Kinder-Writer's Workshop
As I find the practices and strategies of both Calkins's and Feldgus and Cardonick's programs to be appropriate for my grade level, I would like to start off the year by designing and implementing a "Kinder-Writer's Workshop" of my own. However, in studying with my seminar coordinator and seminar group, I realized that there are a few tweaks I would like to make in my own class. My unit is going to be the foundation to our writing workshop. In setting up this program, I want to share with my students a brief but relatable history of written languages. I want each and every student to know, "You are an author" (Calkins). 14 I want them to take value in this not only by hearing me repeat it to them everyday, but also by learning how written language came to be, and started much in the way which they will—by drawing pictures. As writing and reading go hand in hand, I want my students to be able to read a sequence of images or pictures from a text. In doing this, they will experiment with making meaning with images and will see how their pictures, when put in sequential order, can be read as a text.
In my three-week unit, I will establish the practices and procedures as well as the reasoning behind implementing our very own Writer's Workshop. I will develop a sequence of lessons that will help my students learn to recognize the basic organization of a story (beginning, middle, and end), as well as help them to understand that a great deal of information can be communicated in the drawings they make to tell their stories. I will do this by showing my students examples of Hieroglyphics and explaining how its symbols served as the basis for the first written language. These examples will help them make the connection between images and communicating meaning in pictures and/or images.
We will then take a look at several familiar picture books, viewing only the images to create the story, being sure to identify its beginning, middle, and end. Finally, I will guide the students through an activity of writing their own book about a memorable event that has occurred in the first few weeks of school, again identifying the beginning, middle, and end.
The activities in this unit will strengthen the students' understanding of what it means to be a writer, as well as give them the confidence and enthusiasm they need to participate in our year-long workshop.
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