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An Overview:
Writer's Workshop is an hour long and a part of the
larger morning literacy block. The
structure of each is as follows:
1. Mini-Lesson (10-15 minutes) The
mini-lesson starts each Writer's Workshop
and is a short lesson with a very specific
focus on a writing procedure, skill, element
of a genre, or convention.
2. Work Session (30-35 minutes)
During the work session students are engaged
in writing by working on piece they plan to
publish, trying out the skill, element, or
convention that was covered in the
mini-lesson, writing in their Writer's
Notebook, conferencing with the teacher, or
meeting in a small guided writing group to
further develop or practice a component of
writing.
3. Author's Chair (5-10 minutes) At
the end of each Writer's Workshop, students
gather together to share their work.
An author is chosen to share what they have
been working on and other students share
comments, questions, or suggestions when the
author has finished sharing. At this
time the teacher may also choose to share
and draw attention to strengths in the
writing piece.
Writing Genres:
There are four major genres covered in
second grade: Narrative Account,
Narrative Procedure ("How To"), Report, and
Response to Literature. Each of
these genres has specific elements that
students are expected to be able to do in
writing by the end of second grade.
Descriptions of these expectations can be
found on the Writing Standards page.
Throughout the year, students are also
constantly working to improve their written
language use and conventions.
Standards for this area of writing are also
included on the Writing Standards
page.
Author Studies:
Also throughout the course of the year,
students engage in units of study that focus
on a particular author. Some of the
units we will cover throughout the year may
include but are not limited to: Leo Leonni,
Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Chris Van Allsburg,
Dr. Seuss, and Tomie dePaola.
Book of the Month:
Each month, students listen to the Book of
the Month and learn about a character trait
that is evident in the story. After
discussions about the trait, students are
then asked to respond in writing to the
story. These responses take many forms
such as retellings, connecting the story to
their own experiences, writing letters to
the author, and stating a claim about the
story while using examples from the story to
support their claim.
Writing Portfolios and Writer's
Notebooks:
Throughout the course
of the year your child will be keeping an
ongoing record of their work and progress.
The first, is a working writing portfolio.
It is called a working portfolio because it
is constantly being revisited.
Students meet with the teacher and decide
which pieces they would like to include and
discuss why they feel that this piece should
be chosen for inclusion. On the other
hand, the Writer's Notebook is a form of
journal in which students keep ideas,
writing pieces they have begun but not
published, and a place to keep writing
pieces they are currently working on.
At the end of the year, the writing
portfolio will be passed on to your child's
teacher for the next year and he or she will
take home his or her Writer's Notebook.
Writing Standards
Coming Soon!
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