My main struggle in teaching first grade is definitely writing. I had NO CLUE what I was doing up until my second observation this year. I grew up in a family that immersed me in the English language – both reading and writing have always been strong for me. I’ve been slowly learning how to teach reading, and I feel like I am getting the hang of it (plus I really enjoy it), however, writing is one of my weaknesses. It is very difficult for me to break down writing into parts, because I see it as a whole. My students have our Writer’s Workshop routine down (as you can probably tell, I am ALL about routines and structure), but they were not showing the progress in their writing as I had hoped they would. One of my first grade teammates who is almost eligible for retirement opened her classroom door to me and allowed me to observe her teach a lesson. She was amazing with her students! They were writing creative stories in “books” that she had made for them (she staples 3 pieces of paper to make a book to help them discover how to write a story with a beginning, middle, and an end).I took my observation and made some drastic changes in my writing lessons. I adopted the books, and almost immediately, even my students who really struggle with writing were amazingly already writing actual stories. I try now to put major emphasis on the books we read for Shared Reading, and try my best to have them tie into my mini lessons in Writer’s Workshop. We’ll see how things go from here! :o)
By the way, our kindergarten and first grade classrooms have the Lucy Calkins book sets. They are an amazing guide for teachers with relatable and scripted lessons for all aspects of writing all year. If you take them and make them your own, it is a tremendous resource!!
--Post made by January - February writer Brenna Logan
