Bright Ideas: Integrating Writer's Workshop Into Your Reading Block

If you are looking to integrate writing into your reading block, you will find an easy and efficient way to make this possible in your classroom. In this post, I am going to quickly take you through a week of instruction. You will see how you can easily keep writing tied to your reading standards and keep your kids interested with their writing.

Monday: Choose a prompt that aligns with your reading skill and story/theme for the week. Because I have first graders, I always whole-group the prewriting with my kids. Below you will see a compare and contrast foldable. I love doing foldables because the kids can do it themselves, I don’t have to prep anything, and they have created something with me. I will model the prewriting process and get my kids to think of some ideas with me, and then they can think of some ideas on their own. This is a very short mini-lesson, and when I send them to their different centers, they can continue working on this independently when it is time for their writing center.

Tuesday: Let the kids finish their pre-writing graphic organizers, and let the kids that are ready start their drafts. Before they do this, I always model an introduction and possible conclusion, and how information should be transferred from the graphic organizer into the first draft. Again, this is something they start with me, and they finish in their writing center.

Be sure you have a system for keeping all this work. I find that first graders have a hard time keeping track of their writing stuff. (Or any “stuff” for that matter;) I keep their folders organized by their table groups. All their writing stuff goes into their folder. This way, if I need to access it to see where they are or help them edit anything or have questions ready for them the following day.

Wednesday: I have the kids finish up our first drafts in their writing center, and I have the ones that finish really fast start editing with a peer. Usually the ones that can finish quickly are fully capable of editing.

Thursday: Since I have had small groups all week, and we read each day, I save Thursday for them to come with their drafts and work with me. Thursday is my time to check in with them and help them finish any editing and reworking of their draft. Since we have our story test on Fridays, I have sped up that process to less than 15 minutes, and I can still meet with reading groups on Fridays. So, having them write with me on Thursday does not take any reading time away because we are still doing small group reading four times per week.

Friday: My firsties take their suggestions from their peers and me, and finish their final drafts, and publish. I have put clipboards on the wall because it is a great way to keep all their work in one spot, and this eliminates filing. In addition, I can easily see who is finished and who still needs to publish.

If you need a simply but effective way to review sight words with your kiddos, be sure to follow the picture link and check out my Fry Sight Word Printables Bundle for words 1-100.

I hope you enjoyed this bright idea! Follow the link below by clicking on the picture and head over to Lory Evan’s Page for a Bright Idea on how to manage potty breaks! Happy Teaching!

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