Sleepover Standard-based Bulletin Board

During our first grade Sleepover we were in the middle of our opinion writing unit, so it was natural to use this shared event as a writing assignment.  What was your favorite part of Sleepover? So... the papers that resulted were a quick 1-2 day project with very little conferring.  It gave us a quick window into how the students were transferring the skills we were teaching.

We chose four pieces to display on our Spring bulletin board bordered by the Sleepover pajamas that the students had water colored.  We posted the first grade standard for opinion writing: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion and provide some sense of closure.

Below is Sophie's adorable opinion about the fun day!

(Check out all the speech bubbles!) 
Do the Disco!  Have you ever had a P.J. day at school?  Well, I have!  At my school first graders

get to dress in their P.J.'s.  We even get to do the Disco.  We call it Sleepover. 

My favorite part of Sleepover was when we danced in the Media Center and ate popcorn.  We watched a 

 movie and we saw a play.  The play was about a little boy that had a sleepover, but my favorite part is dancing.

My friend said to my other friend, "Put your hands up like you don't even care!"

We were tired after.  It was a lot of fun.  I give the Media Center 5 very good sleeping bags up. 

Sophia’s Commentary

Structure

Overall	Sophia meets the first grade standard for opinion writing.  She writes her opinion about the Media Center being her favorite part of Sleepover. She gives reasons (Reason 1: dancing, Reason 2: eating popcorn, Reason 3: watching a movie, and Reason 4: watching a play).
Lead	Sophia gives the reader a hint as to her topic in her opening sentence, Do the Disco!  She engages the reader as she asks the question, Have you ever had a PJ day at school? and then goes on to put Sleepover in the context of first grade at her school.
Transitions	Sophia uses and to connect two thoughts.
Ending	Sophia closes her piece by telling that she was tired after the Dance Party She rates the Media Center with her top prize of  five stars, or as in this case, five sleeping bags.  The sleeping bags tie in nicely with her last comment of being tired when the Dance Party is over.
Organization	Sophia certainly writes an introduction to grab the reader’s attention and she also has parts where she tells more, such as her dialog about her friend at the Dance Party.

Development

Elaboration

Sophia elaborates in her introduction as she talks about Sleepover including wearing PJs, the first graders at her school, and getting to disco.  She also elaborates about the play that she sees in the Media Center about a little boy that had a sleepover, and, of course, she includes her friend saying, “Put your hands up like you don’t even CARE!” when she describes dancing.  This element actually meets the second grade standard.

Craft

Sophia uses craft when she capitalizes and bolds the word DISCO.  She uses labels and speech bubbles in her illustrations to tie in with her text.  She also bolds the word CARE! And then puts the word fun inside the circle of the exclamation point.

Language Conventions

Spelling	Sophie’s writing is easy to read.  She spells many high frequency words automatically.  Words that she misspells are spelled phonetically, such as pejas for PJs, dres for dress, scooll for school.
Punctuation	Sophie is a fluent writer and uses periods at the end of pages automatically.  She adds capitals and periods in the middle of the page during the editing process to keep from having run on sentences.  She uses question marks appropriately and exclamation points to express excitement.

Opinion Writing

For our final Kindergarten Writing Unit, we finished with Opinion Writing using Lucy Calkins' new writing lessons. The depth in the lessons really stretched our thinking and our delivery.   We have been thrilled with the level of writing the children have been able to produce.  It is certainly true that when the level of instruction improves, so does the level of writing!  These are a couple of examples of the children's work.

The first one comes from Levi who was super excited that he was able to use one of our vocabulary words, private, in his writing!  His opinion is that he should be able to go to the bathroom in private - without his baby brother opening the door on him! He gives the reader a little story when he says that his brother put his hand in the toilet water. He even gives the reader a solution for fixing his problem on the final page!

 I want to be private when I go to the bathroom because my baby brother

opens the door on me!  One time my baby brother broke into the

bathroom and stuck his hand in the toilet water!

Yay! My baby brother is not broken in the bathroom.  I am away (from him).

1.Put him in his bed. 2. Walk away. 3. Go to the bathroom!  Thank you for listening.  Love, Levi

Ana decided to write her letter to a large audience - the people at the beach.  She begins with a story about going to the beach with a group of family and friends. She thinks they should quit going to the beach because they could get sun burned, even when they wear sun screen.  She gives some compelling reasons for skipping the beach and taking the chance of a sun burn such as getting sick, missing vacation and having to put ice on your back.  Her delightful pictures and speech bubbles give plenty of extra detail.  Pretty good argument Ana!

Dear people that go to the beach,

I think people shouldn't go to any beach anymore because you can get really bad sun burn  because...

 

Because one day I and Mommy and her friend Amber and Laura (were) all at the beach and my sister got sun burned.

 

Even when you got sun screen you can get sun burned because you can get sweaty. If you get really sweaty you can get sick. 

 

Then you'll have to go home and you will miss all of the vacation.

Then you're going to have to stay home having ice on your back.

The children wrote letters to their families, many asking for a new pet.  We so convinced the children that they could change the world that Paige was quite distraught when her letter for a new puppy did not produce the desired result!  Other children took on bigger topics such as Jehan who wrote to his neighbors trying to convince them not to pollute the pond near his house because it is making the fish sick and Finn who wrote the Chinese government about his concern that they are taking sharks' fins for medicinal purposes! Nazar and Finn had quite the discussion as Finn wrote to try to save the sharks and Nazar took the opposite argument trying to get rid of sharks based on a shark attack he had witnessed.

To celebrate, our kinder class met with a 1st grade class.  We paired each kinder partner with a first grader.  We shared our persuasive letters and they shared their narrative stories. Each partner pair practiced giving compliments and we ended with cookies and juice.  I think it was a relationship that will continue because it gave both groups an authentic audience for their work.    The most exciting part for me is that we will be looping up with this group of children to first grade.  Can you imagine what this group will be able to produce next year when we get to this unit?  Can't wait!

Kindergarten Narrative

Our school purchased the new Lucy Calkins' Writing Units this year, not as an approved district curriculum, but from internal school accounts, because teachers begged for the new material!  We couldn't wait to get our hands on this new work by Teachers' College because we knew it had been vetted in real school in NYC by a group of teachers and coaches who collaboratively wrote the units and then taught them and revised them before they ever made ii to the pages of a manual for other teachers to follow.  The units arrived in the middle of the year, but our kindergarten teachers dived right into one of the new units - narrative.  We have not been disappointed

We've completed the unit.  Now is time for our annual kindergarten work-over-time standard-based bulletin board.  This board usually features a kindergartner's beginning piece and then a piece about mid-year and a final piece, all with commentary.  However, since we just finished this amazing Calkins' unit, I decided to do something a little different in honor of our new learning  I decided that  I would use the baseline and post-prompt pieces in our new narrative unit to show how some of our youngest writers had grown over the 6-8 weeks of this single new unit.  I posted a first day of kindergarten piece, and then the baseline prompt and finally the post prompt for the Narrative unit  for three students.  Below is one student's work..

The Kindergarten Narrative Standard
W.K.3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in order in which occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

The Task
Using Lucy Calkins’ new Narrative Writing Unit the class spent eight weeks working through every lesson, repeating a few that we felt we might have taught poorly the first time around!  Before beginning the narrative, students were asked to write a story about something that had happened over the Winter holiday (we started this unit the day we returned from Christmas/ Winter break).  They were given one workshop period to complete the project.  That piece was scored using the Reading and Writing Project- Grade K Narrative Rubric.  At the end of the unit the students were asked to write another story and the same rubric again was scored.  Remember that we had not taught the first two new units in the series but did teach the e-unit lessons published earlier by Teachers' College. 

Sawyer's Narrative

Narrative Baseline Prompt

  

Translation: Unreadable
Baseline score = 2.0

Structure	Sawyer’s baseline piece does not meet any of the criteria of this element.  It is written at the pre-kindergarten level or below.
Language Conventions	Sawyer's piece looks like a string of letters and is simply unreadable.  However, if he tried to reread the piece, he has probably put some letters for the words he has tried to write.  You can even find a few sight words (the, Santa, eat). Sawyer probably did not use the word wall as these sight words are all part of his spelling vocabulary, even at this early stage.  If given the chance, Sawyer probably could have read his piece and surely could have described in great details the event he had written about, because he is gifted expressively and quite animated!
Development	Not only does Sawyer's drawing have no detail or labels, the reader  has no idea what it is!

 

Narrative Post Prompt

1.It was my brother’s birthday.  For breakfast I had Dunkin’ Donuts.

2.Next I had a water balloon fight.

3 I played outside.  I was really happy.

Post prompt score = 3.5

Structure	Sawyer’s birthday story has three numbered pages, with a beginning, middle and end.  He has a first page that tells the beginning, It was my brother’s birthday, and has an ending page that tells what happened last, I played outside. The end page also explains how he felt, I was really happy.
Development	Sawyer does label many of the things in his illustration. It is difficult to tell what many of the things are in his drawing but that is probably because he is always in such a hurry and is not interested in illustrations!
Language Conventions	Sawyer starts all of his sentences with capitals and uses the capital I, but he uses punctuation inconsistently.  He spells many sight words correctly and is not afraid of bigger words, such as brekfist for breakfast.  He easily reads his own writing.  There has been a huge improvement in Saweyer's handwriting as he realized that other people had to be able to read his stories.  His use of spaces also makes the work more readable.

 Analysis

In comparing Sawyer’s two pieces, the progress is rather apparent and amazing.  His baseline piece is unreadable.  To go from that to a simple story with a beginning, middle, and end, is dramatic in such a short time. The reader has to be impressed with the sheer progress in readability. The use of spacing and improvement in his handwriting during this short period of time are also striking.  So, it is no surprise that his greatest improvements on the rubric are in Structure and Language Conventions.  Sawyer proudly shared this piece with his peers.  He could barely stay still to read it, he was so excited! Way to go Sawyer! 

Why do we write?

I just read excepts from Stacy Shubitz' (Two Writing Teachers) keynote about how teachers must be writers to teach writing. She discusses the reasons that we write.   She goes on to talk about how the Writers' Workshop must be a safe place for writers.

That made me think about this year and a little first grader I'll call T.  He was such an obviously smart little guy.  His parents, like too many of our parents, were in the middle of a divorce, trying to negotiate that difficult road of loving the kids more than they hated each other.  Dad was warm and personable, troubled by how the split was affecting his kids, but he had still moved far away.  T missed him very much.  T's mother seemed irritable and stressed, always with a scowl on her face, trying to manage the everyday battles of being a single parent for the first time.  She complained about what seemed to me to be small insignificant things and was quick to anger, almost like she was waiting for someone to "get" her. She seemed tight and closed  as her heels tip tapped to our doorway.  Sometimes I'd open the door and take a step back because she looked like an explosion ready to happen.  Grandpa was often the one who came to school, a quiet somewhat serious man who mentioned T's temper at home more than once.  T often complained about fighting in the house and loud arguments.  He told stores about his mother yelling, using profanity and choking his older brother.  T started the year hating writing and really did just the minimum to get by.

That continued through narrative writing.  He warmed up a little as we began reports and found a topic he was interested in, but it was persuasive writing that turned him around.  In persuasive writing, he found an outlet - that same outlet that I often use to deal with emotions and things I can't change.  He wrote a letter to his dad telling him how much he missed him and asking him to come back. He even wrote a letter asking his Grandpa to stop smoking - gave some pretty convincing reasons too!  He wrote a letter to  Grandpa telling him that he didn't really like being at his house because he got really bored and asked him if he would consider buying a video gaming system.  When it was time to write a Mother's Day essay, he asked if he could write about his Dad instead.  However, as he searched his heart he was able to write a lovely, passionate essay about his mother's strength.  He found his voice and that is what made the difference.  As the year ended he was asking to pull out his writing folder to get in extra writing as he waited for dismissal.

That's the thing about writing.  It's great to teach our children the genres of writing and how to edit and revise and all the other nuances of good writing, but if we can somehow make kids understand that their words can make a difference, then we open up such a healthy outlet for them.  I didn't learn to write in a Writers' Workshop.  I learned to write because I had so much pent up emotion and nobody to share it with.  I wrote my truth, even at a very early age, and have always used writing to deal and understand life.  If I could put the words on paper, I could somehow organize and leave some of the emotion there, which made me able to move forward.  Voice came easily because it was the reason writing became such a powerful part of my life.  Now if I can only figure out how to teach that to every child...

Persuasive Mem Fox Essays

To bring our Readers' Workshop Author Study of Mem Fox together with the persuasive/opinion writing we have been doing in Writers' Workshop, the children wrote persuasive essays this week about their favorite book, character or author.  Some of these young writers still tend to make connections instead of using text evidence for their reasons, but they are moving in the right direction.   Enjoy some of their writing.

I love Mem Fox because she wrote one of my favorite books, Harriet, You Drive Me Wild!  Do you know why?  Because Harriet reminds me when I was little because I was messy too.  My other reason is that Harriet was pesky.  In school I am pesky too.  My other reason is it is happy and sweet at the end because Harriet is on her mom's lap and her mom said, "I love you Harriet." Then they picked up the feathers and started to laugh.  See I told you I love, love this book because you cannot take your eyes off adorable Harriet.

Have you read a Mem Fox book?  I have read lots of her books.  My favorite is Possum Magic because I like Hush.  He is so cute.  I like his mouth and his little pink nose.  Another reason I like Hush is because Hush is afraid of snakes, just like me.  Hush goes on adventures with his Grandma, just like me and my Grandma went to the mountains.  Now you can see why I like Hush so much?

My favorite book is Feathers and Fools.  It has a sweet ending because the baby peacock and the baby swan become bffs.  I like the baby swan because he did not beat up the peacock and they become animal friends forever.  I like this book because it has happy and sad.  It has happy at the end and sad when they all kill each other.  I love, love, love Feathers and Fools

I have read so many Mem Fox books so I want to tell you about one.  And it's my favorite.  The name of the book is Feathers and Fools.  Shall we get started?  By the way it's about peacocks and swans.  Okay. now shall we get started?  So "in a rambling garden long ago and far away there lived a pride of many different peacocks. Nearby in the rushes and reeds of a clear blue lake..." Now you see how I like how Mem Fox puts her words together.  I like how Mem Fox always makes it funny because you can't really kill someone with a feather! I also like Feathers and Fools because its happy in the end when they become friends.  Instead of killing each other, they say similarities instead of differences.  That's why Mem Fox rocks. 

A Teacher is Easily Persuaded

We have been writing persuasive letters and opinion essays.  During this unit we have been encouraging students to write to family members but also to adults at school and even to powerful people in our community and country.  What I want students to learn during this unit is that they have great ideas and that they can use their voice and their pen to change minds and to make a difference.  While I haven't suggested that the children write to me, this week I have had two letters left on my desk.

The first was from Hailey... and it warms my heart.

Dear Mrs. T,
I think we need more writers werk shop because some times I have to think first.  And wen I think of something to write about its time to clean up.  And we like only have 30 minnits left to write.  We need more time in writers werk shop.  Please.
Your writing loving student,
Hailey

So I wrote Hailey back in a new Writer's Notebook that I bought for her to keep, encouraging her to write all day long, even after she leaves school.  I explained to her, that writers, like her, just have to write and so they carry their notebooks with them and jot and write all day long.  Just love how she's thinking.

The other letter came from Cohen.  To frame his letter you need to know that, like many schools, we have tightened security this year.  I now carry a key on a lanyard around my neck (like a latchkey kid!) that is a key to my room because rooms must be locked at all times.  You also need to understand that we are an inclusion class, so besides the normal comings and goings, we have two different speech therapists, an occupational therapist, three different ESE teachers, a classroom Guidance teacher, a Social Skills teacher, a teacher of the Hard of Hearing, and three different RtI teachers that knock to come into our room on a daily basis.  Our locked door is more like a revolving door.

Dear Mrs. Timmons,
I get anoid hearing knock knock all day.  Can we get a doorbell?  Instead of knocking on the door all day, we could hear ding dong all day long.  I've seen another class with one.  We could put a sign that says please ring the door bell and weed never hear knock knock again well maybe at our house but the point is we wouldn't get anoid so much.  Please can we get a doorbell?
Sincerely,
Your best student 

So you probably won't be surprised to learn that I am going out to Lowe's today to see if I can find a doorbell... and I'll have that student make the sign that says, "Please ring the doorbell"!        

               Our new doorbell!

Mother's Day Persuasive Essays

In the middle of our persuasive unit comes Mother's Day.  What a wonderful opportunity for the children to write about why they love their moms or why their moms are the best.  In some ways this was an easy assignment and the children had no problem putting examples and micro stories into their reasons because they know plenty about their moms.  We still required an opening opinion statement and at least three reasons with examples, details, micro stories and then a final restatement of the opinion for closing.  You will notice however, that some of the children had a little difficulty moving from a "letter" to an "essay."  They sometimes wanted to write "Dear Mom" instead of "My mom..."  The children entertained us with "Mom" stories and made us laugh quite often.  It was such a fun project!  I hope the moms enjoy the essays as much as we did.

Loving Persuasive Writing

One of the things I love about this unit in persuasive writing is that students really get turned on to writing.  One of my brightest students, who has been just writing the minimum all year, told me today that writing is now his favorite subject.  The other reason that I know the kids love this unit is because hardly a day goes by that a student doesn't ask me if they can stay in for recess and write!  Who wants to stay in at recess - in Florida! - and write?  They also ask to write at the end of the day while they wait for buses to be called.  Maybe it's because they find their voice with persuasive letters.  Or maybe it's because they have a real audience and parents and others tend to respond to their ideas.  Whatever it is that gets the children so excited about writing, it certainly is a great way to end first grade!

We will merge persuasive writing with our work in reading with children's author, Mem Fox, by having the children write about their favorite Mem Fox character and book.  Their task is to convince their peers which is the best and why.  Can't wait to see how it goes!

Persuasive Writing

For many students, our unit on persuasive writing is a favorite. It doesn't require the same fluency that a longer report or story require.  The writing is shorter and focused.  One of my brightest students who really resists writing, just told me that Writing is now his favorite subject in school!  I regularly have students that ask to stay in at recess because they want to write and really get upset when we miss Writers' Workshop!  I think this unit is so popular because the students are writing for a real audience.  We do mail their letters and they often receive a response - especially from their parents and family.

After writing persuasive letters, students are given the option to type their letters into the class blog. One of the benefits of this activity is that when we edit, we only correct spellings of words that are on our word wall.  Other, lengthier words, are written the way that they sound and we let those words stand.  We don't correct those spellings because the children aren't yet held responsible for those spellings.  However, when the students go to type their letters on the computer, spell check automatically underlines the words that are misspelled and some of the children want to correct them to the "right" spelling.  This only improves their writing! 

Read, enjoy (and comment on!) some of their letters below.

Nathan Will Stop Asking for a Brother?

Addison: A BIG House and a Dog?

Hailey Tries to Persuade Mom and Dad to Get a Kitten

Can Gabriel Persuade His Mom and Dad to Get a Cat?

Can Abena Convince Her Mom That She Needs a Fish?

Cohen's Persuasive Request to Visit a Friend

Nathen's Plea to Mom

Laura's Concern About the Playground

Avery's Persuasive Letter to the Mayor

Will's Persuasive Letter to the Editor

Alyssa's Persuasive Letter to Mom and Dad

There is always at least one letter every year that just seems to break my heart and this is the letter for this year...

Dear Dad,

Can you come back, Dad?  Can you please?  Dad, I haven't seen you since Spring Break.  I love you and miss you.  I miss you so much and that's why I've written this letter.

Sincerely,

Your lonely son

Don't know if Dad is persuaded by this heartfelt plea, but it certainly is a strong persuasive letter!

Closing persuasive Letters

As we have been reading books that include persuasive letters, we have been keeping a list of ways that the authors close before their signatures.  Bet you'll notice some of these in our persuasive letters!

Persuasive Paper

This week we begin to talk about writing papers with opinions.  To introduce the unit we reread a favorite book from Kindergarten called Click Click Moo.  It's the story about how cows found an old typewriter in the barn and typed letters to Farmer Brown demanding that he supply electric blankets for the cold barn.  It's the perfect book to show our students how words can make a difference.

We discussed how we could also write letters, like the cows had done, to change our world!  We discussed how we can get our thoughts onto paper, sometimes ending up with a messy copy, but when we want to really impress people with our opinions and letters, we have to make a really neat copy that is appealing and easy to read.  We showed the students several examples of "fancy" paper, so they could see the kind of paper that writers sometimes use when they want to really impress the reader.  Then we asked each student to design his own special stationary paper.  Each child went right to work designing a special piece.  We told the children, that just like any publisher, the Ruark-Timmons Press would be publishing some of their designs for other students to use.  The students each displayed their sample and the class voted on their favorite designs.  We ended up with about eight different papers.  Of course, a few students didn't think any design was better than their own, so we assured them that they could always design a one of a kind paper when they got ready to write their final draft!  This exercise excited the children and I hope it will inspire them to work hard to get ready to write that final draft.

Get ready because this is a group that is going to rock the world!

Lucy Calkins - About Opinion Writing

The afternoon of Lucy Calkin's Heinemann Workshop in Orlando, FL was spent looking at writing.  Of the three types of writing emphasized in the Common Core - narrative, informational, and opinion - opinion writing is the one that we have done the least with in Kindergarten and first grade, so what does Lucy say it should look like?

Persuasive Writing In Kindergarten - Using Words to Make a Change

• In your school - Students look for problems in the class and around the school and find solutions.  They make signs.
• Writing letters to make a change - Write letters addressing a problem with  solutions to spark change.  You can embed a story or anecdote into a persuasive piece or add politeness in the closing.  You can persuade with information.
• Take on a persuasive project that requires research to make the world a better place.  Sound like an expert.

Persuasive Writing in First Grade - Writing Reviews

• Best in Show -  Ask each child to bring in a shoebox collection of something they care about.  When you care about something, you have a best.   Now how do you decide which is the best item in your collection - the winner?  Which is the second place? third place? and why did you make that choice?  Which thing in your collection takes the booby prize?  Can you defend your choices?
• Writing reviews - First graders can write reviews of restaurants or video games or toys...    They learn to hook the reader, to defend their choices and to make comparisons.  They learn to use checklists.  They study published reviews.
• Writing persuasive book reviews - Learn to share a summary of a book but don't spill the beans by telling the entire story.  Don't make it too long or too short.

That gives us a great outline for persuasive writing and what it should look like at both grades, but I can't wait until Lucy's new Units of Study for Writing, which are grade level specific, come out in March.  It's been ten years since the first primary units were written for K-2.  Lucy said 65% of the classrooms in the country have those units!  Wonder where the money will come from to buy the new units?

Look out world!

Each year our first graders work on a unit of persuasive writing. As we work through the unit we ask each child to choose a topic that he is passionate about and then to write a letter stating his position and then trying to persuade the reader to come around to his Point of view. We actually mail the letter that is chosen as a final polished copy. The children often write to their parents asking for a pet or video game or some other "thing" that they desire. They promise to clean for weeks, to do chores and even not to hit their little brothers and sisters anymore if their parents will just consider their most earnest request. Often a few children will break our hearts. One child this year asked for a house with a backyard so he would have a place for his little brother to play and another child asked for more food because he is often hungry and his refrigerator is empty. A few children always write to the Dining Room manager to ask for a change in our Dining Room's food and many children write to the Principal asking for everything from a water park on the playground to shorter school days. They must think she is a Superhero with unlimited powers! Occasionally a child will want to write the President or the Humane Society or some other popular person or agency. We never discourage the children, even though we are often doubtful that the party will reply. Our little writers believe that they can change the world (and so do we!) I pray each year as we mail out the letters that the parents will listen and value what their children say, even if their response is "No!" I always hope that the Dining Room Manager will reply in some way although that hasn't happened yet and that the Principal and school personnel will value the childrens' words and will show them, by responding to them, that their words matter.

"This year the most remarkable thing happened. Jardale decided that he wanted to write the Mayor. He decided that we need to go to school for six days instead of five to keep children out of trouble. His "P.S." was that he would like to be Mayor one day. Much to our surprise, Jardale received a reply from Mayor Peyton. It included everything that we would ever want in a response. The Mayor valued Jardale's thoughts and ideas and then gave him some reasons why he didn't think six days of school a week was the best idea. He closed by acknowledging Jardale's dream of some day becoming Mayor. How does it get any better than that?

I am totally impressed with a Mayor or any public figure that would take the time to read and then thoughtfully respond to the ideas of anyone - much less a first grader. This is a powerful lesson in our little classroom. Our children realize that their words really do make a difference. Look out world!

Writing Persuasive Lessons

The state has mandated in Florida that we teach persuasive writing as a new genre in writing in kindergarten and first grade. However, as usual, the resources to go along with the mandate are limited. Our own county offers a handful of very weak lessons so our Kindergarten group, as usual, turned to Lucy Calkins at Teachers College and used her A Quick Guide to Teaching Persuasive Writing as our learning text. It's a tiny little book full of ideas.

On our school's Pacing Guide we teach persuasive writing for three week when we return from Spring Break. Last year a group of Kindergarten teachers wrote 15 lessons for first grade on persuasive writing. After the lesson were taught a group of K-1-2 teachers met and decided, after looking at the Sunshine State Standards, what would be the focus of each grade for persuasive writing and what books we needed to order to support the work. We also wrote a rubric for the writing in each grade since we wanted to have the end in mind before writing the lessons. So... as the Kindergarten writing group (Haley Alvarado, Debbie Harbour, Julia Lewis and Maria Mallon) assembled this year, much of the framework had been laid. The focus of today's group was to write the 15 lessons (3 weeks) to be used in persuasive writing for kindergartners.

The Sunshine State Standard is simply to select a person, pet or thing and write what you like and why. This is very similar to the children selecting a favorite Eric Carle book and telling about their favorite part of why a particular book is their favorite. This is a skill we have practiced as part of the Eric Carle Author Study we are just completing so it was the perfect place to start this persuasive unit.

Our goal in Kindergarten is simply to introduce the children to writing a letter and addressing an envelope. The end-of-unit content is to choose an opinion about something and then to support the opinion with details. Along the way there are some drafting, pre-writing type activities and some editing skills to be taught.

The teachers collaborated all day. At the end of the day they put the lessons on a Google doc so the group today can see all of the lessons together and edit them before the teaching begins. After Spring Break the 14 Kindergarten teachers will be able to pull up the edited lesson in their Google docs and will be able to make additional edits and revisions as they teach the lessons. Finally after all 14 Kindergarten teachers have had the opportunity to teach and work on the lessons and the lessons have been edited, they will be housed on the Kindergarten wiki for teachers in future years to use and revise. Not only is it fun to envision a unit and write the lessons, but you learn so much by working with your peers. Maybe it's a good thing that the resources and lessons offered are so weak. It gives us a chance to turn that into a strong professional development opportunity... and it's FUN!