The idea behind Writer's Workshop is for each student in the class to be a working author. The teacher is a writing professional and peer coach, guiding authors as they explore their craft. Instead of spending time on spelling tests, grammar worksheets, handwriting practice, and other isolated sub-skills of writing, Writer's Workshop is designed to emphasize the act of writing itself--students spend most of their time putting pencil to paper, not just learning about it. Over time, students learn to choose their own topics and to manage their own development as they work through a wide variety of writing projects in a sustained and self-directed way.
In Writer's Workshop classrooms, full class lessons are short and tightly focused on practical real-world issues. Emphasis is placed on sharing work with the class, on peer conferencing and editing, and on the collection of a wide variety of work in a writing folder, and eventually in a portfolio. Teachers write with their students and share their own work as well. The workshop setting encourages students to think of themselves as writers, and to take their writing seriously.
The students will begin writing and publishing their own non-fiction text based on our classroom experiences and discussion, using the learned format. This will forge a deeper understanding of a science text book, a tool and resource they will use for their entire school career, and hopefully beyond. The intent is to develop a true interest and understanding of the use of non-fiction as a learning and research tool.
Pacing Guide for Lessons
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Week 1 - Non-Fiction reading
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Week 2 - Non-Fiction reading
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Week 3 - Plate Tectonics
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Week 4 - Earthquakes
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Week 5 - Volcanoes
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Week 6 - Hurricanes
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Week 7- Tornadoes
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Week 8 - Complete and Publish Text
As the pacing guide lists, this unit will take one marking term of lessons to complete. Each lesson will be approximately 30-45 minutes, with two, possibly three per week during some weeks. The first part of the unit will be the introduction of non-fiction texts and beginning to identify the various unique parts of non-fiction. Several titles will be introduced through shared reading (big books) as a whole class and leveled guided reading with small group instruction. The leveled books will be appropriate for the reading level of the group ranging from DRA Level 2 - 20. As this is a fall to winter unit, there will be a heavy focus on the lower level books, recognizing the beginning skills on much of the class.
This will be the focus of the second part of the unit. Children this age have a genuine excitement for big changes, generally because at their young age it is a first experience, or the first one they remember. The more dramatic the experiments, certainly the more memorable they become. The goal is to design demonstrations of natural disasters - earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes - at a first grade level with available materials. As we work through our experiments the students, as any scientist, will maintain a journal of processes and results. This of course for many will be mainly illustrations with some writing. These science journals will be the foundation for what will become their own published text. As the students learn to collect, organize and record data, the two areas of reading and science will begin to come together. The students will have knowledge and use of weather/disasters vocabulary, scientific terms to use in their writing, and the comprehension to discuss their findings. These, of course, will all be age appropriate.
Understanding the developmental levels of first grade learners will help to present the intended material to achieve maximum understanding. Students should be able to have the experiences allowing learning in a concrete and sensorial manner, having the opportunity to "live the experience." Even as adults sometimes an abstract view of an event is not a satisfying learning experience, reminding me of, for example, storm chasers in this area. Because the six to seven year old has not achieved abstract thought and has not had enough relative experience, the event or experience needs to be visual, auditory, and/or tactile.
