Friday Favorites: A Book Suggestion

This week I am reading a FABULOUS book about teaching writing to young children.  I can hardly put the book down, Of Primary Importance:  What’s Essential in Teaching Young Writers by Ann Marie Corgill. 

I am still in the early chapters of the book however I wanted to implement some of the ideas I was reading right away. 

The first change I made was when I will teach writing.  I will have a separate writing block from my Daily Five.    I will teach a mini lesson right after lunch. 

The first lesson I did was to let my young writers  in on the secret of getting a “star” on their writing.  I demonstrated for them all the steps they had to do to accomplish:  

1.       Write two sentences that make sense and add some details to your sentence.

2.     Use capital letters and periods in both sentences.

3.     Print in their very best printing with finger spacesf.

4.     Illustrate the picture with details and a background.

Here are some samples from Day One of Writing Workshop.

I purchased some writing topic cards as well.  I thought that might help the students come up with some ideas about what to write about if they struggle with generating ideas.  

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