FIRST GRADE EXPLICIT PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING CURRICULUM WITH PROMPTS

Are you ready to get stellar results through an explicit and systematic approach to writing instruction? This 1st-grade structured personal narrative writing unit contains all the lessons, prompts, and activities you'll need.

With this curriculum, we literally take your hand and walk you through, step-by-step, teaching personal narrative writing.

Teaching writing will seriously become the easiest, and most joyful, part of your day.

So get ready to say goodbye to teacher overwhelm and hello to your newfound confidence as an amazing teacher of writing.

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Additionally, with this curriculum, you will never hear your students utter the dreaded words, "I don't know what to write about."

Why? Because this curriculum is experience-based.

Students will engage in common experiences and then write personalized stories about their experiences. This ensures ALL students have something to write about.

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This Standards Aligned resource includes digital, daily lesson plans, all the blackline masters you'll need, experience ideas with directions and resources, assessment tools, and colorful posters to make your teacher's life as stress-free as possible.

This curriculum sets ALL learners up for success. It's written in an organized, systematic format that helps students gradually learn how to write personal narrative papers. You will LOVE how easy it is to implement.

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WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY ABOUT TEACHING WRITING?

While there is a massive amount of research on best practice in reading, that is not the case with writing.

A few books we recommend you read if you want to learn more about best practice in writing instruction using evidence-based strategies are:

• The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler
• The Writing Rope by Joan Sedita
• Best Practices in Writing Instruction by Steve Graham, Charles A MacArthur, and Michael Hebert

What we do know is that writing is an extremely complex skill that requires time and solid instruction. (Graham et al., 2012)

Additionally...

• Writing should be taught systematically and explicitly
• Writing instruction should be carefully scaffolded

Our curriculums provide teachers with DAILY scripted lessons that are explicit, systematic, and scaffolded. Students are so successful because of the gradual release of responsibility, explicit instruction, and daily writing practice where they implement the use of skills taught.

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WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THIS RESOURCE?

40 DIGITAL LESSON PLANS – No need to search for your lesson plans or spend an enormous amount of time reading them each day. We have them right on the slides - making your teaching life stress-free.

Digital Lessons Include:

• “I Will” Statements – To focus students' attention on what they will be doing for the day. We use “I will” statements instead of “I can” statements as they hold the students more accountable.

• Writing Chats – To introduce topics and build background information and vocabulary.
  
• Experience Ideas & Directions – To engage students in an experience that will ensure EVERY student has a story to write.
  
• Watch Me Slides – For the teacher to show the objective through thinking aloud and modeling. This is oftentimes interactive to keep student engagement high.

• Our Turn Slides – For students to practice the new skill or standard with you.

• Your Turn Slides – For students to independently practice the skill learned.

60 PRINTABLE PAGES – Each day students complete a story plan, writing page, or skill activity page. Extra printable planning and writing pages have been included to offer you quick and easy resources to differentiate assignments for your students.

OBSERVATION CHECKLISTS – Great for formative assessment! As you walk around and observe students, record your findings. This easy-to-use checklist helps you remember who is meeting targeted standards and who needs extra help. This is a helpful tool to refer to when planning for parent-teacher conferences.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING RUBRIC – This handy resource is perfect for grading personal narrative papers and discussing goals and progress with students and parents.

POSTERS - Set of 10 personal narrative writing posters to display in your classroom.

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HERE IS A GLIMPSE OF THE FOCUS FOR EACH WEEK

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 1 – Exposure to features of a personal narrative (what a personal narrative is; beginning/middle/end; temporal words; closure)

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 2 – Together, make a story plan for a class personal narrative (Quick Sketch)

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 3 – Together, make and use a story plan to write a class personal narrative (lesson on adding details)

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 4 – After teacher modeling, write a personal narrative with details (specific actions the character does, feelings, adjectives)

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 5 – Make a story plan and write a personal narrative with details

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 6 – Make a story plan and write a personal narrative with details

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 7 – Make a story plan and write a personal narrative with details

• WRITING FOCUS WEEK 8 – Make a story plan and write a personal narrative with details

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WHY EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR WRITING?

It’s simple… IT WORKS!

Explicit instruction (also called direct instruction) works for all writers…not just the stronger ones. It’s a strategy that allows teachers to scaffold learning by giving structured, sequenced lessons targeting specific skills or standards. It’s teacher-led with a gradual release of responsibility to students. This method truly allows all students to succeed.

If you are thinking, that doesn’t sound like Writer’s Workshop, you’re right. It’s not. Years ago, we implemented Writer’s Workshop in our classrooms, but it didn’t work for us… or our students.

The biggest problem was that it was very difficult to manage and keep students on track. It was also a planning nightmare trying to find mini-lessons to match our students’ diverse needs. And to make matters worse, when we gave mini-lessons students didn’t necessarily practice the targeted skill because they were at a different stage of the writing process.

We were disappointed, frustrated and knew we had to do something different.

We decided to put structure and intentionality into our teaching. We clearly state what students will be working on, give thoughtful instruction through modeling and discussion, and provide time to practice as we observe and guide. It is so simple to manage and gives students the support they need.

The result? Students are now writing better than we've ever seen! This method truly works!

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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING THIS STRUCTURED WRITING RESOURCE?

❤️ All students have something to write about because it's experience-based.

❤️ The entry point for this unit is accessible to all learners.

❤️ The lessons and thoughtfully scaffolded, ensuring success for all.

❤️ The Watch Me, Our Turn, Your Turn format sets your first-grade writers up for success.

❤️ Your students will be highly engaged and motivated to write.

❤️ At the completion of this unit, your students will be confidently writing personal narrative papers with ease.

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WHO IS THE RESOURCE FOR?

• First-grade teachers looking for a strong, yet easy to implement, writing curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and fun for kids.

• Special Education Teachers who need to teach students the basics of personal narrative writing using a direct instruction approach.

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WHAT TEACHERS LIKE YOU ARE SAYING

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"This writing curriculum came highly recommended in multiple teachers' Facebook groups. I’m SO glad I purchased it! It’s super easy to follow and my students are quickly becoming more skilled writers!" -Adrianne

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"My students and I are in the midst of this unit now and we are LOVING it! We just completed the Move It experience and the writing for that activity. I love how structured and thoroughly planned out this writing unit is. It is perfect for first graders who need that structured writing instruction. In addition to your informational unit, this has been one of my favorite purchases! Thank you for your hard work!" -Belle

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I love all your units. I love how easy and engaging the lessons are. This resource has made teaching writing easy, fun and engaging. Teaching writing has easily become one of my favorite subjects to teach instead of one of my least favorite. -K.B.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Do students complete a writing assignment each day?

Yes, students complete a story plan, writing page, or skill activity page each day.

Does this follow a Writers’ Workshop model?

No. Students are explicitly taught a writing skill each day, then they practice the skill taught.

Can this be used with Google Slides?

Yes! We have included a link to a Google Slides version in this resource.

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HERE ARE SOME OTHER WRITING CURRICULUMS YOU'LL LOVE!

FIRST GRADE WRITING UNIT- BUILDING THE FOUNDATION

FIRST-GRADE OPINION WRITING UNIT

FIRST-GRADE INFORMATIVE WRITING UNIT

FIRST GRADE YEARLONG WRITING CURRICULUM

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Permission to copy for single classroom use only.

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Becky & Cindy

Team Primary Bliss Teaching