K-5 Overarching Concepts

• Writing is communication.

• Writing is power.

• Writing is personal and gives voice to ideas.

• Writing is generating ideas and refining thinking.

• Writing is impacted by audience and experience.

• Writing is embedded in a community of inquiry, reflection, and collaboration.

• Writing is an ongoing creative process.

• Sharing writing connects people with one another.

Grade 2 Writing Course Description

    Second grade students continue to experience increasing complexity in the following three types of writing:  narrative, informative, and opinion. Students experience the writing process of planning, drafting, revising, editing, and sharing/publishing through writer’s workshop which includes a mini-lesson, writing time (writing, conferring, peer work), and sharing.  Conversations about writing are framed by essential questions and mini-lessons support what students need to know, do, and understand as second grade writers.  Writing for research is embedded in each type of writing.  Students apply conventions through the editing component of writer’s workshop.   Second grade students also use writing as a response to reading through read alouds, small group and independent reading using evidence from the text to support ideas in their writing.  Mentor texts play a key role in providing models during independent writing.

Writer's Workshop Instructional Framework

Unit 1 Our Lives Are Stories:  Narrative Writing

• Narratives connect people with each other’s experiences, interests and beliefs through telling and listening to stories

• Everyone’s life is made up of stories

• Narratives come from real and /or imagined experiences.

• Narratives can recount one event in depth or a series of events over a short or longer period of time.

• Narratives often sequence events in a chronological order.

• Narratives use story elements.

• Narratives tell about events and how characters responded to or felt about them.

• Narratives tell how the events ended or were resolved.

• Interesting narratives are drawn from experiences that people can relate to.

• Interesting narratives use descriptive words and details to make events and people come alive for the reader.

• There are many  narrative formats.  The best one depends on the writer’s purpose and audience.

Unit 2 Gain and Share Knowledge: Information Writing

• Writing that informs or explains can create interest in and correct misunderstandings about a topic.

• Informative or explanatory writing is useful when it connects to what our audience knows or wants to know, what they’re interested in and have experienced.

• Informative or explanatory writing is useful when it gives accurate and relevant information about a topic.

• Informative or explanatory writing develops points through facts and definitions.

• Writers can gather ideas and knowledge from more than one source or different types of sources.

• Writers can make sure what they write is true by checking sources.

• Informative or explanatory writing  teaches the reader something by naming specific points about the topic, making  information clear, and providing closure.

• There are many ways that information and explanations can be shared, and the best format depends on the writer’s purpose and audience.

Unit 3 Understanding Empowers People: Opinion Writing

• People can write to share opinions about a topic.

• People can write opinions to make someone else think, feel, or act differently.

• Writers get ideas for opinions from what they read, what they're interested in or care about, and what is happening in the world around them.

• Opinion pieces identify a topic, state an opinion, and stick with related reasons from beginning to end.

• Writer’s of opinion pieces organize their ideas to makes sense to their audience.

• Writer’s of opinion pieces create sense by making sure all reasons connect to the opinion.

• Opinions are clear when the reader understands what the writer thinks and why.

• Opinions must be clear before they can be persuasive. (The audience has to know what the writer is saying before they can decide whether they agree!)

• People can share opinions through writing, pictures, or telling.

• There are many ways to express opinions, the best way to share depends on the writer's purpose and audience.