Let Your Students SOAR in 2024!
Do you want to achieve writing excellence with your students in 2024? I bet you do! If you’re like me, I LOVE a challenge, especially getting my first graders to LOVE writing! I cannot wait to share with you my 5 Lessons to Achieve Writing Success!!! Have you ever used PETER REYNOLDS books to help you teach your writing mini-lessons? If you haven’t- you’re in for a treat! His books are so amazing to inspire, motivate, and engage your students they won’t even know they’re learning at the same time! If you LOVE what I’m teaching you, read through to the end because I’m going to invite you to join my Writer’s Workshop REBOOT training!
5 Peter Reynolds Books:
I picked The North Star for setting a writing goal, Sky Color for teaching Visualizing, Say Something for teaching Voice, Ish for teaching problem and solution, and The Word Collector for teaching new academic vocabulary. Each book has a specific purpose for each of my 5 mini-lessons. They have such an excellent message and moral to the story! So, guess what?? The first 5 teachers who sign up for my Mini-Course for Writer’s Workshop Reboot will get one of these Peter Reynolds books mailed to them for free! Are you ready to sign up now? Click here!!!
So, I have to ask you… does this sound like you and your class?
- My students still HATE writing!
- I have students crying, being class clowns, or causing behavior problems during writing time.
- My students still do not know how to write a complete sentence!
- I cannot get my students to sit still during my Mini-Lesson and they are not engaged.
- My students still have a hard time coming up with topics to write about!
- I’m frustrated with my writing block- it’s just not flowing and I always dread teaching it.
- I’m having a hard time fitting in my writing time during the day.
- I need help- I’m at a loss.
5 Lessons to Achieve Writing Success
1.) Lesson #1: Setting a Goal for Writing
2.) Lesson #2: Show, But Don’t Tell
3.) Lesson #3: Choosing a Problem and Solution For My Story
4.) Lesson #4: Visualizing My Story Cover
5.) Lesson #5: Collecting New Words for My Story
Now, I’m going to explain all of these lessons to you in more detail and tell you why I chose the mentor texts that I did that go along with the mini-lesson. If you LOVE these mini-lessons and want to snag them… stay tuned to the end and I’ll let you know how you can get your hands on them!
Lesson #1: Setting a Goal For Writing
The objective for this lesson is… I can create and write a writing goal for myself to follow in 2024. I chose Peter Reynolds’ book “The North Star” because it’s a great story about following your dreams even though life might lead you astray. The character in the story follows this path that leads him to his dream, but along the way, he encounters some bumpy roads and hurdles, but in the end, he succeeds!
I decided to use this book in the first lesson because it paves the way for students to make their goals for writing. Let’s face it, writing can be a HUGE challenge for some students, so setting a goal for it seems like a logical thing to do. Some students will have a hard time with this, so you must model what a good writing goal can look like.
For example: I will write a complete sentence using correct capitalization and punctuation. I know a lot of students will need this writing goal. I’ve created a skill card for Goal Setting because some students may not have made a goal before. I’ve also created 2 differentiated interactive notebook templates you can choose from to meet the needs of your students. You can choose to use these as a whole group lesson or an independent activity. You can shrink this page down to about 85% to fit inside your writer’s notebook.
Lesson #2: Show, But Don’t Tell
For mini-lesson #2, I chose the book “Say Something” to help with “Show, But Don’t Tell. The objective for this lesson is…I can use descriptive words to show how the character is feeling. This book is excellent for showing different kinds of emotions and describing them in detail while using your voice. I created emotion cards to help your students describe how they’re feeling instead of saying what they’re feeling. For example: Tears ran down her face as she wept. This emotion of course would be sad, depressed, blue, or forlorn, etc…
It’s fun to describe a character without actually saying what they’re feeling, but this takes practice and modeling. I also created 2 differentiated interactive notebook templates to meet the needs of your students. One has the faces already on the characters, and the other one does not. You can choose to do this activity as a whole group or independently. You can shrink the templates down to fit inside your writer’s notebook.
Lesson #3: Choosing a Problem and Solution For My Story
For this mini-lesson, I chose Peter Reynolds’ book: “Ish”. Ish is such a great story about not giving up the first time, but trying again as a solution to your problem. The objective for this lesson is… I can identify and create a problem and solution for my new story. The character in this book thinks that his drawings look horrible and crumbles them up. Then, his sister looks at them from a different perspective and hangs them up in her room. When he sees his pictures hanging in her room after being crumbled up, he sees them in a different light. She says they look “Car-ISH”, or “Fish-ISH and then he begins to agree.
This mini-lesson is all about choosing a problem and solution for your story. Every good story needs a problem and solution, so this book is perfect to teach that! I’ve created skill cards that show what a problem and solution is and I’ve created 2 differentiated interactive notebook templates to meet the needs of your students.
Lesson #4: Visualizing the Cover of My Story
For mini-lesson #4, I chose “Sky Color” from Peter Reynolds to teach visualizing. The objective for this lesson is… I can visualize and create my mental image for my new story. Sometimes it’s easy for us to visualize our story in our head, but for others to visualize our story, it might be difficult. So, creating the colors and details that you need for your story could be a challenge. Your goal is to recreate the same “Magic Movie” in your head so others can see what you are visualizing.
In this story, the character wants to make the sky color but doesn’t have blue paint, so she goes and researches different types of sky colors. She decides to make the sunset using all the other colors that she has- red, orange, yellow, and gold. She created a beautiful sky color by mixing her colors and creating new colors. I’ve created a skill card that describes what visualization is and an interactive notebook template for your students to create the cover of their story. This gives them room to be creative and mix the colors to create their canvas.
Lesson #5: Collecting New Words for My Story
For lesson #5, I chose the book “The Word Collector”. This is probably my favorite Peter Reynolds book. The objective for this lesson is… I can collect and choose descriptive words that will help me write my story. The Word Collector is about a boy who collects words. He sorts them in different categories in his notebooks, but one day the words all fall out and get mixed up. So, he decided to put the words together to make poems, songs, and stories. Then, he shares all of his words with his friends so they can write new words too! It’s such a great story and what a great way to learn some new academic vocabulary at the same time!
I’ve created an anchor chart that you can use with your students and 2 differentiated interactive notebook templates to meet the needs of your students. My goal for this lesson is for your students to use new academic vocabulary in their stories and learn what they mean at the same time!
If you LOVE these mini-lessons and want to know how to teach them using the “I DO, WE DO, and YOU DO” which is the gradual release of responsibility, then you’re in luck! I’ve got the perfect training just for you!
I’m offering a new WRITER’S WORKSHOP REBOOT training: Your Writers Will SOAR in 2024! Click here to sign up!
For only a ONE TIME PAYMENT of $10.00- You will receive:
- A Private Kajabi Community to ask questions, receive LIVE trainings, a Coaching Call, and BONUS resources!
- 5 CPE Hours of Professional Development
- The First 5 Days of Launching Your Writer’s Workshop REBOOT Lesson Plans include Objectives, Mentor Texts using Peter Reynolds, Writing Craftivities, Differentiated Interactive Notebooks, Skill Cards, Materials, and Directions.
- If you SHOW UP LIVE to these trainings, you will receive a special Writer’s Workshop BONUS plus the lessons that are taught in the videos!
- Training #1: Dec. 28th at 2:00 CST: Setting a Goal for Writing
- Training #2: Dec. 29th at 2:00 CST: Show, But Don’t Tell
- Training #3: Dec. 30th at 2:00 CST: Choosing a Problem and Solution for Your Story
- Training #4: Jan. 2nd at 2:00 CST: Visualizing My Story
- Training #5: Jan. 3rd at 6:00 CST: Collecting New Words for My Story
- You will learn all my tips and tricks for teaching writing, getting your students engaged, motivated, and wanting to write ALL DAY LONG!
- You will learn my behavior management tips and tricks to set a quiet writing time environment for your students.
- If you are unable to attend the LIVE trainings- they will be recorded and uploaded into our community to be watched at a later time. You will have until Jan. 5th to watch all of the videos and then the group will close down.
- And, you will get invited to join my Writer’s Workshop COURSE: From Scribbles to Stories.
- Hope to see you there
But hurry! The cart will CLOSE on Wed. Dec. 27th! And you don’t want to miss out on all of these writing lessons and bonuses!
If you’re interested in checking out another BLOG POST about how I teach Writer’s Workshop at the beginning of the school year, click here. Or, check out my PODCAST EPISODE about how I teach Writing cross-curricular!
Until next time, let’s take your classroom to the next level!
