When you hear writing instruction, do you want to pull your hair out, or do you get excited? Let me be honest. For way too many years, I wanted to pull my hair out. It wasn’t necessarily because I didn’t enjoy teaching writing. It was because I was overwhelmed with the task at hand, and I had no idea where to start. I knew that writing mini-lessons were the way to go because my students needed to spend the majority of their writing block actually writing. Not listening to me talk. Even though I knew that I needed to do writing mini-lessons, I still felt overwhelmed. Which skills should I focus on and when? Was I hitting everything that my 1st graders needed? Over the past couple of years, I have began piecing together a writing curriculum using mini-lessons for my students. It took me awhile to get it just right, but I am THRILLED with the results.
These writing mini-lessons are grouped into months and can be projected for your students as you go through a lesson each day. Simply open the file, and click onto the day’s lesson. Each lesson takes 5-10 minutes max. Then, the remainder of the time is spent on practicing their writing craft using what they have learned from that day’s lesson. Students will not become better writers by listening to a long writing lesson. They HAVE to be writing, so I wanted these to be short and sweet with a very clear focus.
Where do students write?
This file also includes monthly journals that can be printed for your students to use that follow along with each mini-lesson for the month. The lessons themselves all start with a “We can” statement. The journal pages contain an “I can” statement to show their writing focus for that lesson. This format also allows me to stay focused when I am analyzing their writing. I am definitely guilty of looking at a piece of writing and trying to fix it ALL. These “I can” statements allow me to focus ONLY on that particular writing lesson objective.
As of right now, this is a GROWING BUNDLE of writing mini-lessons. When it is completed, it will include 180 mini-lessons for your entire year of writing instruction. As I complete each month, I will add it to the bundle, so you can redownload the update. These truly have been a GAME CHANGER in my classroom. I no longer dread writing time. I look forward to it because I know exactly what I will be teaching and looking for in their writing for that day. Take a closer look in the video below.
If you need to make your life easier when it comes to writing instruction, click the picture below to learn more.
