writing in 1st grade

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Home : 2002 : August : 16

writing in 1st grade
By Jessica

In my first year of teaching first grade I was very nervous about how I was going to get a class full of little kids to read and write. I had been teaching 9th, 10th, and 11th graders and this was going to be a big change.
The second week of school I began a sort of "writer's" workshop 3 times a week. The kids basically don't know a thing. But they can draw a picture. I began by having them do a biography of themselves. They were all able to write about themselves. They all drew pictures first, then wrote 1-2 sentences about the picture. After their sentences are complete, I look at it and write

the "correct" spelling of the words under their words. I don't make a big deal out of it. I tell them constantly during our workshop, I don't care about spelling, they need to try their best, sound out the words, look them up in their little dictionaries, ask a buddy, write just what they think. I'll be able to figure out what they have written, and if not they can help ME. We talk about ideas to put into the book we happen to be writing at the time. ( We write biographies, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, tall tales).We discuss different ways to say the same thing. For example instead of using the word big 50 times - that can become B-O-R-I-N-G what are other words that can be used. Finally before the final copy is written, We take post-it notes with numbers on it them and place them on the pages of the little journal the student has been writing in in the order the student wants the pages of the book to be published.

I hope this made some sense to you. I guess what I am trying to say is all those aspects of the model can still be covered they will just be on a different level of what youre use to. You have to look at things in a different way. It will all come together though.
The students will learn to read and write.