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I am super pumped to announce an upcoming and awesome series that Anna of The Measured Mom and I are tackling together: Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades {for 1st and 2nd grades}. I am so excited because, besides reading, writing has to be one of my favorite subjects to teach! “Eww,” you may respond. Well, Anna and I hope to shift your thinking just a bit. Our desire it to help you see writing in a different light…writing as a craft. {Links for all posts in this series can be found at the bottom of this post.}
Writing as a Craft
What exactly does that mean? Many times, writing is taught primarily through writing prompts, copy work, or worksheets. These things, in and of themselves, are not bad. But when these are the main diet, writing becomes one-dimensional. But writing as a craft takes writing to an entirely different level. Students are given developmentally appropriate choices, treated as authors as they learn the writing process, and taught writing in the context of writing. Writing has purpose, meaning, and many dimensions. If you want to explore writing as a craft further or the writing process, please hop over to my 5 Days of Unleashing the WRITER in Your Child.
What are Simple Lessons?
Simple lessons, also known as mini-lessons, are short and explicit times of teaching that “teach into our [writers'] intentions.” {The Art of Teaching Writing, 193} I’m sure that about clears it up for you, right? I’ll break it down word-by-word:
Short Lessons- 10-15 minutes at the most.
Explicit Teaching- It doesn’t leave anything to chance. It’s all “spelled out” for the student. Explicit means that you show HOW to do something instead of TELLING how to do something. You do it WITH the child. You let your child hear your thinking as you write in front of your child. {Writing Essentials, 15}
Teach Into- Teaching is done in context; within the context of writing itself. It isn’t a ditto sheet. It isn’t copy work. It is real writing.
Writers’ Intentions- Instead of deciding ahead of time what I am going to teach, I look into the student’s writing {see bullet point above} and ask myself, “What is the one thing I can suggest or demonstrate that might help [my child] the most?” {The Art of Teaching Writing, 194} which leads me to…
How Do I Know WHAT To Teach my Young Writer?
We want our teaching to be developmentally appropriate; meaning right where the student “is at”. If the child already knows the information, we’re wasting time. If the information is WAY over his head, we’re only frustrating him {and ourselves}. What we need to teach the child can be found as we become students ourselves, watching how our kids’ write and where they start to become confused in their writing.
For example, if I notice my child putting a period at the end of every line of work as she writes, I can clearly see that we need to work on where punctuation goes. Instead of telling her where punctuation goes, I SHOW her.
It would sound something like: “I need to write a thank you note to grandma. I’d like your help.” Start writing, with your child beside you. At the end of the first line say something like: “I don’t need a period here because I will wait until the end of my sentence.” When I get to the end of each sentence, I make a big deal about it. “Oh, that was a complete thought. Let’s stick a big, fat period there {or whatever punctuation is needed}.”
As you keep writing the note, make a point to focus and talk about where you are putting the punctuation AS you write in front of your child. {Just a side note: Your topic for your simple lesson is something you can model over and over through different kinds of writing. It is not just a one-shot deal.}
It is explicit. Showing. Not just telling.
It is developmentally appropriate. It’s what your child needs to work on. Notice, I didn’t find this idea in a writing curriculum or workbook. I became a student of my child and taught exactly what needed to be taught at that time.
It is simple. I write. I talk. She observes.
Suggested Simple Lessons
A few suggested simple lesson topics might include: 1- spelling words, 2- conventions, 3-modeling a technique or strategy, maybe something you found in a book you were reading aloud together, 4- reinforcing a strategy already modeled, 5- word choice, 6- writing in different genres {poetry, fiction, non-fiction}, or 7- how to edit your work. There are MANY more topics you could select for your simple lessons, but you want to teach into what they confuse as they write. As we add posts to our series, you’ll get to see more examples first-hand. 
I can’t wait!
Simple Lesson Links for Primary Grades Series
Follow along each week as we share simple lesson ideas for 1st and 2nd graders:
August 7 Prewriting (themeasuredmom.com)
August 14 Prewriting (thisreadingmama.com)
August 21 Writing (themeasuredmom.com)
August 28 Writing (themeasuredmom.com)
September 4 Writing (themeasuredmom.com
September 11 Writing (thisreadingmama.com)
September 18 Revising (themeasuredmom.com)
September 25 Revising (thisreadingmama.com)
October 2 Editing (themeasuredmom.com)
October 9 Editing (thisreadingmama.com)
October 16 Publishing/Sharing (themeasuredmom.com
October 23 Publishing/Sharing (thisreadingmama.com)
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~Becky
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