Invested Writers

I told my group today how impressed I am with them as writers. All of them settle down each day after our mini-lesson to write. I don't hear anyone say, "I don't know what to write about." They are full of good ideas. If they ever are unsure which idea to use, they have learned to ask a fellow writer for an opinion. Writing workshop is full of the buzz of writers at work, not only writing but asking for help, talking over strategies, and sharing ideas. Since one of our first units was on where writers get ideas, we are working on freely sharing our ideas. We talk about how it is okay to get an idea from another writer's book. We just need to be sure we make it our own by expanding it with our ideas. Today we shared some of the pattern books we have been working on. Students were great about complimenting their fellow writers.

Pattern Books

We recently celebrated our first efforts this year in Writing Workshop. Now we are focusing on pattern books. In this unit I use ideas from First Grade Writers by Stephanie Parsons. We have been reading a variety of pattern books. After we read each book, we talk about what the writer is doing in the book and how that affects us as readers. We work to come up with a name for the pattern. We have come up with names such as Making a List, Opposites, Rhythm Pattern, When ... Then, See-saw, and Pat-a-Pat Pat (for a repeated refrain-the students wanted to use the repeated refrain from a favorite book, Wet Dog by Elise Broach, to name the pattern.) We are making a chart of these observations.

Students are now trying their hands at writing pattern books. Several have finished a first pattern book and are exploring what pattern they want to do for their next book. As students try different patterns, we will add to a part of our chart that asks "Have any of us tried this?"