Writing a Recount in First Grade
Empowering Students by Scaffolding a Well-Planned Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Ages:
5-9
Grade Range:
1st 2nd 3rdFood Groups:
Primary: Writing Processes & Strategies, Text Structures & Genres Secondary: Classroom Tips, Motivation for Literacy
Transcript
When we get to the point where my students are ready to do full pieces of writing, we start studying forms of writing. Recount is one of them, or one of the first ones we do. I teach them a structure that contains title, orientation, sequence of events, and personal comment. This is very important because for a First Grade student, who is not used to writing a whole page about something. This gives them a sense of what I'm going to do with the title, and then I move on to the next section, which this is what I have to have in that section. Once I'm done, I'm going to work on the next section which is the sequence of events where I have to use certain key words such as first, next, after that, and finally. That allows them to organize their thinking and their writing. At the end, a personal comment, which is a way of saying how they feel about the events that took place. Here is an example of me showcasing their work. They go through a whole process of editing. Here we show the good copy, the last version of their writing process. As you can see, I have the title, the description of the activity, and the success criteria that was used by them to know that they had done a good job. Here is the good copy that they were able to print and write, with the title and all the different parts of the recount. This looks really good; formal spelling is there, all the parts of the recount that we're expecting are there. Once they're done with that, they go to the computer lab and they get to type the whole thing and see what it looks like from a computer. Having these displayed here in the hallway, they love that because they feel that everybody that is passing by is going to read their writing piece and they are very proud about that. Their parents love this because it's the first time they get to see their child writing a whole page about something that makes sense, that is all connected, and has a structure. It takes a lot of time to get to this point. But once they have done this one, then we move to another form of writing, like description or narrative, or procedural writing. Then it gets much easier and easier for them to get to the final copy without going through many revisions and editing. By the end of First Grade, they are able to write a whole piece about. They have an idea of how to do it following a certain structure.
Related References
Additional Links:
Reading Rockets: Revision in the Writing Process http://www.readingrockets.org/article/revision-writing-process Reading Rockets: Story Sequence http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/story_sequence
Activity Objective
The goal of Writing a Recount in First Grade: Empowering Students by Scaffolding a Well-Planned Writing Process (Virtual Tour) is to teach students to organize their writing and to work through the writing process to create a finished piece. Students organize by title, orientation, sequence of events, and personal comments. The teacher displays the final version of the work in the hallway to showcase their writing, instilling a sense of pride in students and parents alike.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Tell your students that their final drafts will be posted in the hallway so they pay close attention to their work. - Posting student work in the hallway allows other students to engage with the class material and offers students a chance to discuss their story with a new audience.
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What are We Doing in Class Today?: Motivating Beginning Readers with a Daily Schedule (Virtual Tour)
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Literacy CAFE in First Grade: Fostering Independence using a Menu of Strategies (Virtual Tour)
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The Daily 5 in First Grade: Engaging Students with a Balanced Literacy Approach (Virtual Tour)
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Predicting and Inferring: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies using an Explicit Framework (Virtual Tour)
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Revising and Editing in First Grade: Using Success Criteria to Focus the Writing Process (Virtual Tour)
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