Students have continued working on teaching books in writer's workshop. Using mentor texts has been helpful for first grade writers to get ideas and see how writers use a variety of nonfiction features. From photographs and captions to finding examples of comparisons and close ups, students have learned about what features would help their writing become an expert teaching book. With the goal of their books being to teach others, students have experimented with using a variety of features in their writing. Planning continues to be an important step in the process of writing.
Much time was spent on looking at table of contents. As writers begin to write longer chapter books, it was helpful to break apart their books into separate sections. Students learned how this is helpful to a reader and began experimenting with interesting chapter titles for their table of contents.
In January, students spent a lot of time looking at expected first grade writing. In reflecting on what objectives each student was really good at, students then looked at areas they wanted to improve on. All first graders should be editing for punctuation, upper case letters, and meaning. Students should be elaborating on their writing and including details. This should look like 3-4 sentences on each page. Students are learning and should be trying out interesting opening and closings, using the word wall and spelling rules that have been introduced, and trying out new and interesting words (expert words) that are multisyllabic. In teaching books, students are spending equal time on their pictures, where they not only draw but include descriptions, captions, labels, comparisons, and diagrams. Each child focused on one goal and worked had to improve their writing in just one area. A card was used to help remind each child what their goal was.
