Scaffolding Beginning Writers
Questions You Will Get When Scaffolding Beginning Writers
How Do I Write in a Journal?
- Open to the closest empty page
- Date in the upper right-hand corner
- Picture on the bottom or top (please decide before writing)
- Your letters should fit on two lines. Lowercase letters fit below the first line.
- Leave a 1-line space between your writing
How Do I Spell???
On Day 3, our mini-lesson is all about the chorus on “I don’t know how to spell. How do you spell? What letter comes next?” Give into these demands and your writing conferences turn into a Spelling Bee instead of a conversation.
In front of the whole class I model writing a narrative by stretching out words. Then, I underline words I am unsure of. I teach my students that an underline means – “Hey Ms. W. I tried really hard to stretch out this word, but I still don’t think it’s right.” If it is a sight word, a sound is obviously missing, or a phonics pattern we’re learning, I’ll ask students about it. If not, I leave it for now. Underlining is a sanity saver!
One of the most daunting parts of writing is the forgotten word. I love when students read their writing to me, only to realize they left out the word “Phil”. From the very beginning, I teach my students to insert ‘carrots’ (this little friend added some arrow pizzaz) to indicate words need to be added. For long sentences or details that are added, I teach students to use an astrik and add it at the bottom of their paper. It keeps us from panicking and it reminds students they should be rereading their work.
How Do I Make Writing ‘Real’?
Real-world experiences matter when writing. They provide students with the confidence to write, the context for why we are writing, and a scaffold for how to start.
How Do I Use a Sentence Stem?
How Do I Assess My Writing?
With writing journals, I do struggle with a way to evaluate and encourage students to add more details. This week one of our mini-lessons was all about adding details to our illustrations and writings. I had 4 pre-written/pre-illustrated versions of the same story. Students helped me to rate the writings (1-4 stars). We talked about what questions we had as we read the stories, what was missing from the illustrations, and which story we would rather read. Then, we went back to our seats and looked at some of our old writings from the first 2 weeks of school. Additionally, We went back, adding details to our writings and our illustrations to make their 3 and 4 star works of art! It was a simple mini-lesson, that we’ll reference often. (You can snag these sentences and writing paper for here free or snag it as a part of my Beginning of the Year writing bundle here.)
How Do I Share My Writing?
In these beginning weeks of writing, I also explicitly teach my students how to share their writing and give feedback to their friends. We save the last 7-8 minutes of our writing block 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. This is so much easier to do once you have a positive relationship with students.
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 Feedback: 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 ___________.” “You did a great job of _______________.” “I really liked how you _________________.”
- Class Cheer: The presenter may then choose a class cheer to receive. We use Kagan Cheers and love them. Our favorites? Trucker, roller coaster, seal of approval. 🙂
Get Free Teaching Resources!
Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!
I would love to use a student microphone. I can only imagine how much they must love speaking into it. What kind do you use?
Mona
First Grade Schoolhouse
I am a first year first grade teacher. I have struggled with writer’s workshop. Out of the 12 students I have, only 4 of them can write independently. The rest struggle with Spelling words which translates to having a hard time with making sentences. I have been working really hard with them on sight words and sounding out words, but they are still struggling, I am trying to figure out what to do. I really like this blog post. You have so many great ideas on how to help them and you! I will definitely try some of these and see what happens.
I have a tiny karaoke machine I bought off Facebook marketplace!
I use the document camera as well but would love to add the microphone. Can you share what kind and where you found it?
I would love to see how you launch writer's workshop.
I really enjoyed this clear and concise post. Thanks.
I really enjoyed this clear and concise post. Thanks.
Ashley come to our rescue with her book The SuperWoman’s Guide to Super Fulfillment (step-by-step strategies to create work-life balance). https://cumparapermisdeconduceree.com/
I really enjoyed this clear and concise post. Thanks.
I would love to hear how you launch writer's workshop….this is great!!
Great post, great ideas. Thank-you for sharing!
I love your blog! I began using Writer's Workshop last year and what a difference it made in my kids' writing! I used the book No More I'm Done by Jennifer Jacobson to help develop my lessons. Good luck with your writing workshop this year and I'm looking forward to hearing more about it!
Loved reading this, and you share so many great ideas and strategies. Love Writing Workshop. Thank you!
Love this.
I am first grade student and many time i can't write beautiful and this article give me good idea how to improve your writing thanks for share it writing cover letters .
I love your ideas for Writer's Workshop. Hopefully I can cram in a lot of them at the beginning of the year next year before we're required to use our Series.
I love all of your ideas for writer’s workshop!
Today, Emblix as one of the best and top most service-oriented Digital Marketing Agency in Hyderabad and India , Which provides high-quality result-oriented Digital Services ranging from SEO to Web Design, Social Media Marketing and more, to a broad spectrum of clients from diverse industry segments. Through a well-oiled combination of Quality Solutions, Transparent Pricing, helping brands connect with customers, Flexible Delivery & Contract Model with a firm commitment to deliver on time and to budget, Emblix has successfully built a strong relationship with clients based on mutual trust and respect. Further, Emblix’s extensive market experience and expertise in Digital Marketing helps clients in successfully managing data as a strategic asset.
Website: https://www.emblixsolutions.com
Any suggestions for kiddos who are brand new to the country? I am struggling for way to support the 3 kiddos who and 2nd language speakers during writing time.
Somewhere on the internet, I read about giving feedback called “Stars and Wishes.” After writers shared their piece under the doc camera, they would ask 2 students to give them a star (compliment, like good finger spacing, neat handwirting, using punctuation, etc.) and a wish. A wish is something that they would like the writer to do differently the next time. I started using this in 2nd grade and the engagement tripled, espeically during that last hour of the day when keeping their attention is a huge task.
I have read all the comments and suggestions posted by the visitors for this article are very fine,We will wait for your next article so only.Thanks!
This can be consequently lovely along with inventive. I merely enjoy your hues along with anyone becomes the idea inside snail mail are going to be cheerful.
Its amazing and great thoughts keep posting .
With the sex line, you can reach 24/7 for unlimited chat. sex chat line for the most intimate chats with 100% real women. Search for and start chatting now.
There are some fascinating deadlines in this article but I don?t know if I see all of them center to heart. There may be some validity but I will take maintain opinion till I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want extra! Added to FeedBurner as nicely Instagream
This is a small part of my response to your excellent post. Not everyone can use interesting and distinctive elements in their document. I am very happy to play fall guys with you because I am very interested in them.
Hey, what a great post I came across, and believe me I’ve been dordle searching for this same type of post for the past week or so and barely found it. Thank you very much and will be looking for more posts from you.
Meet your new video team. We are editors and producers specialized in Snapchat, Tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube.
https://comprarlicenciadeconducir-b.com/
WOW just what I was searching for. Came here by searching Cochin airport taxi .
This is a fantastic piece of writing. For a writing prompt, this is easily in my top five. The quality and inspiration of your work is just remarkable. You have my gratitude.
I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of your work. This post is a true masterpiece, and I am grateful to have come across it.
I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of your work. This post is a true masterpiece, and I am grateful to have come across it.
Your contribution of this information is greatly appreciated.
Excellent article. Very interesting to read. I really love to read such a nice article. Thanks! keep rocking
definitely enjoy every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff on your blog a must-read blog!
Astounding, uncommon information about world day, particularly lovely educational posts. I’m appreciative of the post.