Writing Workshop

 During writing workshop we have been writing How-To books. This is our first experience with procedural writing. To write a How-To book, a writer thinks of a topic he or she knows a lot about and would like to teach the reader about. We used special "How-To Topic" paper (as seen in the first and third pictures) to generate a list of possible topics.  After a topic is chosen it is time for "How-To Paper" (picture 2, 3 & 4). This paper is used to plan , sketch,and write the steps in the procedure. When a few books were completed we checked them for clarity by reading them together and trying to follow the steps. While reading and listening we asked ourselves "What's confusing?" to revise our writing.

 This unit of writing is comprised of many mini-lessons. At this time we have completed the following lessons:

1. Introducing How-To books: children discovered that they will be teachers as well as writers when writing How-To books
2. Checking for Clarity: We explored the idea that How-To books should  be clear, the reader should be able to follow the directions
3. Revising Words & Pictures: We read our own and another's directions and then revised our words and pictures accordingly to make sure they were detailed and explicit.

Topics have included how-to:

• Sail a boat
• Mop the floor
• Feed chickens
• Get your ears pierced
• Do a somersault
• Drive a car
• Do a wheelie
• Find a salamander
• Turn on a bike
• Do a donkey-kick
• Surf
• Sew
• Swing

This unit addresses the following common core standard:
K.W.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.