Writing Essential Standards - Kindergarten

Writing Standards Alignment with Tools of the Mind Curriculum

TEXT TYPES AND PURPOSES

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is . . .).

Children use Scaffolded Writing to make a Center Plan that describes what they will do when dramatizing a story. During Listening Center Writing Response, they write about the book that they listened to and write their opinion or preference about that book. During Read-Write-Learn Activities - Teacher reads a book and children answer comprehension questions aloud and write about their thinking. Questions are of varying levels from straight factual, to vocabulary, to story grammar, story recall, to inferences, to predictions.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

Read-Write-Learn Activities - Teacher reads the book and children answer comprehension questions aloud and write about their thinking. Questions are of varying levels from straight factual, to vocabulary, to story grammar, story recall, to inferences, to predictions. During R-W-L Chapter Book Summaries, children listen to chapters in a chapter book and summarize what happened in the chapter. At the end of the 10 chapter book, they create a storyboard that summarizes the beginning, middle, and end of the book or they make a diagram that shows a comparison between the current chapter book and one that was read previously. During R-W-L Write About children listen to a non-fiction book about the theme and the write about that fact. During Make a Book they create their own version of familiar books.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.3a With prompting and support, write or dictate poems with rhyme and repetition.

Children write the narrative of the chapter during Read-Write-Learn Chapter Book Summaries. At the end of the book (10 chapters long), they create a storyboard that summarizes the beginning, middle, and end of the book or they make a diagram that shows a comparison between the current chapter book and one that was read previously. During Make a Book they create their own version of familiar books and by the end of these semester, this includes providing a narration of events. During Listening Center Writing Response, they write about the book that they listened to and write their opinion or preference about that book. During Science Observation Station children draw and write the results of science experiments and provide their thoughts about what happened.

PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF WRITING

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.4 (Begins in grade 3)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.5 With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

Teachers provide daily feedback on both the mechanics of writing (sound to symbol representation, detail of message, number of words, Level of Scaffolded Writing) as well as on the content (summarizes chapter, leaves out important details, etc.). The teacher will scaffold the child helping the child to see where details might be added to the drawing or to the writing. Children read their Chapter Book Summary, Center Plan, or any writing that they have done to a buddy every day. During Make a Book Story Sharing, children share the books that they made during literacy center block with a friend. Children are prompted to give feedback to the child author on: What was my favorite part, What I liked about your book, A connection I made with your book, and What was interesting.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.6 With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

Children produce Chapter Summaries, Fact Books, Science Journals, as well as make their own books. Teachers help children to produce class books made up of pieces of these writing products.

RESEARCH TO BUILD AND PRESENT KNOWLEDGE

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).

Read-Write-Learn Write About - Teachers guide and then as the year goes on, children take more responsibility for identifying areas related to the themes generated by the chapter books. Children engage in a class research project to find out background knowledge that will enable them to understand and dramatize the story. For example, one of the chapter books occurs on the Serengeti Desert, another happens during the Ice Age. To prepare for these stories, to make props and to decorate the room like the story, children are engaged in extensive background research. This information is written up in a theme Fact Book. These are the sole focus of one week of the reading cycle and then every day additional facts generated by the storyline of the chapter books emerge and become the topic for research and writing once a day.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.8 With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Read-Write-Learn Write About - Children engage in a class research to build background knowledge for the chapter book theme. They gather a number of resources, including computer websites as well as books. During the reading of the chapter book, many new questions are generated that the class researches.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.9 (Begins in grade 4)

RANGE OF READING AND LEVEL OF TEXT COMPLEXITY

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.10 (Begins in grade 3)