grade 1 planning tool being a writer · 2021. 7. 7. · the do ahead items that you’ll find...

Being a Writer™ Planning Tool, Grade 1 © Center for the Collaborative Classroom 1

TEAM REFLECTION MEETINGS FOR BEING A WRITER

Facilitator NotesThese tools are a menu of options for encouraging collaboration and professional growth. These sessions can be facilitated by a teacher, literacy leader, or administrator. Select which sessions you will facilitate based on the needs of your adult learning community. Consider how the sessions might support current structures for collaboration, such as professional learning community (PLC) or grade-level meetings, and where you might establish new professional learning, such as a monthly writing meeting. The following sessions support preparation for the beginning of a unit, debriefing at the end of a unit, assessing student writing, and building the adult writing community. The sessions can be held separately or in conjunction with one another.

UNIT PLANNING SESSIONS (30–40 MINUTES)

Facilitate these sessions prior to starting a new unit. The Unit Planning Sessions give teachers an opportunity to preview and prepare for the upcoming unit. Team activities guide participants’ professional learning as teachers read pertinent information and view videos that support instruction and facilitation of student learning. Teachers also have an opportunity to decide what artifacts they will collect for the End-of-unit Assessment Session. Prior to conducting this meeting, be sure to send participants a reminder e-mail and include the Do Ahead items that you’ll find listed in each Unit Planning Session.

SELF-REFLECTION QUESTIONS

These questions are designed to support teachers’ instruction and facilitation as they work through each unit. You could pose these questions during PLC meetings, or you might select a few questions to include in a weekly check-in e-mail. You could also share these questions just prior to the End-of-unit Reflection Session, as teachers prepare for the meeting.

Being a Writer™

SECOND EDITION

G R A D E 1P L A N N I N G T O O L


END-OF-UNIT REFLECTION SESSIONS (60–90 MINUTES)

Facilitate these sessions after teachers have completed a unit or are in the last week of instruction. Team Meeting Discussion Questions are designed to facilitate teachers’ thinking and collaboration as they consider their instruction, student growth, and the implications of what they’ve learned during this unit for subsequent instruction.

ASSESSMENT SESSIONS (60–90 MINUTES)

Facilitate these sessions after teachers have completed teaching a unit. These meetings give teachers an opportunity to analyze and assess student writing. Use the Initial Assessment Session agenda on page 33 to make decisions about what future End-of-unit Assessment Sessions will look like and how they will be conducted. At the initial meeting, you will decide as a group how you want to go about assessing and sharing student writing during future Assessment Sessions. An agenda that can be adapted for each unit’s End-of-unit Assessment Session is on page 34.

BUILDING THE ADULT WRITING COMMUNITY (30 MINUTES)

This session can be done separately, or as part of any of the above sessions. This session engages teachers in an active writing community that will support their own development as writers and teachers of writing. The agenda for this session is on page 35.

Materials for Each SessionPrior to each meeting, consider how you will communicate session information to your team members, including times, locations, and materials required. At each team meeting, all members will need to bring:

• Teacher’s Manual

• Assessment Resource Book

• Assessment data

• Student writing samples

• Conference notes

• Teacher as Writer journals (optional)

There are references to these materials throughout the session descriptions that follow. Unless otherwise indicated, all page numbers refer to the Teacher’s Manual.


UNIT 1: THE WRITING COMMUNITY

Unit Planning Session

DO AHEAD

• Read “About Writing Instruction Early in the Year” on page 7.

• Skim and scan Unit 1, taking note of the Writing Focus and Social Development Focus listed on each Week Overview as well as any assessment and conference questions to inform your instruction and conferences.

• Browse the margins, flagging any Teacher Notes that will support your work.

• Review the Do Ahead section on each Week Overview.

OVERVIEW

During this five-week unit, the students begin to see themselves as contributing members of a caring writing community. They hear and discuss examples of good writing, see you model writing, and write and illustrate stories. Guided writing practice using sentence starters (such as “I help when I” and “I want to be”) builds skills and confidence, while the many creative and free-writing experiences spark originality. The students learn cooperative structures such as “Turn to Your Partner,” as well as other procedures used in the writing community.

TEAM ACTIVITY

Review the Unit Overview on page 3. Briefly discuss:

Q What are students expected to do by the end of the unit?

Q Notice how the unit is designed to build learning over time. What learning is occurring each day to prepare students for end-of-unit expectations?

TEAM MEETING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Q Where do you think your students will excel in Unit 1?

Q What challenges do you foresee for your students or yourself?

Q How will you plan for purposeful conferences?

Q Where are some places where you might take grades?

Q What materials do you need to gather ahead of time?

Q What student samples do we want to bring to look at for our next meeting? (Assessment Resource Book, pages 16–17)


Self-reflection QuestionsQ Have I established a comfortable and convenient meeting place for our read-alouds? What are

our procedures and expectations for students during this time? (Teacher Note, page 7)

Q Am I using the procedure outlined in the Teacher Note on page 9 to address vocabulary smoothly without interrupting the reading?

Q Am I using the reflection portion of the lesson to recognize appropriate behaviors? (Teacher Notes, pages 13 and 69)

Q Have I established clear expectations and procedures for quiet Writing Time? Am I consistent about starting with silent writing, and then conferring with students during Writing Time? Are my students becoming more comfortable and independent about Writing Time? (Teacher Notes, pages 10, 13, 15, 34, and 64)

Q How am I organizing and displaying our charts for use over time?

Q Am I prepping books with self-stick notes so that Getting Ready to Write runs smoothly and efficiently? (Teacher Note, page 25)

Q Am I facilitating class discussions, and teaching students to speak to one another, rather than just to me? (Facilitation Tips, pages 26, 37, 49, 65, and 83)

Q What procedures for dispersing paper and writing utensils are working for me? How am I organizing the collection of students’ writing (folders, etc.)? (Teacher Notes, pages 10, 19, and 38)

Q How did I edit the class books that were put in the library? (Teacher Notes, pages 64, 65, 79, and 80)

End-of-unit Reflection Session

OVERVIEW

During this five-week unit, the students began to see themselves as contributing members of a caring writing community. They heard and discussed examples of good writing, saw you model writing, and wrote and illustrated stories. Guided writing practice using sentence starters (such as “I help when I” and “I want to be”) built skills and confidence, while the many creative and free-writing experiences sparked originality. The students learned cooperative structures such as “Turn to Your Partner,” as well as other procedures used in the writing community.


Q How did the “Beginning-of-year Considerations” impact the decisions that you made about your instruction? (pages 4, 22, 40, 56, and 72)


Q What’s important to remember from “About Writing Instruction Early in the Year” on page 7, “About Writing from Left to Right and Leaving Spaces Between Words” on page 25, and “About Writing Practice” on page 67?

Q What procedures have you set up to work toward establishing your writing community? What are you struggling with, or what questions do you have? (Teacher Note, page 7)

Q How are you supporting students during Writing Time? (Teacher Notes, pages 15, 29, 39, and 84)

Q Are students turning to look at those who are speaking? What effect has this had on your group discussions? (Facilitation Tips, pages 26, 37, 49, 65, and 83)

Q How is the teacher modeling of writing going? How do you prepare for the modeling? Are the things you model transferring to the students’ writing? (Teacher Notes, pages 12, 50, and 63)

Q What are you doing on the Open Day? Are you using the Writing Throughout the Week or Extension ideas? (e.g., pages 19–20)

Q Review your Conference Notes from Unit 1. What do you notice?

Q Review the Class Assessment Records from Unit 1. What do you notice?

Q What did you notice from the “Beginning-of-year Writing Sample”?

END-OF-UNIT CONSIDERATIONS

Wrap Up the Unit

• You will need to reassign partners before you start the next unit.

• Send home with each student a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1) along with a few of the student’s stories from the unit.

Assessments

• Before continuing with the next unit, take this opportunity to analyze individual students’ writing from the unit. See “Completing the Individual Writing Assessment” (IA1) on page 16 of the Assessment Resource Book.

• You might record your students’ progress over the course of the year using the “Individual Writing Assessment Class Record” sheet (CR1) on page 136 of the Assessment Resource Book.

• (Optional) If you obtained beginning-of-year writing samples, you might want to reflect on each student’s writing using the “Beginning-of-year Writing Sample Record” sheet (WS1) on page 4 of the Assessment Resource Book. For more information on analyzing the writing samples, see “Beginning- and End-of-year Writing Samples” on page xi of the Assessment Resource Book.


Things to Consider/Remember When Teaching This Unit Again Next Year

Ask participants to jot their thinking on a self-stick note and share. Collect and compile this information to support next year’s implementation.

Q What ideas or strategies do you want to remember when you teach this unit again?


UNIT 2: GETTING IDEAS


DO AHEAD

• Skim and scan the Teaching the Program section, starting on page xxxii.

Q What did you find out about the design of the unit and week?

• Read “About Oral Language as a Foundation for Writing” on page 97, “About Word Walls” on page 110, and “About Approximating the Spelling of Unfamiliar Words” on page 132.


• Browse the margins, flagging any Teacher Notes that will support your work. Notice the placement of Skill Practice Notes. Choose which of these your students might need and consider when you will include this instruction.


OVERVIEW

During this six-week unit, the students generate writing ideas from their own lives and tell stories orally in preparation for writing. Beginning in Week 2, they start writing sentences without the aid of sentence starters, and they begin writing multiple sentences. They learn various strategies for spelling unfamiliar words, such as using a word wall and approximating spelling using letter-sound relationships they have learned. Socially, they use “Think, Pair, Share” and learn what it means to be a considerate community member and partner. They also learn to use the prompts “I found out . . .” and “I like your story because . . .” to express interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing.

TEAM ACTIVITY

Review the Unit Overview on pages 89–90. Briefly discuss:



Q What can we glean from the Development Across the Grades chart on page 88?






Q What Skill Practice lessons might you teach and why? What will that look like? How and when will you teach the lessons, and will you use small groups or the whole class?


Q How will you incorporate the Writing About Reading activities on pages 136 and 186?

Q What do you need to think through regarding instruction for the Open Days at the end of each week?



Self-reflection QuestionsQ How is the Getting Ready to Write portion of the lesson going? Am I keeping it to about

15 minutes? Are the students able to maintain their focus? (Teacher Notes, pages 115 and 137)

Q Week 1 is the last week of formal guided writing practice. How did my students do with transi-tioning from teacher modeling to generating their own sentences either independently or with support? What kind of support did I offer the students who needed it? (Teacher Note, page 96)

Q How comfortable am I feeling with the teacher modeling during the lessons? What skills or strategies am I modeling? Which of these do I see evidence of in my students’ writing? (Teacher Note, page 97)

Q How are my students doing with not blurting out answers? (Teacher Note, page 111)

Q How am I using the word wall in conjunction with Being a Writer? Did I teach the Extension lesson “Interact with the Word Wall”? What am I noticing about my students and their use of the word wall? (pages 121–122 and 127–128)

Q Am I remembering to pause for 10 seconds to allow the students to think before having them turn to their partners to talk? (Teacher Notes, pages 94 and 98)

Q What did I notice after analyzing the “Conference Notes: Focus 1” record sheet? How will I use that information in my instruction? (Teacher Note, page 124)

Q What have I noticed about my students’ use of approximate spelling? (Teacher Notes, pages 134 and 150)

Q How am I doing with asking open-ended questions and using wait-time? Is this starting to feel natural in my instruction? How does it change the class discussions? (Facilitation Tips, pages 101, 118, 133, 148, 168, and 195)



OVERVIEW

During this six-week unit, the students generated writing ideas from their own lives and told stories orally in preparation for writing. Beginning in Week 2, they started writing sentences without the aid of sentence starters, and they began writing multiple sentences. They learned various strategies for spelling unfamiliar words, such as using a word wall and approximating spelling using letter-sound relationships they have learned. Socially, they used “Think, Pair, Share” and learned what it means to be a considerate community member and partner. They also learned to use the prompts “I found out . . .” and “I like your story because . . .” to express interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Asking Open-ended Questions and Using Wait-time” video clip (AV17; 2D barcode, page 101). Briefly discuss:

Q Do these techniques feel comfortable and natural for you?

Q Do you find yourself using them throughout the school day?

Q What effect has repeated use of these techniques had on your students’ thinking and participa-tion in discussions?


Q In what ways are students participating in the writing community? What have you noticed about their social development?

Q What is your thought process as you plan for the modeled writing in your lessons? Where did you get your stories? What skills/strategies do you model? (Teacher Note, page 97)

Q How is the predictable structure supporting your students as writers? (Teacher Note, page 188)

Q About how long are your students actively engaged in independent Writing Time? How has this changed since the beginning of the year? (Teacher Note, page 99)

Q Throughout the unit, suggestions are given about what to do with the writing you collect from the students. What are you doing with the students’ finished or unfinished writing? How are you keeping it organized? Are you making class books? (Teacher Notes, pages 123, 144, 160, and 196)





Wrap Up the Unit


• Send home with each student a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1) along with a few of the student’s stories from the unit.

Assessments

• Before continuing with the next unit, take this opportunity to assess individual students’ writing from this unit. See “Completing the Individual Writing Assessment” (IA1) on page 34 of the Assessment Resource Book.





UNIT 3: TELLING MORE


DO AHEAD

• Read “About Telling More” on page 204 and “About Sharing from the Author’s Chair” on page 250.

Q Think about how this information helps you to understand the goals of this unit. Which of these ideas do you want to keep in mind as you teach this unit?

• Skim and scan the Special Considerations section, starting on page xlv. Briefly consider:

Q How might the information in the Special Considerations section enhance the lessons you teach?




OVERVIEW

During this four-week unit, the students explore telling more by adding to their writing. Before they write, the students think and talk about what they want to say, and partners share stories to help each other tell more. The students write about assigned and self-selected topics and share their writing from the Author’s Chair. They continue to practice strategies for spelling unfamiliar words such as using the word wall and approximating spelling using the letter-sound relationships they have learned. They also explore capitalizing proper nouns. Socially, they develop the skills of listening carefully to their partners and sharing their partners’ thinking and writing with the class. They also learn the prompt “I want to know . . .” to help them express interest in one another.

TEAM ACTIVITY











Q How will you incorporate the Writing About Reading activities on pages 243 and 259?




Self-reflection QuestionsQ What am I noticing about my students adding more to their stories? (Class Assessment Note,

page 235)

Q Are the techniques of asking open-ended questions and using wait-time feeling comfortable and natural? Am I using these techniques in other subject areas? (Teacher Note, page 241)

Q How am I organizing my conferring schedule and data? What have I gleaned from my confer-ences? Am I using the Teacher Conference Notes to help guide my conferences? (page 225)

Q What did I notice about my students’ use of approximate spelling in their writing? How am I supporting them? (Teacher Note, page 208)

Q Are my students using the word wall as they write?

Q What procedures have I established with my class for the Author’s Chair? Are they able to ask the author more about their story? (Teacher’s Note, page 251)


OVERVIEW

During this four-week unit, the students explored telling more by adding to their writing. Before they wrote, the students thought and talked about what they wanted to say, and partners shared stories to help each other tell more. The students wrote about assigned


and self-selected topics and shared their writing from the Author’s Chair. They continued to practice strategies for spelling unfamiliar words such as using the word wall and approximating spelling using the letter-sound relationships they have learned. They also explored capitalizing proper nouns. Socially, they developed the skills of listening carefully to their partners and sharing their partners’ thinking and writing with the class. They also learned the prompt “I want to know . . .” to help them express interest in one another.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Pacing Class Discussions” video clip (AV19; 2D barcode, page 209). Briefly discuss:



Q What effect has repeated use of these techniques had on your students’ thinking and participation in discussions?


Q What have you noticed about the students’ social development? Are the reflection questions that you ask at the end of the lessons helping them to develop good working relationships? (Teacher Note, page 265)

Q How are you introducing and adding words to your word wall? What have you noticed about your students’ use of the word wall? (Teacher Notes, pages 226 and 233)

Q Are your students using the prompt “I want to know . . .”? How is this prompt helping them in their writing? (Teacher Note, page 247)

Q There were many Skill Practice Notes in this unit. Which of them did you include in your modeling? Which of the skills mentioned have you seen evidence of in your students’ writing? (Skill Practice Notes, pages 205, 208, and 210)




Wrap Up the Unit


• Send home with each student a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1) along with a few of the student’s stories from the unit. Encourage the students to share their stories with their families. Remind the students to bring the pieces back to class after their families have read them so they can be placed in the class library.


Assessments






UNIT 4: WRITING STORIES ABOUT ME


DO AHEAD

• Read “About Writing Personal Narratives in Grade 1” on page 276, “About the Writing Process in Grade 1” on page 325, “About Proofreading” on page 334, “About Making Books with Children” on page 337, and “About Celebrating Student Work” on page 341.

Q Think about how this information helps you to understand the goals of this unit. Which of these ideas do you want to keep in mind as you teach this unit?




OVERVIEW

During this four-week unit, the students explore personal narrative by telling and writing true stories about their own lives. They learn that a good story has a beginning, middle, and end, and they tell more by including feelings in their stories. Each student informally engages in the writing process by selecting one of her stories, adding to it, proofreading it, and publishing it as a book for the classroom library. The students explore temporal words, learn to use exclamation points, and review capitalizing proper nouns. Socially, they learn about one another from their personal narratives and tell what more they want to know about one another’s stories. They learn to share materials fairly and handle them responsibly as they make their books. They continue to focus on sharing ideas and expressing interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing.

TEAM ACTIVITY




Q What information can you glean from the Development Across the Grades chart on page 272?








Q How will you incorporate the Writing About Reading activities on pages 284–285 and 324–325?




Self-reflection QuestionsQ How are my students doing with writing stories with a beginning, middle, and end? What

have they struggled with? (Teacher Note, page 276)

Q Is the technique of asking facilitative questions feeling comfortable and natural? Am I using this technique in other subject areas? (Facilitation Tips, pages 283, 296, 321, and 344)

Q How am I organizing my conferring schedule and data? What have I gleaned from my confer-ences during this unit? Am I using the Teacher Conference Notes to help guide my conferences? (page 307)

Q Which grammar skills am I still modeling for my students? Which ones am I seeing evidence of in the students’ writing? (Teacher Note, page 285)

Q Are my students in the habit of looking at the person who is speaking? How does this impact our discussions? (Teacher Note, page 299)

Q How have my students been doing with proofreading their stories? How have I supported them? (Teacher Note, page 335)



OVERVIEW

During this four-week unit, the students explored personal narrative by telling and writing true stories about their own lives. They learned that a good story has a beginning, middle, and end, and they told more by including feelings in their stories. Each student informally engaged in the writing process by selecting one of her stories, adding to it, proofreading it, and publishing it as a book for the classroom library. The students explored temporal words, learned to use exclamation points, and reviewed capitalizing proper nouns. Socially, they learned about one another from their personal narratives and told what more they wanted to know about one another’s stories. They learned to share materials fairly and handle them responsibly as they made their books. They continued to focus on sharing ideas and expressing interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Asking Facilitative Questions” video clip (AV21; 2D barcode, page 283). Briefly discuss:



Q What effect has repeated use of them had on your students’ thinking and participation in discussions?


Q What have you noticed about the students’ social development? Are the reflection questions that you ask at the end of the lessons helping them to develop good working relationships? (Teacher Note, page 336)

Q What did you notice about your students telling more in their stories? How did you support them?

Q What instructional decisions did you make about teaching temporal words? (Teacher Notes, pages 287 and 297)

Q How did the three-page booklet support your writers? What did you notice about their writing in this type of format? (pages 286–287)





Wrap Up the Unit


• Send home with each student the student’s published piece and a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM2). Encourage the students to share their published pieces with their families. Remind the students to bring the pieces back to class after their families have read them so they can be placed in the class library.

• Save the students’ published writing (or copies of it) to use for reflection and discussion in Unit 7.

Assessments






UNIT 5: WRITING NONFICTION


DO AHEAD

• Read “About Nonfiction Writing in Grade 1” on page 356 and “About Interviewing and Writing About Partners” on page 374.

• View the “Exploring Nonfiction” video clip (AV60; 2D barcode, page 356). Briefly consider:

Q How will this information help you as you plan for instruction?




OVERVIEW

During this three-week unit, the students explore nonfiction by writing nonfiction about themselves, the class, a place in the school, their partners, and favorite objects. They learn about characteristics of nonfiction by reading and discussing nonfiction books. They gather information for their own nonfiction writing by conducting interviews and examining objects. They learn how to use question marks, write opening and closing sentences, and continue to tell more in their writing. They also informally explore the writing process by each proofreading and publishing two pieces of writing as books. Socially, they listen respectfully to one another’s thinking and share their own, make decisions together, work responsibly, and express interest in one another’s writing. They also share their writing with the class from the Author’s Chair.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Avoid Repeating or Paraphrasing” video clip (AV25; 2D barcode, page 363). Briefly discuss:

Q How might this Facilitation Tip enhance the lessons you teach?

Q Which of these techniques do you already use?

Q Which of these techniques do you want to focus on using in your lessons?





Q What information can you glean from the Development Across the Grades chart on pages 350 and 352?







Q How will you incorporate the Writing About Reading activity on pages 393–394?



Q What student samples do we want to bring to look at for our next meeting? (Assessment Resource Book, page 82)

Self-reflection QuestionsQ Which of the following skills do I see my students using in their writing without prompting:

use of the word wall words, approximate spelling, use of a period at the end of a sentence, capitalizing proper nouns, capitalizing the pronoun I? Which of these do I still need to continue to demonstrate through modeling? (Teacher Note, page 362)

Q How has the exploration of nonfiction books in pairs helped my students with their nonfiction writing? What struggles have I encountered?

Q Are the techniques for asking open-ended questions and using wait-time feeling comfortable and natural? Am I using these techniques in other subject areas? (Teacher Note, page 391)

Q How are my students doing with the discussion prompts “I found out . . .” and “I want to know . . .”? (page 385)

Q What have I seen my students doing when they proofread their writing? What skills are easy for them to correct? Which ones are they still struggling with?

Q How are the reflective questions at the end of the lesson helping my students with their partner relationships? (Teacher Note, page 378)


Q Have I been avoiding repeating or paraphrasing students’ responses? What difference do I see in my lessons when I use this technique? What challenges have I faced with this technique? (Facilitation Tips, pages 363, 378, and 401)

Q Am I using the Teacher Conference Notes to help guide my conferences? (page 397)

Q How am I using the information gleaned from the Class Assessment Notes?

End-of-unit Reflection Questions

OVERVIEW

During this three-week unit, the students explored nonfiction by writing nonfiction about themselves, the class, a place in the school, their partners, and favorite objects. They learned about characteristics of nonfiction by reading and discussing nonfiction books. They gathered information for their own nonfiction writing by conducting interviews and examining objects. They learned how to use question marks, wrote opening and closing sentences, and continued to tell more in their writing. They also informally explored the writing process by each proofreading and publishing two pieces of writing as books. Socially, they listened respectfully to one another’s thinking and shared their own, made decisions together, worked responsibly, and expressed interest in one another’s writing. They also shared their writing with the class from the Author’s Chair.


Q How did your students do with generating questions about the topics explored?

Q In the beginning of the unit, how did your students do with writing true information rather than imagined ideas? (Teacher Note, page 357)

Q What did you notice about the exploration and use of text features throughout the unit?

Q How did your students do when they visualized their objects? Were they able to describe them with detail? (Teacher Note, page 399)

Q What are you noticing about the students’ growth as writers and as members of your writing community? What are the strengths of your class? In what areas are your students still struggling? How can you use the reflection portion of the lesson to address these struggles? (Teacher Note, page 378)





Wrap Up the Unit


• Send home with each student the student’s published piece and a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1). Encourage the students to share their published pieces with their families. Remind the students to bring their books back to class after their families have read them so they can be placed in the class library.

Assessments






UNIT 6: EXPLORING WORDS THROUGH POETRY


DO AHEAD

• Read “About Writing Poems in Grade 1” on page 414 and “About Publishing Students’ Poems” on page 473.




OVERVIEW

During this three-week unit, the students explore words through hearing, discussing, and writing poems. They discuss interesting words they hear in poems, generate lists of interesting words to use in their own poems, and informally explore figurative language. They share their poems in pairs and as a class, and each student prepares one poem for publication in a class book. Socially, they build on one another’s thinking and learn to use the prompt “I imagined . . .” to express interest in one another’s poems.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Exploring Poems and Words” video clip (AV70; 2D barcode, page 414). Briefly discuss:

Q How will this information help you as you teach Unit 6?
















Self-reflection QuestionsQ What have I noticed about my students and their exploration of words through poetry? What

have they struggled with? What is easy for them?

Q What evidence of growth am I seeing in my students’ writing? What evidence of growth am I seeing in their social interactions with each other?

Q How am I doing with asking questions once and then waiting? (Facilitation Tips, pages 415, 440, and 477)

Q What have I noticed about exploring figurative language informally during this unit? How will those experiences help my students in future grades? Have any of my students explored using these literacy concepts informally in their poems?

Q How has this unit’s approach to exploring poetry been different from or similar to how I have taught poetry in the past?

Q What have I noticed about the conferences I am doing? How are the Conference Notes supporting me during the conferences?




OVERVIEW

During this three-week unit, the students explored words through hearing, discussing, and writing poems. They discussed interesting words they heard in poems, generated lists of interesting words to use in their own poems, and informally explored figurative language. They shared their poems in pairs and as a class, and each student prepared one poem for publication in a class book. Socially, they built on one another’s thinking and learned to use the prompt “I imagined . . .” to express interest in one another’s poems.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Asking Questions Once and Using Wait-time” video clip (AV27; 2D barcode, page 415). Briefly discuss:

Q Is this practice starting to feel natural to you?

Q Are you integrating it into class discussions throughout the school day?

Q What effect is it having on the students’ attentiveness and responsiveness in discussions?


Q What did you notice about how literary concepts were informally explored in this unit?

Q Were the students eager to write poems? Were they attempting to write poems rather than stories? (Conference Note, page 429)

Q What examples of movement words did you see in the students’ writing?

Q How does the activity “Sharing One Word/Line and Reflecting” support or encourage your students? (Teacher Note, page 429)

Q How did acting out the poems help your students throughout the unit?

Q What did you do to help maintain a relaxed attitude and focus on word play and fun throughout the unit? How did that support your students as they explored poetry? (page 414)




Wrap Up the Unit


• Send home with each student a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1) along with a few of the student’s poems from the unit. Encourage the students to share their poems with their families.


• Save the students’ published writing (or copies of it) to use for reflection and discussion in Unit 8.

Assessments






UNIT 7: OPINION WRITING


DO AHEAD

• Read “About Opinion Writing in Grade 1” on page 492.




OVERVIEW

During this two-week unit, the students hear and discuss examples of opinion writing. They learn what an opinion is, generate opinions about various topics, and write opinion pieces. They explore clearly stating their opinions in opening sentences, providing reasons to support their opinions, and writing closing sentences. They continue to practice using end punctuation, approximate spelling, and using the word wall, and they informally explore using conjunctions. Socially, they express their own opinions of others, while continuing to express interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing. The students share their writing in pairs and with the class from the Author’s Chair. They also display their writing for others to read and enjoy.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Exploring Opinion Writing” video clip (AV68; 2D barcode, page 492). Briefly discuss:

Q How will this information help you as you teach Unit 7?
















Self-reflection QuestionsQ As I’ve been teaching this unit, what about the student work has surprised me? What chal-

lenges did I encounter?


Q How am I doing at responding neutrally with interest? (Facilitation Tips, pages 493, 519, and 530)

Q How did only calling on a few students during discussions help with the pacing of my lessons? (Teacher Note, page 514)

Q What is going well with my conferences? What challenges do I have with conferencing?

Q Am I using the Teacher Conference Notes to help guide my conferences? (page 545)



OVERVIEW

During this two-week unit, the students heard and discussed examples of opinion writing. They learned what an opinion was, generated opinions about various topics, and wrote opinion pieces. They explored clearly stating their opinions in opening sentences, providing reasons to support their opinions, and writing closing sentences. They continued to practice using end punctuation, approximate spelling, and use of the word wall, and they informally


explored using conjunctions. Socially, they expressed their own opinions of others, while continuing to express interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing. The students shared their writing in pairs and with the class from the Author’s Chair. They also displayed their writing for others to read and enjoy.

TEAM ACTIVITY

View the “Responding Neutrally with Interest” video clip (AV23; 2D barcode, page 493). Briefly discuss:

Q Is this practice starting to feel natural to you?

Q Are you integrating it into class discussions throughout the school day?

Q What effect is it having on the students?


Q What opinions did your students have? Were your students able to support those opinions in their writing?

Q Which of the skill lessons did you incorporate into this unit? What evidence of those skills did you see in the students’ writing? Were there any other skill lessons that your students would have benefited from?




Wrap Up the Unit

• Partners will stay together for Unit 8.

• Send home with each student a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1) along with a copy of the student’s published opinion piece from Week 2. Encourage the students to share their writing with their families.

Assessments






UNIT 8: REVISITING THE WRITING COMMUNITY


DO AHEAD

• Skim and scan Unit 8, taking note of the Writing Focus and Social Development Focus listed on the Week Overview as well as any assessment and conference questions to inform your instruction and conferences.



OVERVIEW

During this one-week unit, the students reflect on what they enjoyed about writing this year, think about writing they might do during the summer, and write lists of ideas in their summer writing books. They reflect on how they built a caring community of writers and write a shared letter to next year’s class about how to work well together. They also reflect on their relationships to others, build on one another’s thinking, and express interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing.

TEAM ACTIVITY





Q What celebrations do you think your students will discuss?




Q What do you need to think through regarding instruction for the Open Day at the end of the week?




Q What student samples do we want to bring to look at for our last meeting? (Assessment Resource Book, pages 124–125)

Self-reflection QuestionsQ In what ways have I grown as a teacher of writing over the year?


Q Which Facilitation Tips do I feel comfortable using, and how have they changed my instruction?

Q What have I noticed about the students’ writing at the beginning of the year compared to the end of the year?

Q In what areas of teaching writing using the Being a Writer program do I feel confident? In what areas of teaching writing using the Being a Writer program do I still need support?

Q What changes would I make for next year’s instruction with Being a Writer?

Q (Optional) Write a letter to yourself, or to a new user of the Being a Writer program, giving some advice to help with writing instruction based on your experience and reflection during this past year.


OVERVIEW

During this one-week unit, the students reflected on what they enjoyed about writing this year, thought about writing they might do during the summer, and wrote lists of ideas in their summer writing books. They reflected on how they built a caring community of writers and wrote a shared letter to next year’s class about how to work well together. They also reflected on their relationships to others, built on one another’s thinking, and expressed interest in and appreciation for one another’s writing.

TEAM ACTIVITY

On Day 2, students thought about how their writing has changed over the year. How has your writing instruction changed over the year? Share your thinking and record it on a chart titled “Ways to Be an Effective Writing Teacher.”



Q What did you notice about the students’ answers to the conference questions from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? (Teacher Note, page 545)

Q Which Facilitation Tips have you worked on this year? What difference do they make in your lessons? Which ones do you want to focus on next year?

Tell the group to close their eyes and think about the following questions:

Q What has it felt like to be a part of this teacher writing community this year?

Q What have you done to contribute to our community this year?

Q What are three things your coworkers have done to help you become a better teacher of writing this year? Write these down.

Q What questions or challenges do you still have regarding the teaching of writing?

Q What celebration can you share about your experience this year with teaching writing using the Being a Writer program?


Wrap Up the Unit

• Send home with each student a copy of this unit’s family letter (BLM1) along with the student’s summer writing book, published pieces, and writing notebook. Encourage the students to share their writing with their families.

Assessments

• (Optional) If you obtained end-of-year writing samples, you might want to reflect on each student’s writing using the “End-of-year Writing Sample Record” sheet (WS2) on page 126 of the Assessment Resource Book. For more information on analyzing the writing samples, see “Obtaining an End-of-year Writing Sample” on page 124 of the Assessment Resource Book. If you collected beginning-of-year writing samples, you might assess each student’s growth as a writer by comparing your comments on the “Beginning-of-year Writing Sample Record” sheet (WS1) with your comments on the “End-of-year Writing Sample Record” sheet (WS2).





ASSESSMENT SESSIONS

Initial Assessment SessionThe intent of this meeting is to set the protocol for future Assessment Sessions. Use the information collected here to help you plan for future sessions. The Assessment Session agenda on the next page can be customized according to the information agreed upon at this meeting.

TEAM ACTIVITY

Read the Assessment Overview section in the Assessment Resource Book, starting on page v.


Q What did you find out about the design of the assessments included in the program?

Q How might you use each assessment resource? These include the Class Assessments, Teacher Conference Notes, Social Skills Assessments, and Individual Writing Assessments.

Q Will you use the Student Self-assessment?

Q How will you keep the student data that you collect?

Q How will you use this assessment information when reporting grades?

It is important that your team spends time analyzing student writing, looking for evidence of instruction, and discussing the implications of your observations. Although teachers will want to look at all of their students’ writing, during team meetings you will likely only have time to discuss and share selected student writing samples.

As a team, reflect and decide upon the following for upcoming Assessment Sessions:

Q Which assessments do we want to bring examples of when we meet for an Assessment Session?

Q How many samples do we want to bring of each assessment?

Q Should those samples be random, or should they represent a specific group or level of students?

Q Should they be scored prior to the Assessment Session, or should we score them together at the meeting?

Q How do we want to share the writing we have collected? Groupings could include partners, triads, whole group, by grade level, or across grade levels.


End-of-unit Assessment SessionComplete this session based on your decisions in the Initial Assessment Session. Bring some or all of the following assessments:

• Class Assessment Records

• Conference Notes

• Student Self-assessments

• Writing Notebooks

• Non-published writing

• Published pieces

• Student Skill Practice Book pages

• “Individual Writing Assessment” record sheets

SCORED WRITING EXAMPLES

• Read through the student samples.

• (Optional) Score the samples.

• Discuss the scoring, including the commentary.

READ/SCORE STUDENT WORK

• This can be done individually, or in partners or triads.

SHARE SCORED STUDENT WORK

• This can be done individually, or in partners or triads.


Q What did you notice? What evidence do you see of instruction?

Q What were some of the students’ strengths? What in the instruction contributed to these strengths?

Q What were some of the students’ weaknesses? How might you address these weaknesses in your instruction?

Q How will you share this information with the students and the parents?

Q What, if any, of this collection of student work will you use as a grade?

Q What additional grades did you take from this unit?

Q In regards to the assessment, what would you do the same or differently for the next unit?


BUILDING THE ADULT WRITING COMMUNITY SESSION (OPTIONAL)Considering your time, choose an option for sharing below.

• One or two volunteers share a piece of writing. Ask:

Q What questions do you have for ?

• Partners share writing with one another. Ask:

Q What did you find out about your partner?

• Everyone reads one sentence aloud to the group. Ask:

Q What did you hear that got you interested in someone’s writing?

• Using “Think, Pair, Share,” reflect:

Q What have you enjoyed about engaging in Teacher as Writer during this unit?

grade 1 planning tool being a writer · 2021. 7. 7. · the do ahead items that you’ll find...

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