Curriculum Handbook

Being a Writer provides a full year of research-based whole-class writing instruction for grades K–6. Using a workshop model, the Being a Writer program teaches the writing process while developing intrinsic motivation for the craft of writing through immersion in the narrative, informational, and opinion/argumentative writing genres. Instruction encourages students to write regularly with passion and intent as it builds an understanding of and appreciation for the skills and conventions of writing.

Creating classroom experiences that develop a love of writing and allow children to express their thinking requires thoughtful, intentional instruction. Being a Writer provides this instruction by interweaving academic and social skill development. Teachers facilitate student discussion, provide a model for the respectful exchange of ideas, and help students develop their own voices. With Being a Writer, students learn to love writing and grow through the grades as writers, thinkers, and principled people, and teachers hone their skills, both as teachers of writing and as writers themselves.

Being a Writer utilizes the following: 

• Read-Alouds: Read-alouds of exemplary writing stimulate the students’ imaginations and fuel their motivation to write. The read-alouds also allow students to hear, read, and discuss good examples of each genre. Lessons include shared and modeled writing and opportunities for students to share their writing with their peers.

• Independent Practice and Conferring: Every Being a Writer lesson includes Writing Time and conferring. Writing Time is a period of sustained writing when students work independently on authentic writing tasks for various purposes and audiences. In Being a Writer, students have a great deal of choice about what to write—even when writing about assigned topics, they draw on their unique experiences and interests to address those topics.

• Language Skills and Conventions-Students’ motivation to learn the conventions of written English grows out of their desire to communicate clearly with their readers in their published pieces. The Being a Writer program embeds instruction of skills and conventions into shared or modeled writing experiences after students have had ample time to draft their ideas. Mini-lessons covering standards-aligned skills are provided for grades 1–6 in the Skill Practice Teaching Guide, with practice activities in an accompanying Student Skill Practice Book.

• Assessment- Being a Writer assessment tools are designed to help teachers make informed instructional decisions as they teach the lessons and track their students’ writing and social development over time. Being a Writer assessments help teachers

  • recognize individual students’ strengths as well as areas for improvement
  • prepare students for standards-based, end-of-year writing performance tasks 
  • evaluate students’ mastery of grade-level skills and conventions (grades 1–6) 

Making Meaning provides a full year of research-based, whole-class reading and vocabulary instruction for grades K–6. Reading lessons teach students comprehension and self-monitoring strategies that proficient readers use to make sense of text. Vocabulary lessons combine direct instruction in word meanings with engaging activities that teach high-­utility words found in the Making Meaning read-­aloud texts.

Reading is an interactive process that involves thinking, questioning, discussing, rereading, and responding to texts. In Making Meaning lessons, carefully selected nonfiction and fiction read-aloud texts provide a platform for rich discussions as students encounter increasingly complex texts and build their vocabularies. Lessons intentionally integrate academics with social skill development, creating an environment in which students learn to collaborate, agree and disagree respectfully, and take responsibility for their own learning.

Being a Reader utilizes the following: 

• Read-Alouds: In Making Meaning lessons, comprehension strategies are taught directly through read-­aloud experiences. This ensures that students have equal opportunity to access the text regardless of their reading abilities. Then, through guided and independent strategy practice, students learn to use these strategies to make sense of their own reading. Lessons also include plenty of time for independent reading practice and individual conferences so that students of varying levels will be able to develop as readers at their own pace. In a world of sound bites expressed quickly in electronic formats, students benefit from having time to think about, hear, and share complete ideas.

• Individualized Daily Reading and Conferring: At the heart of the Making Meaning lesson is Individualized Daily Reading (IDR) and conferring. IDR is a time when students self-select texts at their appropriate reading levels and read them independently. Students apply the skills learned during whole-class lessons, learn self-monitoring strategies they can use to check their comprehension, and discuss strategies they can apply when reading to “fix” comprehension problems.

• Conferring: During IDR, the teacher confers with individual students about their reading. Conferring allows teachers to assess each student’s comprehension and provides an opportunity to support struggling students, encourage students to read more complex texts, and identify areas of growth for each student. 

• Explicit Vocabulary Instruction: Vocabulary lessons combine direct instruction in word meanings with engaging, interactive activities that teach high-­utility words found in the Making Meaning read-­aloud texts. Lessons also focus on developmentally appropriate word-learning strategies that students can use to unlock word meanings when reading independently.

• Assessment: Making Meaning assessment tools are designed to help teachers make informed instructional decisions as they teach the lessons and track their students’ reading and social development over time. Making Meaning assessments help teachers:

  • recognize individual students’ strengths as well as areas for improvement evaluate students’ reading comprehension,
  • independent reading progress, and vocabulary acquisition
  • prepare students for the reading comprehension portion of end-of-year standards-based reading assessments.

   

Center for the Collaborative Classroom, https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/

• Most sessions have some combination of activity-specific intervention, extension, and/or ELL suggestions. 
• An additional Intervention, Practice, and Extension activity is also included at the end of each Investigation (1-5)
• Spanish Companion provides teacher dialogue in Spanish.

• Daily morning and closing meetings: Students learn about one another and learn to work together in productive ways. 

• Weekly random student pairings: Students learn to work and solve problems with many different kinds of people, deepening their awareness of and respect for diverse points of view. 

• Weekly class meetings: Students address concerns and current issues. In the process, they learn to understand issues from each other’s perspectives, develop empathy for how others are feeling, and reach agreement as a class. 

• Weekly Friday choice time: Students have a chance to work with others on their choice of engaging activities. 

• Frequent use of cooperative structures: With ‘Turn to your partner’ and ‘Heads Together’ students have the time, opportunity, and structure to explore meaningful and engaging ways to work with others. 

• Regularly creating and supporting intra-class relationships: Students get to know older and younger buddies and people who work at the school. 

• Weekly Home Connection activities: Students talk with family members about the social development focus of the week.