Writer's Workshop: How to Books

Our first and second graders have recently finished publishing their How to Books. The How to Book is our first experience with writing procedural writing pieces. The purpose of procedural writing is to explain to your reader how to do or make something. Some examples of procedural writing include recipes, science experiments, manual instructions, and of course How to Books!

During this unit our students focused on writing clear steps, using transition words, and writing fantastic introductions and conclusions to hook their reader! You can hear one of our student's published How to Books below.

Reader's Workshop: Identifying Author's Message

In reading, we have been learning to identify the author's message, or lesson,  in personal narratives and fiction texts. Identifying the author's message is a challenging task, which often relies on our students' drawing inferences. Inferential thinking is a higher order thinking skills which requires our students to read between the lines. When our students determine the author's message, when it is not explicitly stated, they must look for clues in the text, reflect on their personal experiences, and draw conclusions.  We have been making excellent strides in this area.

You can watch a video below to see one of our student's reflecting on the author's message from the text The Invisible Boy and how we can apply this lesson to our own lives. Watch your child's Easyblog to see their reflection coming soon!