Zooming into Small Moments
Shared Narrative Writing
Growing Checklists
Let’s Write!
Sharing our Work & Getting Feedback
Finally, the last 7-8 minutes of our writing block are reserved for sharing. This is the biggest motivator for my kids; they LOVE sharing their writing. Typically 4-5 students share each afternoon, so every child has the opportunity to share each week.
Our sharing routine looks like this –
- Encouragement/Building Community Teacher: “I choose __________.” (in a sing-song voice) Students: “Let’s go __________!” (in a sing-song voice that matches mine)
- Sharing the Work: The student puts his/her work under the document camera so it projects on the screen, and wears the microphone to share.
- Specific Compliments: Then, the friend who just read his/her work chooses 2 friends from the class to give a specific compliment (“I love how you told me what the water felt like.” “You did a great job of including periods, so the reader knew when to stop.” “I really liked how you underlined words you were unsure of how to spell rather than stopping writing.”

And that, friends, is our writing routine. It is working for us right now and even in the couple of week since we’ve started, we are seeing HUGE progress. It has been wonderful!
Learn more about writing in my 1st and 2nd grade classroom in these posts and resources:
- Opinion Writing (blog post, resources, mentor texts, bundle)
- Narrative Writing (blog post, resources, mentor texts, bundle)
- Inform/Explain Writing (blog post, resources, bundle)
- How-To Writing (blog post, resources, bundle)
I love the hands free microphone idea. What brand is it?
It's actually one that works throughout our SMART boards!
What an amazing writing routine. I would even be excited to take part in that! Can't wait to watch your friends progress throughout the year 🙂
Early Years with Sheri
Great unit! We have been working on Narrative Writing in 3rd grade also. You MUST read Tulip Sees America. We used it to talk about how authors use rich words. I read it in a really boring fashion (no details, one lame sentence per page, etc) Then I read it the way Eve Bunting wrote it. The kids LOVED that version and then we talked about why we like Eve's version so much better. Keep up the great work.
Laurie
Chickadee Jubilee
Thank you for the suggestion! I cannot wait to check it out. 🙂
I love your samples, especially "small moments." Barry Lane has a fantastic book called, After the End; he shares mini-lessons for Writers' Workshop. He has some great ideas for using the binoculars to zoom in, too! I want to know more about the hands-free microphone too!! Specifics, please?
Love all the ideas you shared! Where can I get my hands on that microphone???? This would totally help my quiet kiddos. =)
tinysmiles34@gmail.com
Love this post! I just started teaching Grade 1 and have never taught Writing Workshop to younger ones. I love how informative this post is. Thank you! 🙂
Can you tell me about the character and setting posters you have on your wall below the Smartboard? Also, thanks for sharing your small moments and narrative writing anchor charts!
The watermelon, seed, and small moment ideas come from Lucy Calkins. That is the program we use at my school. If anyone is interested, you should check out her work.
I agree with because many students who are very intelligent bus his writing method very old and this article give me good idea and also tell us intelligent student how to write with new method thanks for share it linkedin profile writing service .