2nd Grade Writing Unit 01 Launching with Nonfiction - The Reading ...

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Writing Curricular Calendar, Second Grade, 2011-2012 18hand gesture) “Help me, help me, I don’t know what to do.” You know what I’m going to say tomyself? (I look around to see if the kids are gesturing to show they have their list, or calling itout.) You are right! I’m going to say, “Lucy you don’t need to say, ‘Help me, help me,’ you cansay, ‘I’m going to solve this myself’” (and I draw my imaginary list out of my pocket, holding itas high as Marco’s head). Then I will think about all the stuff I know how to do…and pretty soonI’ll remember,“Wait, when you come to a word you don’t know, you can write it as best you canand I’ll start stretching out ‘boa constrictor’ to hear the parts of those words, right?”So, you see writers, you don’t have to say, “Help me! Help me! I don’t know know what to do!”You can take out the list of things that you know! You can use our charts in the room to help youwhen you get stuck in your writing.Active InvolvementBut, oh my goodness, what if I finished writing my story about that trip to the zoo? What if Iwas done? And what if I knew I could start a new story but I wanted instead to revise mystory….and what if I didn’t know what I should do to revise, and I started to go to the teacherand…(I’m just about to reenact the ‘Help me’ pose but cut myself short to instead pass the batonto the children.)Let’s pretend. Partner One, you are going to ‘act stuck’, like you don’t know what to do to reviseyour story. You are so so needy, and you just want someone to tell you what to do. Will you askPartner Two for help in your most whiney squeaky little weak-knee-ed voice? Partner Two, yourjob is to remind partner one what she or he can do. How can your partner use his or her own listof things that can help, as well as the lists in our classroom?Partner One, remember, you just finished your story about the trip to the zoo, and you are reallystuck and needy—pretend—Go!Over the hubbub, I called, “Partner Two, help Partner One. Don’t tell Partner One how to revise!Remind her what she can use to help get herself ‘unstuck!’ ”LinkSo writers, you now have one more thing to add to your list of what you know how to do. Youknow how to solve your own problems! (And I pull out an imaginary list.) If any of you want atiny version of our list of things you have already learned to do, I have put some of those lists onthe middle of each table.Think about the work you are going to do today. How many of you are adding on to your story,letter or All-about book? How many are doing what real authors do and revising? Will some ofyou be starting another story or letter? Okay—those of you who are starting a new story, letter orinformation book, will you get started? Will those of you who are going to be revising yourbooks and letters you just finished, or even books that you wrote earlier this week, get started?Let’s the rest of us watch to see if these writers start by rereading and thinking to themselvesabout their ideas for what they could do. They might even put Post-its on each page to tellthemselves their ideas for making that page better. The rest of you can get started.Unit One – Launching with NonfictionReading and Writing Project, 2011 ©DRAFT
Writing Curricular Calendar, Second Grade, 2011-2012 19Mid-Workshop Teaching PointWriters, can I have your eyes up here? I loved watching you guys solve your own problemstoday! How many of you have been acting like weak and a little needy ‘Help me, help me’writers today? None of you?! That’s what I thought! And we still have twenty more minutes ofwriting time. How many of you think you will be able to keep yourself busy doing cool stuff forthat whole time? Thumbs up if you think you’ll be able to give yourself work to do, and youwon’t need to get into that ‘Help me, help me’ stuff. Right now, will you each tell your partnersome of the stuff you are hoping to have time to do during the rest of today’s writing workshop,and see if you all can not only give yourself ideas for what to do but can even give each otherideas.Writers, can I stop you? I know you haven’t each had time to talk yet, but I am pretty sure youcan talk this out to yourself, so will you finish whatever you are saying and get started doing allthis important work? And if you didn’t have a chance to tell your partner what you plan to do,tell yourself your plans before you get started doing them. Then you can get back to work.Teaching ShareWriters, it is really helpful to talk over the work that you do. Right now, let’s talk over the workthat Jeremy did as a writer today, and think with him about the work he could do next. Thenwe’ll do the same talking-over with our partners. This is Jeremy’s writing (I project an enlargedversion of it, and read it aloud in a way that does not cast judgment on it, but doesn’t make itsound absolutely perfect and done either). Jeremy, can you point out some of the things you weretrying to do to make this a great story, and show us where you did them?Jeremy talks about how he added details and I pull from him why he was adding those details,and where he added them, and how he went about coming up with details. Then I ask, “Whatelse were your trying to do?” and when he runs low of intentions, I quiz more specifically,“What were you trying to do at the start of your story?” Then I ask the other children to talk toJeremy about what they noticed, and other ideas they had for what he might possibly try. Whenchildren are too commanding about what he has to do, I caution them that Jeremy would need, inthe end, to decide for himself. Then I channel all children to work in a similar way to think aboutPartner One’s writing, starting with Partner One talking about what he or she wanted to do, howhe or she tried to do that, making sure the writer talked about more than one intention.Sample Minilesson D*By Raquel Yohai*You will want to design your Teaching, Active Engagement, and Link to support students inthinking about their ‘plans’ in writing.ConnectionGood morning, writers. I have been studying and watching you play with your silly bands. Ofcourse I notice that you have so many cool ones—pink cotton candy, enormous elephants, bluefishes.... But what I am really noticing is that many of you seem to actually plan out how you canUnit One – Launching with NonfictionReading and Writing Project, 2011 ©DRAFT
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2nd Grade Writing Unit 01 Launching with Nonfiction - The Reading ...

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