1st GRADE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR EXPLICIT WRITING CURRICULUM with WRITING PROMPTS

Are you ready to get stellar results through an explicit and systematic approach to writing instruction? This standards-aligned Beginning-of-the-Year writing unit with structured 1st-grade writing lessons will set your students up for success in writing for the remainder of the year.

This writing curriculum is the perfect way to teach first graders all the foundational skills they need before heading into opinion, narrative, and informational writing.

The best part? It's completely done for you - just click and teach

With this curriculum, we literally take your hand and walk you through, step-by-step, teaching foundational writing skills.

So, say goodbye to teacher overwhelm and hello to your newfound confidence as an amazing teacher of writing.

Teaching writing will seriously become the easiest, and most joyful, part of your day.

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All too often we skip building important foundational skills before jumping into writing. Unfortunately, this can lead to frustration for students and teachers.

Our 1st-grade writing unit is all about building a solid foundation. By the end of this unit, your students will be writing strong sentences that are meaningful and interesting.

Just say no to:

• Sentences without spaces between words

• missing capitals

• sentence fragments

• Run-on sentences

• missing end punctuation, wrong punctuation, or no punctuation

• lack of commas in a series

• and most importantly…boring sentences

And say yes to…

8 Weeks of fun and engaging explicit writing lessons geared toward the beginning of first grade to ensure success for all learners. Your writers will learn to:

• create detailed drawings using basic shapes and lines

• label drawings using best-guess spelling

• write a complete sentence with a subject and predicate

• correctly use capitals, spaces between words, and punctuation

• write a sentence using a sentence stem

• write telling, asking, and exclamatory sentences

• write a list

• list 3 or more things in a sentence using commas

• write to respond to questions

• write stronger sentences by including adjectives, adverbs, who, what, where, when, or why

• write stronger sentences after receiving feedback from teacher and peers

• write more than one sentence on a topic

After this writing unit, students will be able to rock and roll with opinion, narrative, and informative writing!

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WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY ABOUT TEACHING WRITING?

While there is a massive amount of research on best practice in reading, that is not the case with writing.

A few books we recommend you read if you want to learn more about best practice in writing instruction using evidence-based strategies are:

• The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler
• The Writing Rope by Joan Sedita
• Best Practices in Writing Instruction by Steve Graham, Charles A MacArthur, and Michael Hebert

What we do know is that writing is an extremely complex skill that requires time and solid instruction. (Graham et al., 2012)

Additionally...

• Writing should be taught systematically and explicitly
• Writing instruction should be carefully scaffolded

Our curriculums provide teachers with DAILY scripted lessons that are explicit, systematic, and scaffolded. Students are so successful because of the gradual release of responsibility, explicit instruction, and daily writing practice where they implement the use of skills taught.

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WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THIS RESOURCE?

40 DIGITAL LESSON PLANS – No need to search for your lesson plans or spend an enormous amount of time reading them each day. We have them right on the slides - making your teaching life stress-free.

Digital Lessons Include:

• 40 “I WILL” STATEMENTS – To keep students laser-focused on the objective of the day. We use “I will” statements instead of “I can” statements as they hold the students more accountable
• Writing Chats – To introduce topics, build background information as well as vocabulary
• Watch Me Slides – For the teacher to show the day’s objective through think-alouds and modeling. This is oftentimes interactive to keep student engagement high. Our Turn Slides – For students to practice the new skill learned with you.
• Your Turn Slides – For students to independently practice the skill learned each day.

40 STUDENT WRITING PAGES – After each writing skill has been explicitly taught and practiced, students are held responsible for their learning by engaging in a daily writing assignment aligned to the day's learning target.

OBSERVATION CHECKLISTS – Great for formative assessment! As you walk around and observe students, record your findings. This easy-to-use checklist helps you remember who has learned the targeted standard taught, and who needs extra help. This is great to refer to when planning for parent-teacher conferences.

END OF UNIT ASSESSMENT – To use as a summative assessment of the skills taught.

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HERE IS A GLIMPSE OF THE FOCUS FOR EACH WEEK:

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 1 – Draw detailed pictures using shapes & lines

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 2 – Label pictures using best-guess spelling

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 3 – Write complete sentences

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 4 – Write complete sentences & lists

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 5 – Write stronger sentences

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 6 – Write more than one sentence on a topic

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 7 – Write more than one sentence to answer a question

· WRITING FOCUS WEEK 8 – Respond to questions to strengthen writing

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HERE’S WHAT TEACHERS LIKE YOU ARE SAYING:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful resource! According to our 1st-grade lesson plans, our students were supposed to start the year off in writing by writing narratives. There was no way my students were ready for that, as many of them were still struggling to write a complete sentence! Your approach of beginning writing with drawing pictures, then labeling them, then moving on to completing sentence stems and writing about a picture prompt has helped tremendously! -Darla

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love this resource! The attention to detail is incredible. There truly is no prep, just load the PowerPoint and print the worksheets (I do one week booklets at a time so I don't have to copy every day). I would love to see more units to follow this one.
-Melissa

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is an amazing resource that will help my students learn critical writing skills right from the start. I love how easy it is to use and the consistent layout will help students focus on the lesson and the skills being taught. Excited to use this!! -Brianne

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WHY EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR WRITING?

It’s simple… IT WORKS!

Explicit instruction (also called direct instruction) works for all writers…not just the stronger ones. It’s a strategy that allows teachers to scaffold learning by giving structured, sequenced lessons targeting specific skills or standards. It’s teacher-led with a gradual release of responsibility to students. This method truly allows all students to succeed.

If you are thinking, that doesn’t sound like Writer’s Workshop, you’re right. It’s not. Years ago, we implemented Writer’s Workshop in our classrooms, but it didn’t work for us… or our students.

The biggest problem was that it was very difficult to manage and keep students on track. It was also a planning nightmare trying to find mini-lessons to match our students’ diverse needs. And to make matters worse, when we gave mini-lessons students didn’t necessarily practice the targeted skill because they were at a different stage of the writing process.

We were disappointed, and frustrated, and knew we had to do something different.

We decided to put structure and intentionality into our teaching. We clearly state what students will be working on, give thoughtful instruction through modeling and discussion, and provide time to practice as we observe and guide. It is so simple to manage and gives students the support they need. The result? Students are now writing better than we’ve ever seen. This method truly works!

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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING THIS STRUCTURED WRITING RESOURCE?

❤️ The entry point for this unit is assessable to all learners.

❤️ Lessons are carefully and thoughtfully scaffolded, ensuring success for all learners.

❤️ Our I Do, We Do, You Do format sets your first-grade writers up for success.

❤️ At the completion of this unit, your students will be able to confidently tackle opinion, narrative, and informative writing with ease.

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WHO IS THE RESOURCE FOR?

• First-grade teachers looking for a strong, yet easy to implement, writing curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and fun for kids.
  
• Special Education Teachers who are ready to take their students at other grade levels back to the basics and build a strong writing foundation.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Are the students required to write each day?

Yes! After we discuss, model, and practice skills; students are then asked to show understanding by engaging in a writing task independently.

Does this follow a Writers’ Workshop model?

No. Students are explicitly taught a writing skill each day, then they practice the skill taught.

Can this be used with Google Slides?

Yes! We have included a link to a Google Slides version in this resource.

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OTHER FIRST-GRADE RESOURCES YOU'LL LOVE:

Click HERE to check out our Informational, Opinion, Personal Narrative, and Yearlong BUNDLE Curriculums.

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Permission to copy for single classroom use only.

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Becky & Cindy

Team Primary Bliss Teaching