Yesterday we set up a writing center in our playroom and got started with a structured process to publish a procedural text: How to build a sandcastle. Sam was challenged to design the ultimate sandcastle and teach someone to build it! Hop back to read how we got started HERE
The week will unfold as follows:
Sunday - brainstorm
Monday - plan
Tuesday - draft
Wednesday - edit
Thursday/Friday - publish
If you are on Instagram, you can catch some 'in action' moments on stories too.
Planning for writing
We started by looking back at Sam's illustration from his brainstorming page. I asked him to describe it in detail, drawing out his identification of the items he needed to create the sandcastle. He listed these on the first section of his plan and drew a quick sketch. I reminded Sam that this was a plan, to guide his draft and that we just needed to uncover the main key words and big ideas.
I asked Sam to imagine he was about to start building his sandcastle and to identify his first step. He did this easily and we gradually uncovered each subsequent step, writing short sentences and making sketches as we went.
When he struggled I asked him to return to his role-play actions from yesterday and act it out with his hands - encouraging a visualization of what he was writing.
This individual support is not often possible in the classroom for each child - a great work around is to do some 'modelled writing' or a 'joint construction' where the whole class watch you in the 'hot seat' pretending you are a student and going through the process yourself, verbalizing all the thoughts you would be having as a good writer. Here you can model the strategies that you would like the students to use when they go back to their desk to write independently. Some students will require individual support but most will be able to get started after watching you model the planning process. Project the page onto your whiteboard so it is enlarged and easy to see.
After students have completed their planning, ask them to read it to a friend to check it makes sense.
Find them in our TpT store by clicking on the images below:
Having a clear structured week for writing and a project based goal for students to work towards can make planning for writing instruction simple and exciting.
We'll see you tomorrow for the drafting stage!