Writing

Opinion Writing

As you’re well aware, second graders have many opinions!  Helping them to clearly express those opinions and support them with reasons and detail is the focus of our current writing unit.  Students began the unit by sharing their opinion about a variety of topics.  As our lessons have become more formal, we have shifted to writing opinions about the books we read.  This shift in to writing about our reading will allow us to focus on specific ways opinion writers can support their opinions.  Students are learning to introduce their book and opinion in the introduction of their letter.  They are learning to give reasons to support their opinion and then to “say more” about each of their reasons by using specific details from the text.  Other work happening in this unit includes using transition words to help the reader understand connections between ideas (one reason, for example, also) and to choose words that help to convince someone to agree with you. 

The culminating project for this unit will be publishing student work to the website Spaghetti Book Club.  Spaghetti book club is a secure site that hosts book reviews written by students.  Although it has been several years since I have used the Spaghetti Book Club, the last two times I have used it, several authors have responded to students’ work- super exciting.  More information about Spaghetti Book Club will be coming home soon, but here’s the link if you’d like to check it out:  http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/ .

Sample Learning Targets:

• ·         I can clearly state my opinion.
• ·         I can write at least two reasons to support my opinion.
• ·         I can “say more” about each of my reasons.
• ·         I can use specific details from my book to support my opinion.
• ·         I can use transition words to help my reader understand how my ideas connect.
• ·         I can choose words that will convince my reader to agree with me.

What Can You Do at Home?

•  Have conversations with your student that encourage students to share an opinion.  Ask them to explain their reasons for that opinion.  If kids can talk about their opinions, they will be better able to write about them!
• Share examples of opinion writing you see.  This might include a book review in a magazine or an editorial from the newspaper.
•   Read the opinion pieces your student is writing in his/her Night Writer.  Help your child to be sure s/he is including reasons and details to support his/her opinion.

General Information About Writing

Writer's Workshop is the name given to our writing time each day. We call it Writer's Workshop because that is what "real" authors call their special writing time, since our students are becoming "real" authors", we have adopted the name as a part of our daily instruction.

Our lessons are taken, primarily, from the Units of Study for Primary Writers authored by Lucy Calkins and the Teacher's College at the Columbia University. Each day the workshop will last about one hour. The first 10-15 minutes there will be a mini-lesson, or direct teacher instruction. The focus will be learning about techniques and strategies that good writers use. After the mini-lesson students will have independent writing time where the students are allowed to choose the topic for their writing. By giving the students choices in their writing, it makes the writing more meaningful and engaging. While the students are writing the teacher will be meeting with individuals or small groups to conference with them about their writing and to encourage their growth as writers. Sometimes in the middle of the independent writing time we will pause for a "mid-workshop share." This will be a time for the teacher to refocus the group, or to highlight the extraordinary efforts of an individual writer in the class. At the end of the workshop, about 10-15 minutes will be spent giving the students an opportunity to share their writing with the class or a writing partner.
Students will learn to write, revise, edit, and publish stories throughout the school year. They will also begin to assess their writing and learn to implement the characteristics of quality writing into their own work.