went home'. Do you see how you are jumping away from the Small Moment or going to a whole different time?"
"Let's try writing a close-in ending for the acorn story..." Model how to change the ending "It was fun. Then we went inside." by either
1. thinking about what happened or was said next "I asked my friend, 'Do you think the squirrels will like our acorns?' He said, 'I sure hope so!'"
2. writing how you felt or what you thought inside about the moment "I think it's a lot of work to be a squirrel!"
"From now on, let's say it's not allowed to end your piece with 'and then I went home' or 'and then I went to sleep'."
*Model ending one of your pieces today in a bad way (like "then I went to bed"). Ask S's to turn and talk to their partner about whether or not this was a good ending and how you may want to change it to make it better. Make a chart for endings to keep up in your classroom. You may want to use examples on the chart from the acorn story yesterday. Your chart may say something like:
"Writers write close-in endings!"
*Stay in the moment: think about what happened next or what was said next. (example)
*Write what you were thinking or feeling inside the story. (example)
"No more "and then I went home"
You may also want to save some space on the chart to record endings from books/authors you've read together and like. This can serve as an author's craft study on story endings. Any time your class finds a good ending that they especially like, you can record it on this anchor chart.
*"Today I want to teach you that when we meet with our writing partners, part of our job is to have an actual conversation about our work."
Show a partner chart with the following thinking stems that you created ahead of time:
"We can say things to each other like,"
(read below from chart:)
"Let me show you what I did in my writing.
This is what I did today.
Listen to my story.
This is what I'm working on.
Partners can respond by saying,
I like the part...
I like how you...
It makes me feel...
It reminds me of..."
*"What a special day for us, writers! Today is the day that we get to choose one story that we want to revise by adding details about people, places, and objects, giving details about the setting, fixing up any confusing parts, and writing more in the parts of our story that are extra important. Today is the day we pick one piece to celebrate and to add in any feelings and emotions that we may have left out." Model doing some of the above with one of your pieces. Make sure you model how and why you chose this particular piece as your published piece.
*"Writers, today I want to teach you that another way we can work with our partners is to have our partners read aloud a bit of our stories, then act out what that bit says (not what we wish it said!), and then read the net bit, acting out that bit as well. As we listen and watch, we will quickly realize thaings that have been left our. 'No, you need to do this!' we might say, and then, as a writing partner we can say back, 'You should say that in the story.'" Model doing this with a student. You will read the beginning of their story and act it out. If they notice something is wrong with the way you acted it out, have them add the missing detail into their story.
Week 2:
*Today I want to teach you that we can rewrite the most important page in our story. We can take smaller and smaller steps through the events and thoughts on that one page." Read "Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick" or "Lilly's Ice Cream Star". Look closely at how Kevin Henkes writes one very small moment across the pages of his book. Model looking at your own writing piece and finding one important page (probably the middle page) that could be thought about and added to. Model getting a new page for your book and rewriting just that page with closer details/smaller steps about what really happened in that part of your story. Take your book apart and replace that page with your new page.
*"Remember, writers, that we have actual readers for our stories-people out there who are dying to know about our lives! For them to learn about our lives, they have to read our stories. And for them to read our stories, we have to make sure our stories are readable. Today I want to teach you that when we reread our stories to get them ready for publishing, we can check to be sure we are using word wall words correctly." Model reading through your partners piece and checking for words that are tricky for you to read. You and your partner will check to see if it's on the word wall or if you need to "turtle talk" it better.
*Use the little editing checklist (from Debbie) for each writing partnership to go through their stories together and check off. If they can't check something off with their partner, they need to fix that part of their story today.
You can also have this poster up for partners to use today:
"How to Fix Up a Piece"
A writer and an editor read it over really carefully.
We ask, "Does this make sense? How can we fix it? What can we add?"
Then we fancy up our pieces.
*Give S's a copy of your writing that you need them to fix:
Yesterday, I went to visit my grandma.
She mad a cak for me.
It so good.
"I'm going to give you and your partner a copy of this piece of writing and a marker. I want you to practice being editors, thinking about the jobs that editors do. If you find spelling mistakes, fix them with your marker. If you think the piece needs more detail, mark a D where you think the writer should expand. If you think it doesn't make sense, be ready to talk about why."
"Today we're finishing up our pieces. You will need to make final edits and get them all fancied up for the writing celebration tomorrow!"
*For today's writing celebration, two classes will meet together in one classroom. Have S's sit in a circle, paired up, facing each other. S's will take turns reading their pieces to each other. The visiting class will rotate one person over and repeat sharing with their new partner. This can continue around the circle as many times as you feel comfortable with. End the celebration with a round of applause for all the first grade writers. Tell S's that their wonderful published books will be displayed in the hallway for the school to enjoy!
Week 3:
*"I need to tell you about something that happened to me Friday night. Well, on Friday, right after our writing celebration, I brought all your writing home with me. That night I started watching TV and then I said, 'Wait a minute. Why am I watching TV when I have my kids' stories at home?' I thought, 'My kids' stories would be so much better than this show!' So I turned off the TV and I got out all of your writing, and I wrapped myself up and snuggled down to read, like this." (begin to read a fake book that says "ME ND MI SITER WNT ON DA ROPS") "Oh, I can't wait to see what hppens next!" (read "WE CIMD DA BMPS WE WNT HI") Turn to last page and look confused (WIGSDNR DADHSDN) "Wait a minute! What happened next?" Reread pages, building up suspense of what happened next..."Oh no! I can't read it! I don't know what happened! after they climbed high on the ropes!"
"I had to stop reading this great story without learning how it ended because I couldn't read it. I was so sad that the writer hadn't written in a way that let me read the whole story. Today I want us to realize that it can be a really sad thing to not be abe to read a story."
S's turn and talk about what made the last page so hard to read.
"As you go off to write today and for the next few weeks, try really hard to keep me in your mind. I want you to remember that I am at home, dying to get to the end of your amazing stories, and I am hoping that your writing has given me the help I need to get to the end. Your writing is so, so much better than TV...and I can't bear to have to stop halfway through it."
Leave time for a share at the end of writing time. Be sure to find someone who worked hard to fix their piece so that you would be able to read it. Show their piece on the ELMO and discuss how they kept you in mind as they wrote today.
*For the next few weeks, we are all going to work extra hard to make our writing easier to read. Today what I want you to know is that I'm not the only one who'll be trying to read your writing. You will be trying to read your stories too. We'll ask that question-'Can you read this?' to ourselves as well as to me."
"So let's try it. Today we're going to try really hard to read our own writing. If it is pretty easy to do, we'll put it in one pile, and if it's hard to do, we'll put it in the hard pile. This takes a special kind of hard-work reading. I want you to watch what I did when I really, really wanted to read you writing."
Model how you work hard my using your reading strategies (picuture, stretching it out) to read a S's writing from their folder.
Ask S's to read all the pieces from their folders and put them in either a "hard to read" pile or the "easy to read" pile. Make sure and tell them that it's ok if they find some "hard to read" pieces because we are just beginning on our work of how to make them easy to read.
Once they've finished, have them look closely at the hard to read pile and talk with their partner about WHAT made them hard to read. Begin a list on the white board about what they say (spaces, neat, a lot of letters, periods, etc...)
"Today, when you go off to write your small moments, make sure you are remembering to go back and try to read your story. And today, and from this day on, let's all try hard to write stories that could go in your easy-to-read pile."
*Use the "Writer's Eye" posters to show the things that we charted yesterday on the white board: What makes a piece easy to read? Put up poster and sentence example for "I see finger spaces between all the words I wrote." on a special writiing board or area.
S's use dry erase boards/desks to practice leaving spaces between words in dictated sentences. One student could model in front of the class on the smartboard or chart paper. Also, discuss writing from margin to margin. Make sure S's understand WHY we leave spaces and write margin to margin (we want to make our writing easier to read).
As S's write today, use did-it-dots for spaces and margin to margin.
*Use the "Writer's Eye" posters to add to your writing board: "What makes a piece easy to read?" Put up poster and sentence example for "I see punctuation at the end of my sentence."
"Boys and girls, do you ever get confused about where to put a period? Do you ever wonder 'Where does the sentence end?' We have been talking about what nouns and verbs are this week. A complete sentence has at least one noun (person, place or thing) and one verb (action word)."
Give some examples of complete and incomplete sentences and let S's tell if it is a complete or incomplete thought. You can borrow one of my buzzers if you'd like to make it like a game show. :)
As S's write today, use did-it-dots for using a period correctly.
Week 4:
*Use the "Writer's Eye" posters to add to your writing board: "What makes a piece easy to read?" Put up poster and sentence example for "I see a capital letter at the beginning of my sentence."
"Last week we talked about where to put a period. A period goes at the end of a complete thought." You can review by giving a couple examples of complete and incomplete sentences like you did last week. "There is another thing that writers need to do to make it easier for the reader to read their writing. Writers need to put a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence to show that they are beginning a new thought. Once you end a thought and put a period, your next sentence needs to begin with a capital letter."
Have S's practice writing these 2 sentences as you dictate them either on dry erase boards or on their desks.
"I am going to say 2 sentences but I'm not going to tell you where to put the period. Let's see if you can figure out where the periods go and where the capital letters go. Write all the words I say. Don't forget that there are 2 sentences."
"I like to eat pizza. It is my favorite food." They should be able to tell where one sentence ends and the next begins without you prompting them. Remind them to stretch out the sounds and write all the sounds they hear.
As they write small moment stories, give did it dots for putting a captial letter at the beginning of all their sentences.
*"There is one last poster that we're going to add to our writing wall today. Writers need to write with mostly lowercase letters. When a writer uses capital letters, it is because they are giving a signal to the reader. Capital letters tell the reader that 'I'm about to say something important!' Can you think of some examples where you've seen writers use capital letters?" Allow S's to talk to their partners about this and then ask them to share with the group. Some ideas that should come up are: beginning of a sentence, beginning of a proper noun, all caps when the author wants to stress something or wants to "shout". You may want to write these ideas down on a small sheet of paper and add that sheet to your writing wall beside the poster for "I see lowercase letters throughout my sentence."
Allow S's to search for capital letters in their own book bags while they're at their seats beginning their writing today. Ask them to notice different ways in which the author used capital letters. Remind them how important it is for you to be able to read their writing and that you expect them to start using the signals to the reader that we've learned so far.
Give did it dots for using mostly lowercase letters.
*"Today I'm going to show you how writers stretch out some of our words and hear a lot of sounds in them. You'll see that we say the word, write a sound, reread what we've written, and say the word again. There's a lot of going backwards, then going forward, then going backwards, then going forward. I'll show you what I mean."
Model writing a small moment story that has happened to your class. Be sure to model stretching out your words very carefully...going back and rereading the word while pointing to be sure you have each sound that you stretched out. Model REREADING your sentence and checking for missing sounds or missing words that would make it difficult to read. Be sure to point out the importance of writing all the words and sounds you want to say so that the reader will know what you're trying to say. "Sometimes when we're in a hurry, we miss words or sounds. That's why it's so important that we go back with our finger and reread!"
Have S's practice stretching out some longer words like "hippopotamus" or "rattlesnake" on a dry erase board.
*"Today I will teach you how writers write faster by switching back and forth from wiritng words slowly by stretching them out and writing words faster because they already know how to spell them. Sometimes when it is time to add on to yesterday's work, I find I've forgotten what I already wrote! Does that ever happen to you? So I usually begin by remembering what I'm going to be writing, don't you? Let's go back and look at what we have so far." Model going back to the piece you began yesterday and rereading then telling the rest of the story with your finger before writing onward.
As you write, model writing some words in a snap (word wall words and other words you just know) and model having to stretch some words. As you did yesterday, model lots of rereading to be sure all words are written so that the reader can read them.
*Today S's will practice checking their own pieces for all the conventions we have learned recently (spacing, periods, capital letters, and spelling). Model how to use the checklist at the end of their book. They will glue the checklist strip to the end of their booklet and use the icons as a reminder of what they need to check in their book. You will model this using one of your own finished pieces (you may want to make up one that has a few mistakes in it so that you can model how to go back and fix the mistakes.)
Show S's where the checklist strips will be kept and how to use a glue stick to attach them so that they can do this independently whenever they finish a piece.
