Writing Curriculum Porposal

Writing Curriculum Proposal               

One of my goals each year is to improve my students writing skills.  When we discussed storytelling in our Brain and Behavior Summer Institute, I began to think about some of the successful strategies I have used in teaching the steps of the writing process and what else I could do to motivate my students.      

Goals:

1)     Beginning in September, the children will write daily in a journal  writing.  Since writing journals are no longer provided I will make and bind monthly writing journals. 

2)    The children will respond to literature and create different endings to stories.  (For example, after reading the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  We will create our own version.  Perhaps we’ll call it The Hungry Caterpillar’s Weight Gain Diet.)  

3)    The children will create class stories using items that I put into a beach bag.  Then we will make and bind our beach bag books.  

4)    The children will create L.A.W. (Learning About Writing ) journals using fun topics as story starters. Again, I will make and bind these journals. This activity will begin in late January. These stories will be completed at home and the good copy along with illustrations will be shared with the class on Fridays.  At first, the best writers will be invited to participate.  After a few weeks others usually ask if they may join and of course the answer is yes.  The last time I did this activity, my entire class participated (each week we had more eager writers joining the group).  They learned how to write for an audience and began using humor and delightful descriptions in their stories.  The students loved the positive responses from their fellow classmates and teacher when we shared what we liked about their story.   

5)    In April, each child will write an original story and to publish his/her story in our school’s publishing center.  After the books are published we will have an author’s celebration.   The past two years when we had our author’s celebration, the publishing center volunteers made three mini copies of the books and they sold the mini copies to the parents and their classmates.  The proceeds from the book sales were donated to a pre-selected charity.

  Material Needed: 

 GBC CombBind  C110 Plastic Comb Binding System            $159.00

GBC CombBind Plastic Binding Spines, White, ¼”                   $    4.59

GBC CombBind Plastic Binding Spines, Navy, ¼”                     $    4.59

GBC CombBind Plastic Binding Spines, Navy, 3/8”                  $     8.29

GBC CombBind Plastic Binding Spines, White, ½”                   $     4.59

Staples Copy Paper, 8 ½” x 11”, 3 reams                                  $    13.47

Staples Cover Stock 81/2 "x 11", 1 ream                                   $      8.68                                                                                                                           Total                                                                                                 $203.21

submitted by Cheryl Brown