青年作家工作坊：每週作文

During this interactive writing class, students will start off with a quick greeting and will quickly move into a quick grammar mini-lesson which will then lead into our writing lesson of the day wherein we will begin our weekly writing project. Students will be given the opportunity to participate in a community of learners that support each other as they grow in their writing abilities. Each week, students will work through different parts of the writing process: brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing through a variety of writing genres. Students will be given feedback on their writing and independent learning goals by the teacher if they submit their work by the Friday after the class in the classroom. 
Students will learn grammar lessons through songs, chants, games, and color-coding parts of speech through an interactive whole group mini-lesson with a 2-3 minute independent practice to show what they have learned. Next, our class will then switch to our writing lesson wherein we will as a group begin the writing process with a mini-lesson on the genre or writing trait of focus to then move into brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing, revising, and/or publishing our work depending on where we are in the writing process in each class. Students will have the opportunity to share their own writing and learn how to support others by listening to their work with helpful or congratulatory comments.  

Weekly Schedule of Lesson Focus:
Week of December 9th: Informational Writing: Informational Writing: Compare and Contrasting 
How to use a Venn diagram to help you compare and contrast two different toys or games that you enjoy.
Week of December 16th: Story Writing: Happy Holidays
Write about characters celebrating a holiday and describe how they participate in the festivities.
Weeks of December 23-30th: Winter Break/ No Class
Week of January 6th: Story Writing: Creative Characters
Use a graphic organizer to help you create complex main characters that you will include in your story.
Week of January 13th: Persuasive Writing: Should kids have 2 hours of screen time or less?
Use a graphic organizer to help you tell your opinion with 3 reasons why using facts and examples.
Week of January 20th: Story Writing: Crazy Comedy
How to write a funny story using comedic devices like overstatements, understatements, juxtaposition, repetition, puns, and double entendre using a graphic organizer.
Week of January 27th: Informational Writing: Biography
How to use a graphic organizer to tell the story of someone’s life in chronological order using nonfiction text features like a timeline and a map in addition to pictures.
Week of February 3rd: Story Writing: Spectacular Space Story
Use a graphic organizer to help you create a story set in outer space.
Week of February 10th: Correspondence Writing: Writing Lovely Letter
How to write an interesting letter to someone you know that will encourage them to write you back.
Week of February 17th: Story Writing: Create a Comic
Students will learn how to write stories in a comic format using text features like speech and thought bubbles.
Week of February 24th: Persuasive Writing: Awesome Advertisement
Use a graphic organizer to help tell someone why they should buy or try something by supporting your reasons with facts and/or examples.
Week of March 3rd:  Story Writing: Problem and Solution
How to write a story that has a problem with a clear solution with at least 3 main events in the story using a graphic organizer.
Week of March 10th: Informational Writing: All About An Aquatic Animal
How to use a graphic organizer to help you write about an aquatic animal of your choice.
Week of March 17th: Story Writing: Writing About An Amazing Adventure
Using a graphic organizer, students will write about a character in a traveling story that visits new places and experiences new things.
Week of March 24th:  Persuasive Writing: Should kids have chores? 
Use a graphic organizer to help you give reasons with examples for your opinion.
Week of March 31st: Story Writing: Springtime Story
Use a graphic organizer to help you tell a story that is set during spring.
Week of April 7th:  Compare and Contrast: Plants and Animals
Use a graphic organizer to help you compare plants and animals.
Week of April 14th: Spring Break/ No Classes
Week of April 21st: Personal Narrative: Being Brave
Use a graphic organizer to help you tell about a time when you or someone you know was very brave. 
Week of April 28th: Persuasive/ Opinion Writing: Book Review
Use a graphic organizer to help you choose the best adjective to describe your book and use quotes or text evidence to support your claim.
Week of May 5th: Story Writing: Adventure Story
Students will use a graphic organizer to help them write an adventure story with epic events.
Week of May 12th: Informational Writing: Pick a Place
How to use a graphic organizer to tell about the location, climate, and landmarks of a particular place that you have been to or would like to visit.
Week of May 19th: Story Writing: Mystery Writing
Use a graphic organizer to write a mystery story of your own with events that build suspense.
Week of May 26th: Informational Writing: Imaginary Invention Brochure 
Use a graphic organizer to help you think up an imaginary invention and make an informational brochure about it.
Week of June 2nd: 
Week of June 9th: Persuasive/ Opinion Writing: Opinion of a Character from a Book
Use a graphic organizer to help you choose the best adjective to describe your character and use quotes or text evidence to support your claim.