When setting up your writing time, there are a few things to consider:
1. Weekly/Daily Schedule of Your Classroom My weekly schedule provides around 130 minutes for my entire literacy block each day. Here are the things that my kindergarten team thinks is important to include each day in our literacy instruction:
Adding all of those parts up, you notice that I am over my allowed time by about 20 minutes. This caused me to take a look at my schedule, and decide that I would have writing 2/3 times a week, and then the read aloud/activity would be the other two times a week. I feel it is important for 5 and 6 year olds to have practice with projects where they must follow large group instructions, and improve their fine motor skills. This also allows me to keep the "fun" activities as a part of my day that those kinders deserve! You may have more time or less time in your literacy block, but I have found that around 30 minutes is perfect for the writing chunk of our day (10 minute mini lesson, 20 minutes writing and individual conferences) . 2. Focus Potential of Your Students When deciding where in your literacy block to put your writing time, you should pay close attention to what parts came before and after. As you know, kindergarteners are unable to sustain focus in an independent way for long periods of time. I am lucky to have a morning recess that breaks up my literacy block right in the middle. I was able to create a schedule that looks like this.
3. Making it Fun There are a few ways that I make my writing time fun for my kiddos:
4. Conferencing It is important to meet with each of your students to talk about their writing. This will help you gage their understanding, guide your planning, and it also helps you gage their focus. I tried to meet with each child once a week and used the observation document listed in my resources post. You will meet with your students during their 20 minutes of independent time each day. It might help to make a schedule which I have included here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Conference-Schedule-351994 5. Student Independence There are a couple of things I do to foster independence during our writing time. You should consider these as well, otherwise you will be interrupted many times, and not get much done.
6. A "How I Know My Book Is Finished" Chart Hang this chart on the wall near your supply station so that your students can easily use the list to make sure they have completed all the steps. Here are the check boxes we had on our list: 1. Name on the front of your book 2. Pictures and words on every page 3. One BIG idea 4. Share with one friend 7. Share Out Ideas I strongly suggest you purchase the book I suggested in my resource list, because it has many ideas to try when sharing out their stories! Here are some that I have tried or want to try!
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AuthorHi! My name is Brooke Praska. I am a kindergarten teacher, and I wanted to share my journey in striving to be better every day! contact |