Writing with a Golden Ruler combines an important social studies lesson with writing. It’s always in my lesson planner as a back to school writing block.
Speaking of lesson planners, I’ve been creating a lot of custom lesson planners for teachers all around the globe lately.
The process is very eye-opening for me. I learn a lot about why I shouldn’t complain about my schedule, or the curriculum police, or my district’s “hoops” that I feel are ridiculous. Some of you have it worse. The grass is not always greener peeps.
Although I have a lot of you beat in regard to the number of students and the lack of specials – many teachers out there have ridiculous schedules, regulations, and requirements set forth by admin and districts that exemplify an enormous, far-reaching lack of trust in teachers, and a lot of extra busywork.
BUT another thing I’ve noticed is that very few teachers have a time set aside for writing.
Hold the phone! WHAT? How could this be?
THE WRITING BLOCK
I think writing instruction is the least favorite subject to teach for most teachers. Because of that, it is probably on the bottom of the curricular favorites list for most students, too.
However, like anything – the skill doesn’t improve unless it’s done on a daily basis.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know this is a passion of mine. I seriously want to convert every single reluctant student and teacher into writing lovers. In my opinion – the first step is doing away with the traditional writer’s workshop, simplifying things, and sticking to a plan. {That, and not calling the writing done during Daily 5, centers, stations, etc – your writing block. 🙂 } The Engaging Writing curriculum is a wonderful, easy to implement, super-effective place to start. It eats up very little of your schedule, too!
INTRODUCING WRITING TO BEGINNERS
Peeps I REALLY want you to LOVE writing as much as I do. We begin writing immediately, but with ease, in my room. Here’s what we do for one of our back to school writing lessons.
We constantly discuss our theme for the month and read books that are relevant. Our writing is nearly always directly related to that theme. Nothing works better at drawing the kiddos in and getting their commitment to the writing process, than accessing their prior knowledge through fun and relatable books.
Currently, during our back to school time“, our focus/theme was The Golden Rule, Character and Responsibility.
These books are great! The kids get a kick out of the naughty monster that David can be and the humongo bully title that Mean Jean the Recess Queen takes pride in owning. The “Do Unto Otters” book is just hilarious and teaches a lesson. (links are Amazon Affiliate links)
After reading the books, we further discussed character and responsibility and how David and Mean Jean could really stand to learn The Golden Rule.
Back to school writing lessons shouldn’t be too challenging or demanding of the kiddos. A lot of what we do is “fill-in” activities because that is where their strongest skill set currently lies. I love The Golden Rule activities because they incorporate reading, inferencing, phonics and a teeny bit of writing skills at a pace that’s engaging and approachable at the beginning of the year.
With that prior knowledge, lead-in activity and our anchor chart we set off to create our very first paragraph plan.
This lesson was an easy introduction to an informational/expository paragraph plan. My kiddos did very well – and it was only their 3rd week of school! Since we are just getting started with the idea of a complete sentence and punctuation, our plan included a lot of helpers – just enough to get the process across while allowing the students to be successful.
ADDING A CRAFT IS THE CHERRY ON TOP!
The kids did an amazing job taking their plan and turning it into a final informational paragraph.
While talking about The Golden Rule in one of our discussions, one little kiddo mentioned that her Kinder teacher showed her how hurtful words can crumple your heart. So, we spent some time talking about the lesson that they did in Kinder and discussed how that could be applied to the school mates of Mean Jean the Recess Queen. I was just in love with those kiddos at that very moment. First of all, they remembered a VERY important lesson from last year. Secondly, they made connections to their new learning. Later in the week I actually heard one little guy telling another “You’ve done THIS to my heart (crumpling motion with his hands) and I wish you would do the golden rule and use better character.”
LOVE FIRST GRADE!!!
THE GOLDEN RULE
This resource includes all sorts of wonderful Golden Rule/Good Character wonderfulness that my kids REALLY enjoyed doing – including a card game that they have been playing non-stop!
You can grab The Golden Ruler in my store.
Ok… so be honest. What’s your relationship with teaching writing?
If you aren’t a fan – what’s at the root of your displeasure?
Do you have a writing block of time on your lesson plans/daily schedule?
