Writer's Workshop

  • Writer's Workshop

    Our writing program is called Writer's Workshop. We will complete an average of one unit per month. 

    The routine of our lesson will start with a mini-lesson about a writing skill or strategy. Then, students will have a chance to try the new skill or strategy in their own writing.  Last, one or students will share how they applied the new concept in their writing piece.

     Our proposed schedule will be as follows:

     Unit 1- Launching:  Personal Narrative:  

    In this unit, students will be getting acquainted with our workshop routines and expectations.  They will learn how the workshop sounds and looks and how they are expected to perform.

     Unit 2- Lifting the Level of Personal Narratives: Focus on Structure

    In this unit, students will be learning to stretch one small moment into a 5 page story.  A focus will be placed on including all tiny details of a brief event. In this unit, writers will be introduced to more strategies for collecting narrative writing.

     Unit 3- Conventions to Give Clarity and Voice to Our Writing

    In this unit, students will play with language structures orally before they apply them in their writing. Writers are reminded that language is flexible and powerful.

    Unit 4- Personal Essay

    In this unit, students will be writing about a big idea (thesis statement) and then support it with small moments (based on personal experiences, relationships, and observations). Personal Essays are written to support a personal opinion or belief.

    Unit 5- Well-Crafted Realistic Fiction

    In this unit, students will be asked to develop character actions, character struggles, motivations, problems and wants.

     Unit 6-Literacy Essay

    In this unit, students will choose a mentor text with which to model all of their lessons. Students will respond to literature by studying one character and their personal reaction to that character.

    Unit 7_ Personal Narrative and Realistic Fiction: Writing in Response to a Prompt

    In this unit, students will share real life experiences and learn how to develop them into a 5 paragraph essay.

     Unit 8- Non-Fiction Research:

    In this unit, students will learn the difference between fictional writing and non fictional writing. Students will then research a specific non fiction topic of there choice.

     Unit 9- Poetry:

    In this unit, students will be exposed to different types of poems and will be encouraged to write their own.