Goals 1.Strands a. Teaching Points ( ) Lesson idea suggestions Kindergarten Writer s Workshop UNIT GOALS: 1. Students will use strategies to draw ideas on paper. 2. Students will use strategies to find story ideas. 3. Students will begin to tell stories that are sequential and that contain story elements (ingredients). URGENT UNIT NOTES: 1. The writing units will not be rewritten this year. This updated version only includes the unit goals and notes added, everything else will remain the same. 2. The majority of this unit comes from The Complete Year in Reading and Writing Kindergarten except for Goal 1 lessons. 3. Some interesting ideas for encouraging storytelling include the Story Chest and the Treasure Tells on page 46. These could be incorporated throughout the year into a show and tell time or as a time-filler when needed. 4. This unit utilizes partnerships for telling stories to inspire writing. Please add extra time into the length of mini-lessons to model routines and expectations for partnerships. GOAL 1: Students will use strategies to draw ideas on paper. 1. Writers draw ideas on paper by using shapes. a. Writers can draw story ideas on paper by: thinking about shapes (Day One) using shapes to draw (Day Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven) ***Lesson Structure Ideas for the Day One to Seven lessons: Connect: see checklist for ideas Teach: Model how to use the shapes as you draw idea. Be explicit about getting your ideas by closing your eyes to get a mental image and then going back to that mental image to name shapes you see and will use in your drawing. Active Engagement: Idea: Say close your eyes and think about. (focus of days lesson) Think about which shapes you need to draw your idea. When you get your idea and know the shapes fold your arms. Turn & Tell your partner your story idea
and what shapes you will use to draw it. Link: Close with the day s Teaching Point and an explicit reminder of what you should see them doing independently today. Share: Have students bring their picture to show to a partner. Have them tell their story idea and try to name the shapes that they used to draw today. *You will want to explicitly model this partner work before you do it the first time. (Day one) Idea: Review names of shapes and practice drawing a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, lines- straight vs. curved, Zig Zags * We want to expose students to the names of the shapes, we know they won t remember them all, but if you make a chart of all of the shapes this will help them to have a resource. (Day two) Idea: Model for students that today you are going to write about your house/home. Model thinking about the shapes that you would use to draw your house. Don t add any background yet as we are focusing on one thing. We will come back in later lessons to add more to our setting/background like sky, fence, grass, trees, etc. (Day three) Idea: Model adding yourself (character) to your story. Show which shapes/lines you will use to draw yourself into your story. (Day four) Idea: Model adding background or more to the setting around yourself and the house. Idea: show how to draw grass, trees, sun, clouds, more people, etc. (Day Five) Idea: Model today choosing to draw about your favorite pet or animal. Model closing your eyes to think and name the shapes you see. Draw the shapes of the animal. Try modeling adding a label to your animal picture. This could be an initial sound, initial and final or stretching. This model should come from where the average needs of your students are. (Day Six) Idea: Model adding in background to your animal/pet story.
(Day Seven) Idea: Model any fix-up that you have noticed your students may need or another idea you see fit. GOAL 2: Students will use strategies to find story ideas. ****Note: The following lessons come from the Complete Year Unit. The lessons are out of sequence as certain lessons better match certain goals and the strategies needed to get to that phase. Also, please imbed using the previous learning of shapes to draw on each of the days where students spend drawing their story ideas to tell. The majority of these lessons now develop students abilities to verbally tell a story. 1. Writers are Storytellers and you are a Storyteller. a. Think about yourself as a Storyteller by telling: The stories you like to tell (Day 1 Lesson)* Who you tell stories to (Day 1 Lesson) Naming a Storyteller you know (Day 2 Lesson)** *You may choose to break the first two bullets apart from the day 1 lesson by teaching one bullet a day. **If you know a great Storyteller or are a great Storyteller you may want to have a guest visitor come to share/model their Storytelling skills during the Shared Reading Time to build-in background knowledge for kids who may not have this experience that they can then use during the day 2 lesson. 2. Writers think about many different things to tell a story. a. Writers get ideas for telling stories by thinking about: Actual Events/Real Events (Day 3 Lesson)* Imagined Events (Day 3 Lesson) Feelings (Day 5 & Day 6 Lessons)** Special Objects/Things* (Day 8 & Day 9 Lessons)*** Interests/Likes* (Day 11 & Day 12 Lessons)**** *Choose the language that rolls off your tongue during this lesson. ** Do day 5 & 6 as separate lessons- one focuses on real feelings and the
next day is imagined feelings. You may also need to spend another day on this one if needed. *** Do day 8 & 9 as separate lessons. You will need to send home a parent letter or the parent letter resource 2.7 asking students to bring in special things for the Day 9 Lesson. **** Do day 11 & 12 as separate lessons- Day 11 focuses on drawing all their likes/interests, Day 12 focuses on telling stories about them. GOAL 3: Students will begin to tell stories that are sequential and that contain story elements (ingredients). 1. Writers know that stories have ingredients and an order that they can use to tell a story. a. Writers can tell stories by using story ingredients/elements. (Day 4 Lesson)* (Day 10 Lesson)** (Day 13 Lesson)*** (Day 14 Lesson) Spend 2 days on this lesson. *You will need to use the language that matches your Reading Ingredients/Elements chart and the chart itself for this lesson. You will also need the Story Strings/Strips. See appendix. ** You may want to break this lesson into two objectives. First day of Day 10 may be to practice again with strings. The second day would be to focus on the ending of the story. *** Day 13 could be optional if you use this technique as a Shared Reading approach that could be done before the Mini-Lesson. You could also use this lesson idea during shared reading throughout the year to spiral review the story elements in reading and writing. Celebration Idea: (Day 15 Lesson) * You may use a buddy or cadets class to share stories with or partner with another grade level as an idea for this celebration.
****Keep a record of notes about suggested changes to this unit of study. Classroom Materials Alphabet chart or letters on word wall Personalized writing folders or writing journals *whichever you prefer Paper samples for Early Fall Units (resources 2.8-2.11) *If you are using personal writing folders only* Note= you may use this paper to make a bound writing journal as well if you choose* Mentor Texts: Suggested ideas for Mentor Texts: ** Mentor Texts for Drawing w/ Shapes Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis Not a Box by Antoinette Portis Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban Calabash Cat by James Rumford Pablo s Tree by Pat Mora The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch A Snowy Surprise by Amy Hest Superhero by Marc Tauss Tell Me a Story, Mama by Angela Johnson and David Soman Wilfred Gordon MacDonald Partridge by Mem Fox William s Doll by Charlotte Zolotow **Idea: use these texts as an Interactive Read-Aloud before you need them in the writing lesson.
Write additional mentor text ideas here: Workshop Structures: Other Literacy Components: Work Students are Doing: Mini-Lesson Independent Work Time *Note that during this first unit the workshop lessons will not take the full 40 minutes. You can use that extra time to embed handwriting practice, letter/sound knowledge etc. to build a stronger foundation for future writing skills. Interactive Writing Shared Writing Interactive Read-Aloud= to read the mentor texts you refer to during writing to students to create that schema around the text. Learning the routines, structure and expectations of Writer s Workshop Support Struggling Readers: Support for Strong Readers: Writing independently to try-on the strategies taught. Sharing their own reading experiences, likes, dislikes, etc. Using charts created as resources for writing Building a community of writers. Pull small groups and work closely with them to encourage them to work on specific things they are struggling with. (Pencil Grip, drawing, thinking of ideas, staying engaged) Pull small groups with an appropriate goal that will continue to push them on their writing level. These students may be ready for trying to write initial or end sounds or stretching sounds of words. Home/School Write a parent letter explaining the goals of the ARCH Unit. Remind parents to remind students about things that they do in their lives that they could write/tell about at school. Assessment: Use the suggested checklist on page 23 for ideas. Celebrations: See page 25 under the Commitment Section. Choose 1 or 2 things to use to celebrate their accomplishments during this unit.
Standards addressed: Wyoming Common Core State Standards Kindergarten Writer s Workshop Common Core Standards Addressed: 1. Writing A. Text Types and Purposes 1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory text in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. 2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened. B. Production and Distribution of Writing 1. With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed. C. Research to Build and Present Knowledge 1. Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them.) 2. Listening and Speaking A. Comprehension and Collaboration 1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about Kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. a. Follow agreed upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion). b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. 2. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood. B. Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas 1. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail. 2. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail. 3. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly. 3. Language Standards A. Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Print many upper- and lowercase letters b. Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs 2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I b. Recognize and name end punctuation c. Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes) d. Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships. Resources used to create this unit of study: The Complete Year in Reading and Writing K by Pam Allyn and Karen McNally pgs. 41-56