Writing Lessons for the First 15 Days of School (1)

Teaching writing is a passion of mine. Years ago, a colleague and friend observed me teach a writing lesson. After the observation, she said, Is that all you do? The answer was and still is the same yes! This packet of mini-lessons will help you establish a classroom of passionate and proficient writers without much, if any, preparation. Simple, but Powerful Writing Mini-lessons: 1.I can talk on paper. 2.I can add a topic sentence in my writing. 3.I use add a closing sentence in my writing. 4.I can organize my ideas. 5.I can use transition words/phrases in my writing. 6.I can use similes in my writing. Supplies needed: Whatever you use to model writing:chart paper, document camera, computer, and/or overhead projector Writing notebooks for mini-lessons:one per person, including you. I use composition notebooks. Writing notebooks for writing:one per person, including you. I use Google Docs. Spiral notebooks or composition notebooks work well too. Copies, as needed. Suggested lesson format: Writing Mini-lesson:10-15 minutes Students Write:20 minutes This can be choice or assigned. If students finish an assigned topic, they free write, revise, or edit. Writing never stops in your classroom. During this time, confer with students. Important:Tell them one positive thing about their writing, and give them ONE thing to work on. Authors Chair:10 minutes Two or three students share a snip-it from their writing with the class. I have a one-page limit if its double-spaced. For single-spaced pieced, they only get to read half a page. Students respond with positive comments. Preface: If you dont have enough time built into your schedule, dont worry. Just fit the lessons into the schedule that you have. Youll be surprised what 15 minutes a day of modeling writing will do for your class. Dr. Rich Allen, author and brain-based consultant, says, If youre not modeling, youre teaching something else. This concept is especially true in writing. Remember to MODEL writing every day. Writing is talking on paper. If a child tells you that he doesnt know what to write about, simply respond with this statement, Thats so sad. It looks like you wont be talking today. ! Simply said, write ALOUD in front of your students for about 15 minutes each day. If you dont finish a lesson, dont worry. Simply pick up the next day where you left off. If you add on to your writing, students will add on to their writing. If you revise your writing, students will revise theirs. These lessons can easily stretch into 30 days, and itll be time well spent. Essentially, were teaching the same concepts over and over anyway. Take time to SHOW students whats going on inside your head.When I was a first-year teacher, my principal said to me after observing a math lesson, The difference in a mathematician and a good math teacher is that a good math teacher can teach others how to teach math. Youre a good math teacher. Ive always laughed about how that was a backhanded compliment, but I agree wholeheartedly with him.I believe the same holds true for teaching writing. If writing comes naturally to you, it may be harder for you to teach others how to write. If it doesnt, you may be the best writing teacher out there. Regardless of how easily writing comes to you, be sure to share the thinking that goes on inside your head with kids. Well, be sure its school appropriate! Some things you may want to keep to yourself. ! Its okay to get stuck. If that happens, let your students help you figure out what youre going to write next. This packet is designed to get you started writing aloud with your students. You can use the lessons as they are written, or you can modify them to best meet your students needs. You can use a computer with a projector, document camera, chart paper, or an overhead projector when modeling. Just be sure the students see you writing. Thanks for purchasing this packet, and good luck creating strong writers in your classroom. Lesson One: Pre-assess: Before you begin teaching writing, instruct students to write to a prompt. Do not give them a rubric or any other directions. Two that Ive used are: Tell about a fun time you had with family or friends. Pretend you are an animal. Tell about a day in your life. Instruct students to follow the steps of the writing process. I allow about 45-60 minutes and collect what they finish. Since this is a pre-assessment, youll know all you need to know about their writing whether or not they finish. I have my students do this in their writing journals. Its a wonderful first piece. Then, have them write to the same prompt around Christmas and again at the end of the year. Their growth should be phenomenal. Lesson Two: Read and discuss the scoring guide with the class. Talk about what theyll learn this year. They wont be scored on everything at the beginning of the year. Its not fair to score dialogue if you havent taught it yet.The reproducible is at the end of this lesson. Writing Scoring Guide 321 I can effectively talk on paper. I am learning to talk on paper. I need to talk on paper. I can effectively organize my writing. I am learning to organize my writing. I need to organize my writing. I can maintain a clear focus in my writing. I am learning to maintain a clear focus in my writing. I need to stay focused in my writing. I can effectively use transition words in my writing. I am learning to use transition words in my writing. I need to use transition words in my writing. I can effectively use strong vocabulary in my writing. I am learning to use strong vocabulary in my writing. I need to use strong vocabulary in my writing. I can effectively use dialogue in my writing. I am learning to use dialogue in my writing. I need to use dialogue in my writing. I can effectively use figurative language in my writing. I am learning to use figurative language in my writing. I need to use figurative language in my writing. I can effectively use I am learning to use I need to use compound compound sentences and appositives in my writing.compound sentences and appositives in my writing.sentences and appositives in my writing. I can effectively use correct capitalization, verb usage, and punctuation in my writing. I am learning to use correct capitalization, verb usage, and punctuation in my writing. I need to use correct capitalization, verb usage, and punctuation in my writing. I can use the correct spelling of words in my writing. I am learning to use the correct spelling of words in my writing. I need to use the correct spelling of words in my writing. Then, show them this graphic organizer: Talk about how this simple organizer helps students plan to get a 3. Its simple and effective! You can reproduce one, but I dont. My students simply create their own organizers on notebook paper. Ive included a reproducible if youd prefer that. Name:_________________ Date:_________ Writing Scoring Guide 321 I can effectively talk on paper. I am learning to talk on paper. I need to talk on paper. I can effectively organize my writing. I am learning to organize my writing. I need to organize my writing. I can maintain a clear focus in my writing. I am learning to maintain a clear focus in my writing. I need to stay focused in my writing. I can effectively use transition words in my writing. I am learning to use transition words in my writing. I need to use transition words in my writing. I can effectively use strong vocabulary in my writing.. I am learning to use strong vocabulary in my writing. I need to use strong vocabulary in my writing. I can effectively use dialogue in my writing. I am learning to use dialogue in my writing. I need to use dialogue in my writing. I can effectively use figurative language in my writing. I am learning to use figurative language in my writing. I need to use figurative language in my writing. I can effectively use compound sentences and appositives in my writing. I am learning to use compound sentences and appositives in my writing. I need to use compound sentences and appositives in my writing. I can effectively use correct capitalization, verb usage, and punctuation in my writing. I am learning to use correct capitalization, verb usage, and punctuation in my writing. I need to use correct capitalization, verb usage, and punctuation in my writing. I can use the correct spelling of words in my writing. I am learning to use the correct spelling of words in my writing. I need to use the correct spelling of words in my writing. Lesson Three:I can talk on paper. (The time spent gathering ideas will be well worth it in the long run!) Create a list of things you like to talk about in front of students. Be sure to include fiction and nonfiction topics when creating your list. Once youre finished, students create their own list in their writing mini-lesson notebooks. My list looks like this: Family:Jack, JT, Kyle, Mom, Dad, Monica, Brenda, Lucille Close Friends:Emalie, Heather, Andrea, Diane Students:All of them! Pets:Annie, a toy poodle, and Remington, a lab mix Vacations:New York City, New Hampshire, Eureka Springs, San Antonio, Mount Zion National Park Hobbies:Harley Davidson, gardening, farm life, horses, building houses, shopping History:American Revolution, Westward Expansion, Civil War Government:Preamble, Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, Bill of Rights Fictional Characters:Cherilyn, a wise older sister, and Monique, an annoying little sister (Note:My name is Cheryl Lynn, and Im the little sister in real life. My older sisters name is Monica. My students love these fictional stories. !) Create a class list of ideas and post them somewhere in the room. Then, when students dont know what to write about, you can refer them to the list.Lesson Four:I can talk on paper. Have students get the list they made the previous day and a pencil. Play music and have students walk around the room. Stop the music and instruct students to find a partner or trio. Trios are important so no one feels left out. Take a minute and talk about the importance of feeling included.Once they have their groups, have them take turns sharing items from their list one at a time - until they run out of items or you decide its time to move on to another group.Encourage them to add ideas from classmates to their own list of writing ideas.Play music again and have students find a new partner or trio. Repeat this for about 5-10 minutes depending on their on-task behavior. Lesson Five:I can talk on paper. Model transferring items from the list you modeled yesterday to an ABC box of writing ideas. After you model creating yours in front of students, students create their own and glue them into their writing notebooks. Encourage them to have ideas in all of the boxes, if possible. The reproducible is on the next page. My Writing Ideas A Annie Abraham Lincoln BCD E F farming G government H horses I JKL M motorcycles NOP Q RS Students T U VWXYZ My Writing Ideas A BCD E FGH I JKL M NOP Q RST U VWXYZ Lesson Six:I can talk on paper. Images are worth a thousand words. Model cutting out pictures you like from childrens magazines and talk about the stories you coul d write to go along with the images. After you model creating yours, students create their own. They can glue these images into their writing notebooks. My friend and colleage, Emalie Lindsey, had her students glue the images on the front of their composition notebooks along with pictures they brought from home of their pets, favorite items, and family. Later that day, she Mod Podged the covers for durability. If you dont have magazines, you can search for images online.Once you find the images you want, place them in a word document and copy them for students. Since I have 12 computers in my room, I save the document on the students computers, and they can cut and paste the images they choose into their own documents.If you search correctly, you can find appropriate images that you have permission to use and copy legally! Heres how: Google search images. Click on the gearbox. o Then, click on Advanced Search. Scroll down to Usage Rights and click on Free to Use or Share. Alternate lesson idea: Have students create a word cloud of their writing topics and glue it into their writing notebooks. Www.tagxedo.com is my favorite site for this.If you want words to stand out in the word cloud, type them more than once. The more times you type the word, the bigger it should be. If you want to keep a couple of words together, omit the space and use ~ instead. Example:Longaberger~Basket Remember to continue to add on to these lists as the year progresses.Revisit these lists as students run out of things to write about. If you spend enough time at the beginning of the year establishing writing is talking on paper, you may never have this problem. Lesson Seven:I can organize my writing. Introduce students to this graphic organizer: Note: First, write a topic sentence. Immedi atel y fol l owi ng, write a closing sentence. Then, add transition words, details, figurative language, and dialogue.Have students copy this into their writing mini-lesson books or copy the picture and have them glue it into their books. You can download pre-made PowerPoint lessons that teach students how to use this organizer in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Heres a link to a free sample:https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Prompt-Pretend-You-Own-a-Pet-Store-172617 Remember the graphic organizer from the beginning of the packet? Its similar. A student simply modified this to best fit her needs. Lesson Eight and Nine:I can add a topic and a closing sentence/sentences to my writing. Model writing topic and closing sentences from your list of writing ideas. Dont worry if theyre boring. This is just preplanning. Well spice them up later with a grabber and better vocabulary if we actually use them. We want to train students to quickly jot them down. Examples: Topic Sentence:Jack and I took a vacation to New York City. Closing Sentence:That was the best vacation ever! I wonder where we will go next year. Topic Sentence:Annie, my toy poodle, is the best pet ever. Closing Sentences:Im so happy my husband bought Annie for me for Christmas. I cant imagine my life without her. Topic Sentence:Eating out keeps your kitchen clean. Closing Sentences:If you want to keep your kitchen clean, consider eating out at a restaurant. Then, youll have more time to play with your kids. Topic Sentence:Helping your parents clean the kitchen is wonderful family time. Closing Sentences:Helping your parents clean the kitchen is wonderful family time. Plus, youll end up with sparkly dishes and polished silverware. Its a win-win situation for all involved. After you model several, have students write some topic and closing sentences in their writing journals. Repeat a similar lesson tomorrow. You cant do this enough. ! Extended Lesson Idea: Allow students to share examples from the previous lesson. Be sure to glance at them first to ensure they are strong and appropriate examples. Model writing one or two more from your class list of writing ideas. Topic Sentence:Branson, Missouri, is a fun place to visit. Closing Sentences:Branson, Missouri, is a fun place to visit. I cant wait to go again. Topic Sentence:Lori Elliott and I have been good friends for many years. Closing Sentence:Im glad Lori Elliott is my good friend. Im looking forward to many more years of close friendship with her. Remember, these are just for the graphic organizer. We can spice them up later with grabbers or descriptive language. Lesson Ten:I can add transition words/phrases to my writing. Read Brianas Pierced Ears to your students. Be sure they can see the text as your read. Talk about how the transitional words and phrases help the story flow as its read aloud. Notice the commas that follow the transitional words or phrases. Brianas Pierced Ears

After much deliberation, my seven-year old niece, Briana, decided to pierce her ears. I was lucky enough to be invited to accompany her to the event. The facts that she survived getting stung by a bee and received TWO kindergarten shots at the same time were the deciding factors that she could handle the pain. However, she was still a little scared of the procedure. On the morning of the outing, I awoke at 8:30 A.M., but Briana was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by 6:30 A.M.! She thought the minutes crawled by before we finally left for the mall. It was easy to find a parking space because we were the first customers at Claires! We even arrived before one of the workers. Briana was getting tired of waiting, so we did the only reasonable thing available ... we shopped! Once our purchases were made, we waited some more for the second worker to arrive so both workers could pierce each of Brianas ears at the same time. We waited ... and waited ... and waited some more! Finally, Briana made the call to let the manager pierce her ears one at a time. That decision ended the waiting game, and dazzling blue earrings reflected from the mirror. Briana grinned from ear-to-ear while her mother snapped a photo to post on Facebook. It was time to show the world her beautiful earrings! Briana was pleased with the final outcome. Her newly pierced ears glistened like sunshine on a gently rolling stream, and she was proud of herself for being brave. She discovered that getting her ears pierced wasnt nearly as frightening as she thought it would be. Brainstorm a list of transitional words and phrases. Students should add these to the next clean page in their writing notebook while you create an anchor chart to hang in the classroom. . First, Shortly after that, Meanwhile, Soon, Along the way, Before long, Earlier, After all of that, Later on, Eventually, An hour later, Without delay, Immediately, At that very moment, At last, Next, Later that same day , During all of this, As soon as ____, Not a moment too soon, While this was happening,

Lesson Eleven:I can add transition words/phrases to my writing. Read Mountain Bike Adventures to your students.. Be sure they can see the words as your read. Have the students circle the transitional words and phrases. Mountain Bike Adventures Is 41 too old to pedal through the dense, rocky Ozark Mountains? Its not if youre married to a thrill-seeking man with a brand-new mountain bike. My husband and I explored the vast forests near Table Rock Lake on Sunday. Even though I ended up with sore muscles, muddy clothes, and a few bruises, it was still a wonderful adventure.Before we left the house, we frantically searched bottomless drawers for our bicycle attire. Padded bike shorts were a must for the rocky terrain, and I didnt plan to leave the house without mine. Fortunately, I found them, so we loaded up the bikes and set off on our exciting mountain adventure. Once we arrived in Branson, we got started as soon as we could. I pedaled slowly at first, but as I became more confident, I began to pedal faster. One time my bike started to wobble down a hill, and I almost flipped over the top of the handlebars.I stopped just in time. Next time, I wont slam on the front brakes; Ill use the back ones.Crossing shallow creeks was my favorite part of the trip because I liked to feel the cool, crisp water spraying my ankles like a fresh spring mist. Plus, mud always followed. That combination was hard to beat. Traveling through the wooded hills and valleys made me feel like a pioneer traveling West on horseback. I almost made it through the entire four-mile ride, but as I rounded the bend to face the last hill, my legs couldnt take it anymore. I felt like I was pedaling in slow motion and not going anywhere, so I dismounted and pushed the mud-caked Trek the last 500 feet.I was never so excited to see our truck in my life. We rested and talked to other bikers as they prepared to ride the same trail. After rejuvenating, we set off for home. We decided to reward our hard work with a stop at Orange Leaf. Fortunately, most the mud stayed on us and not on their floor. You should have seen the looks we got from other customers as we filled our cups with frozen yogurt. One glance in the back of our truck would have answered their quizzical stares. Orange Leaf was a perfect ending to a wonderful day. I cant wait to go mountain-bike riding again. Lesson Twelve:I can use similes in my writing. Similes make me smile! Especially when you talk like a valley girl.Like, yeah. As if. Have some fun with this. Let your students walk around and practice using l i ke and as in their sentences. Then, talk about how similes use like and as to compare one thing to another. Write a list of similes on chart paper. Encourage students help you come up with more. They need to write these in their writing notebooks too. Here are some examples: as pretty as a picture as flat as a pancake as light as a feather as refreshing as a dip in a pool like a fish out of water like a fish in water like a ballerina dancing in the wind like a kid in a candy store Lesson Thirteen:Putting it together. Below are screen shots of one of the writing PowerPoints I have for sale in my store for a dollar. Youre welcome to simply use these PDFs to teach. I dont use the cute PowerPoints with my students. I simply grab a pen or the keyboard and write in front of them. I created these to help other teachers see the process of modeling writing. If you like these lessons, check back in my store. I plan to add more soon. Talk about adding a topic and closing sentence in informational text. Weve been working on narrative writing, but we can use the same format for informational writing. After you have your sentences planned, add transitional phrases to your organizer. I dont always use the transitional phrases. Once I start writing, I use ones that sounds the best when reading the text aloud. Now, add your middle. These are the details that keep your writing organized. Lesson Fourteen:Putting it together. Review the organizer you created yesterday. Talk about how figurative language wows the reader and helps create word pictures. Add two similes to your organizer. Then, talk about adding a grabber to the boring topic sentence you created earlier. Review why the topic sentence was boring:It helped establish the main idea. Since it was in the graphic organizer, you didnt want to waste a lot of time. Now that your thoughts are organized, adding a grabber should be easier to do. An easy grabber to add is a question. See example below: Talk about how the grabber added life to your writing. Now, model how to stretch out the graphic organizer. Add details and strong language so your text will be enjoyable to read. Day Fifteen:Putting it together. Review the writing process you used the last few days. Also, refer back to the scoring guide. ONLY assess whats been taught. You havent taught dialogue yet, so its not fair to assess it. I assess spelling and conventions since they have been taught in previous grades. After grading, show them what happens when you dont stretch out the graphic organizer. Compare the two pieces of writing. Its important to show STRONG examples first. Thats what the boring piece is at the end. ! Transition Words:Remember to use a comma afterthem.Topic Sentence: Closing Sentence: Detail: Detail: Detail: Detail/Dialogue: Detail: Detail: Detail: Detail: Detail: Simile: Simile: You can see how this process works well with both narrative and informational text. Thanks for purchasing my packet. Id love to hear how its working for your students. Feel free to post at www.cherylsc.assroomtips.com. Thanks again! ~Cheryl Clip Art:http://www.thistlegirldesigns.com/shop/