For Writers Workshop, we use Lucy Calkins Units of Study. We will start off the year with Small Moments, then Informational Writing, Opinion Writing, and ending with Realistic Fiction.

Small Moments

• In Unit 1, students take the everyday events of their young lives and make them into focused, well-structured stories, then they learn to breathe life into the characters by making them talk, think, and interacts.

Informational Writing

• In Unit 2, students enter the world of informational writing as they combine pictures and charts with domain-specific vocabulary and craft moves to create engaging teaching texts.

Opinion Writing

• In Unit 3, students are writing reviews of things that they like. We are using the following steps to create a persuasive argument:
  • Idea Generator
  • Sketching it out
  • Introduction (using onomatopoeia, or asking a question to hook the reader in)
  • Stating our opinion
  • Explaining what our topic is
  • Giving reasons
  • Comparing it to something else
  • Telling a small moment to give it that personal touch
  • Where and when can you find this great thing
  • Rating how awesome it is

Realistic Fiction

• In Unit 4, students will create realistic fiction with pretend characters and putting them in real life situations. As we move on with this unit, we will also learn about writing in a series. We will take these characters and give them many adventures using mentor text such as Henry and Mudge, Amelia Bedelia, Cam Jansen, etc. In the midst of this, we will have to think about the background of these characters, so we will also create a Book 1 of the series to give background information.