Kindergarten Interdisciplinary

Writing Unit

By Mary Boston, Michelle Chavarria, Mariah Elder

Georgia Writing Test

Section 20-2-281 of the Quality Basic Education Act, as amended in 1991, requires that writing assessments be administered to students in grades three, five, eight, and eleven. The State Writing Assessment Advisory Council assisted the Georgia Department of Education in developing the writing component of the student assessment program. The council, consisting of educators with expertise in the instruction of writing skills and writing assessment, is

made up of a Grades 3 and 5 Committee and a Grades 8 and 11 Committee. The goal of the Writing Assessment Advisory Council and the Department of Education was to create developmentally appropriate assessment procedures to enhance statewide instruction in the language arts. The statewide writing assessment serves the purpose of improving writing and writing instruction.

Developmental Writing Stages

Pre-commutative

• Use scribbles, letters, letter-like forms, numbers.

• Show no understanding of phoneme-grapheme (letter-sound) relationships.

• Show a preference for uppercase letters.

• Write from left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, or randomly on the page.

• Know that the print carries the message

Example of Pre-communicative

Semi-phonetic Spelling:

• Sometimes have not developed directionality: write from

left to right, top to bottom.• Use letters to represent sounds.• Use abbreviated 1, 2, 3 letter spellings; omit

some important letters in words.• Use letter-name strategy for spelling.

Example of Semi-phonetic Spelling

• Select letters on basis of sound alone.

• Spelling represents all essential sound features.

• Spelling is readable (more or less).

Phonetic Spelling:

Example of Phonetic Spelling

Transitional Spelling

• Include a vowel in each syllable.

• Apply many spelling rules; may overgeneralize.

• Spelling resembles English spelling.

• Spelling is easily read.

Example of Transitional Spelling

Correct Spelling

• Have internalized the alphabetic principle.• Have learned basic spelling words.• Spell words according to adult standards

Writers’ Workshop

Three Components of Writers’ Workshop

• Mini-lesson

• Work Session

• Author’s Chair

Mini-lesson

• 10-15 minutes• Daily• Whole group• Modeling/Practicing• Use a planning for instruction sheet

to plan mini-lessons based on writing standards

Work Session

• 35-40 minutes • Children have conferences with

teacher at least two times a year• Response groups

Authors’ Chair

• Children share their writing pieces• 2-3 Children share a day• Class asks questions or makes

comments• Questions and comments relate to

the standards

Organization of Writers’ Workshop

• Study one genre each grading period• Publish in each genre• Genres’ Studied: Narrative, functional

informational, Response to literature• Convention standards taught• Children have three folders: Work in

progress, accumulative, portfolio• Rubrics assess beginning, middle,

ending writing samples

The Writing Process

• Pre-writing- Gathering and organizing ideas

• Drafting- Getting ideas on paper

• Revising- Fixing up the content

• Editing- Fixing up grammatical errors

• Publishing- Sharing with others

NCEE Writing Standards for Resulting

Genres

Informing Others:Informational Writing

• Gather, collect and share information about a topic

• Maintain a focus-stay on topic• Exclude extraneous information

when prompted

Sharing Events, Telling Stories: Narrative Writing

• Contains a “story” that may be only a single event or several events loosely linked, which the author may react to, comment on, evaluate, sum up, or tie together

• Tell events as they move through time (control for chronological ordering)

• May include gestures, drawing, and/or intonations that support meaning

• May incorporate story book language (“and they lived happily ever after)

Getting Things Done: Functional Writing

• Tell someone what to do (i.e. give directions, send messages

• Explain things (i.e. why we do things)• Name or label objects and places

Informational Lesson

•Grade level-Kindergarten•Content Area- Social Studies•Assessment-See Rubric

 

Informational Lesson

• GPS- ELAKW1 The student begins to understand the principals of writing. A. Writes or dictates to describe familiar persons, places, objects, or experience. B. Uses drawings, letters, and phonetically spelled words to create meaning D. Uses left to right pattern of writing. E. Begins to use capitalization at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end of sentences.

• GPS- SSKH1 The student will identify the purpose of national holidays and describe the people or events celebrated E. Martin Luther King Jr.

Informational Prewriting Model

Informational Draft Model

Informational Revising and Editing Model

Informational Published Model

Narrative Lesson

• Grade level- Kindergarten• Content Area- Reading• Assessment-See Rubric

Narrative Lesson

• GPS- ELAKW1 The student begins to understand the principals of writing. A. Writes or dictates to describe familiar persons, places, objects, or experience. B. Uses drawings, letters, and phonetically spelled words to create meaning D. Uses left to right pattern of writing. E. Begins to use capitalization at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end of sentences.

• GPS- Gains meaning from orally presented text. Connects life experiences to read aloud text.

Narrative Prewriting Narrative Prewriting ModelModel

Narrative Draft Model

Narrative Revising and Editing Model

Narrative Publishing Model

Functional Lesson

• Grade level- Kindergarten• Content Area- Reading• Assessment-See Rubric

Functional Writing

• GPS- ELAKW1 The student begins to understand the principals of writing. A. Writes or dictates to describe familiar persons, places, objects, or experience. B. Uses drawings, letters, and phonetically spelled words to create meaning D. Uses left to right pattern of writing. E. Begins to use capitalization at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end of sentences.

• GPS- Gains meaning from orally presented text. Connects life experiences to read aloud text.

Functional Prewriting Model

Functional Draft Model

Functional Revising and Editing Model

Functional Published Model

4 3 2 1

Prewriting Included at least four facts on the graphic organizer

Included at least three facts on the graphic organizer

Included at least two facts on the graphic organizer

Included at least one facts on the graphic organizer

Drafting Used at least four ideas from the graphic organizer in draft.

Used at least three ideas from the graphic organizer in draft.

Used at least two ideas from the graphic organizer in draft.

Used at least one idea from the graphic organizer in draft.

Revising Made all needed revisions

Made most needed revisions

Made some needed revisions

Made few or none of the needed revisions

Editing Made all needed corrections

Made most needed corrections

Made some of the needed corrections

Made few or none of the needed corrections

Publishing Published paper reflected all revisions and corrections

Published paper reflected most revisions and corrections

Published paper reflected some revisions and corrections

Published paper reflected few or none of the revisions and corrections

Our Scoring Guide

References

• Root,T. Writing Methods. Retrieved June, 2005 from, http://coefaculty.valdosta.edu/troot/read714/writing_methods.htm

• Department of Education. Writing Assessments. Retrieved June, 2005 from, http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/curriculum/testing/writing.asp

• NCEE. (1999). Reading & writing grade by grade: Primary literacy standards for kindergarten through third grade. New York: National Center on Education & the Economy.