Hello everyone! Bonus episode 2 is here for you to enjoy! It’s a full hour of workshop talk + we addressed a few questions you submitted.

Below are the questions we tackle in this one.

Thank you for supporting the show!

Alisha’s Question

I’d love to hear about how you start your 6 weeks units. Do they typically follow your curriculum? I teach 5th grade and so we cover narrative, informational, narrative again and then opinion. Typically all my mini lessons are teaching the steps to write these with a little bit of responsive teaching. Are your lessons more responsive driven or are you following your curriculum but teaching them as the needs arise in your classroom? Our district is a workshop district but they like us to stay within the units they’ve laid out for us. I have my students write the type of writing we are studying but with the topic of their choice. Thanks so much!!

Amy’s Question

My workshop model with my fourth graders sounds very aligned with Alisha’s in her 5th grade classroom. My first question is related to how you start a writing unit. Do you have routines with this? We are currently on a break and go back to school next Monday. I will be starting an opinion unit with my kids and would love to hear suggestions on how you would begin a writing piece in this specific genre. What are some questions you might ask your students to get buy in for choosing a meaningful topic (I stick to a unit for about 3-4 weeks with this age group in which they can choose any topic). What are some initial mini-lessons you might hit on?  I try to find an authentic audience for this; the principal, parents, superintendent, the mayor, etc. so that they feel like their voice will be heard.

The other topic I would like to hear more about at some point is regarding something Pam mentioned in a podcast (I don’t remember which one) where she had her kids put together a poetry anthology on a topic of their choice. How was this unit started? How many poems did they include? Was it a full 6-week unit, or a side project they worked on? Did you study different types of poems and then have the kids write in that poem style about their topic? I think this would be a fun unit in April to do for National Poetry month. Many thanks for all the professional development I get from you both!

** This episode is a rerun from 2022.

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