What are Your Writing Plans?

So, here I am knee deep in the next phase of my planning. This week I tackled writing, which I might add is one of my favorite subjects to teach.

Confession time, before I went into education, I was an English major. Yes, I was one of those, and I fit the stereotype perfectly. I graduated with my B.A. in English Literature. I also, as many English majors did, dabbled in writing. A younger me had aspirations of becoming a writer. Oh, not a famous one, no, I liked staying in the shadows and just under the radar. It would've been great, except I began to be pulled in a better direction. But, I digress...

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In first grade it is hard to separate writing and reading. They go hand in hand, intertwine, compliment each other....um, you get the idea. If you put all those standards on one pacing guide though, it is overwhelming. So, I break them up for my sanity as I've done here. 


I teach writing using Writing Workshop. My buddies love it! I see such improvement in their writing by the end of the year. I don't jump in right away. I usually ease them into it making sure they have the basics first (handwriting, sentence structure, etc.), but with Common Core I've had to up the pace a bit. With Common Core they are required to write four different types of paragraphs by the end of the year - how-to (research), informative, opinion, and narrative. I want to make sure that my buddies are comfortable with each so that they are prepared for second grade. I'm hoping I can meet the pace. I'm thinking of focusing on grammar on Mondays. Then pulling the grammar in with a mini-lesson before Writing Workshop on Tuesday - Thursday. Friday will be another grammar day or assessment. What do you think?


I'll be posting Reading next...if I can decide which Common Core text exemplars to use for Shared Reading. Any ideas???