WRITER'S WORKSHOP MINI LESSONS

Editing: Mini Lessons for Checking a Writing Piece for Capitalization, Punctuation, Spacing, and Illustrations, Etc.

The pencil anchor chart on the wall was created by me based on the work of the wonderful Kindergarten teachers at Washington Elementary School in Sheboygan, WI.  They are a "Comprehensive Literacy School" based on Linda Dorn's work in Arkansas, and shared the pencil anchor chart idea with a team of teachers that visited them a few years ago.  Thanks to them for their originality and generous sharing spirits!

• Large Editing Icons for Pencil:     

• Small Student Editing Pencils:    

Lesson 7: Asking, "Did I start my sentences with a capital letter?"

Gather students around the carpet area.

Briefly discuss what was learned the past few days...

Say:

• "Finding WHAT the problems are, 

• knowing WHY they are problems, 

• deciding WHO will fix them, and 

• knowing HOW to fix them is very important."

Point to the pencil ANCHOR CHART on the wall.

	Color 8.5 x 11 Checklist Pictures	Empty Color Student Pencil Checklist Picture	Non-Moveable Color Icons Student Pencil Checklists	Moveable Color Icons Student Pencil Checklists

 

 

 

Say, "Yesterday we learned about making sure that our pictures match their words."

Say, "If our pictures don't match their words, that is a problem and we can fix the problem."

Tell students that today's book will help us all to become better writers.

Say, "We've been leaning about making our writing even better."

Say, "Today we are going to start learning about a new problem to look for when we check our writing."

Read The Big and Little ABC by Sandra Ure Griffin.

Generate discussion about how the letters of the alphabet are similar and different.

Ask, "Why do we have little and big [uppercase and lowercase] letters in our alphabet?"

Discuss as needed.

Do a whole class ABC sort.  

Display the letter tiles, magnets, cards, etc. on the board, pocket chart, etc.

Display the category cards - - uppercase and lowercase.

Allow students to sort letters according to two traits: UPPERCASE and lowercase.

Come to the conclusion that letters are either written in UPPERCASE or lowercase format.

Come to the conclusion that we need both upper and lower case letters.

Point to the pencil ANCHOR CHART on the wall.

Say, "We learned about making sure that our words match our text."

Say, "Now we are ready to add another picture to the pencil."

Show picture of the 'GO' sign with the uppercase 'A' underneath.

Ask, "What does this paper show us and say?"

Say, "Yes, it is a picture of a GO sign, and it has an uppercase 'A' under it."

Say, "The 'GO' sign reminds us that we always start our sentences with a capital letter [uppercase letter]."

Glue the second sign to the pencil ANCHOR chart.

Remind students that good writers make sure that their pictures match their words.

Say, "We can use this picture of a sun, with the word 'sun' under it to help us remember what good writers do."

Remind students that good writers start their sentences with a capital letter.

Say, "We can use this picture of a GO sign, with the capital 'A' under it to help us to remember what good writers do."

Dismiss for Writer's Workshop.

Resources:

The Big and Little ABC by Sandra Ure Griffin