This is going to be a super quick post! I use Lucy Calkins Units of Study to teach writing, and I love it! (In fact, I'll have to write a separate post at another time outlining why I love it so much.) To make a long story short, I purchased both sets a few years ago to use with my kiddos after doing lots of research on writing programs, because my district doesn't have an official program at the moment. It has totally revolutionized the way I teach writing, the kids love it, and they write BEAUTIFULLY! This has caught the attention of my administration, which ultimately snowballed into the county office asking me to run a workshop this summer. I'm nervous, but excited to share. I have only ever used it with third graders, so I am curious about how others have used it at other levels. I can only speak from my point of view, and I am certainly not an expert!
I focus on personal narratives, essays, fiction, and then kind of go away from the framework to do wax museum biographies. I relied on the books a lot during the first year, but I generally use them as a resource when needed at this point. I have found ways to "make it my own" and tailor lessons to meet the specific needs of my classroom. Since I will be sharing my experiences with others who are unfamiliar with the curriculum, I would love to pick your brains! I'd love to hear what works for you!
My questions for all of the U of S teachers out there are:
1. What grade do you teach?
2. How have you adapted it to fit the needs of your students?
3. Do you have any favorite mentor texts?
4. Do you have any advice for my trainees?
5. Anything else you want to add?
I use it in 1st grade - love it, except that the lessons are really wordy. When I was first teaching it last year, I literally didn't have enough time to read through every lesson - I had to skim. My advice for new teachers without much time (like I was) is to skim and not feel bad. My favorite mentor text is A Chair for my Mother by Vera Williams- great way to narrow in on a small moment. And for my firsties, I don't have all the supplies in another area. I just put a self inking date stamp at each table and have to really train them how to change the date and that it is only for writing time. They get the hang of it quickly. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda!
ReplyDeleteI teach first grade and we've been using Lucy for 2 years now. It's a great writing framework and the growth is amazing! Not sure what you mean by "mentor texts"...During our small moment and many moments units we look at Angela Johnson's writing techniques. Right now we working on "How-To" books. I'm still a newbie myself...
I teach second grade and this is my third year of teaching writer's workshop. I just got back from a wonderful two day Lucy Calkins workshop yesterday. It was really great. They showed us some mini-lessons and even helped us map out the year. If you would like to know more about what they talked about i'll be glad to share.
ReplyDeleteStephie
stephie.mccumbee@cabarruscounty.k12.nc.us
I teach third grade but I've used Lucy in both third and fourth. I started off strong with Lucy then as I became more comfortable I took the pieces I found worked for me. I always use it to set up writer's workshop. I have found a little program that compliments Lucy and it is called the Writing Diner. I weave them together throughout the year and I really enjoy teaching like that.
ReplyDeleteI have all the books that go with the units because of a grant I received a few years back.
I save my chart papers through the years. I either refer to them to make a new one with the students or I actually use it again.
Where did you get the cute posters and such?
I would tell a new teacher to
1. plan ahead
2. keep your focus with the main points on your chart paper
3. Don't throw them out
4. keep the time down. It is very easy to go from a mini lesson to a monster one.
Julie
Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher
Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher
I teach 1st grade in East Tennessee and have been using Lucy Calkin's Units of Study for years. I love them also. Here is a link you might want to check out. There are Mentor Texts that are listed to use with different lessons.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/OrganizationUnitofStudybySandi.doc
Feel free to e-mail me with any questions chicks2@acs.ac
I teach Kindergarten and have been using Lucy for the past 5 years. We have always team taught with either the reading specialist or special ed teacher assigned to our grade level. I can't imagine doing writing workshop without the help of another person in kindergarten! I have also used the 3-6 program in 3rd grade for summer school and found it too complex for my students, so I would go back to the K-2 program with them. I usually use the mentor texts that Lucy suggests. Lucy has done wonders for our K writing program! I can't imagine not using it!
ReplyDeleteLove love love Calkins! I have only ever used it in K tho. To adapt my lessons I sometimes take a session and stretch it over several days (or weeks!). This way I know they are getting it. I also switch up the order of the books. I do the first three books, parts of The Craft of Revision, skip Authors as Mentors and move on to Nonfiction writing. We have just finished up with Nonfiction Writing. I plan on looking into Authors as Mentors and pulling out a few good lessons to hit. I also plan on revisiting several of my favorite lessons from the first three books until the end of the year. A good helper for me is to add sticky notes in as needed with my "story" on them. Remember: you don't always have to say everything in the lesson! Make it your own, but still stick to the basic idea from the heart of the lesson!
ReplyDeleteI too use Calkins. My district actually adopted it & custom made a Writing program for us with her materials. They bought us mentor texts & made us manuals with mini lessons & all. They created materials for K-5th but I only work with K & 1. If you are interested, drop me an email at msk1ell at gmail dot com. I can send you a list of the mentor texts we have & might even be able to make you a copy of some of our lessons.
ReplyDeleteFYI, my favorite mentor text is Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt.
Ms. M
www.msk1ell.blogspot.com
www.ateachersplan.blogspot.com
I have used Lucy for about 4 years. I teach K, so find that I use some of her stuff and have had to adapt some. I love it.. they get so excited! I usually use the Mentor texts, but have added some of my own. What helps me is to take a calendar and plan backwards from the date of the publishing party. There are so many things to get in each unit, so this helps me A LOT!
ReplyDeleteOoooh. I've never commented before but love the workshop model and couldn't resist!
ReplyDeleteI have taught 2nd and 3rd so I've done both sets of UofS. My district adopted them for K-5 and we all went to PD for the first year of implementation. It was once a month and that was really helpful. Maybe you could find a way to meet throughout the year or use your blog (or a wiki) to keep in touch? Or maybe they can form study groups at their individual schools? Continuous support is important so teachers don't falter and quit. Trying something new can be intimidating.
When my students enter 2nd grade they have already had teachers use the units in K and 1st. So, we've supplemented the lessons, modifying them to suit our needs. We also changed up some of the mentor texts. The first year this wasn't a problem but it will be after the first year. Salt Hands is a great mentor for Small Moments but hard to find. So is Shortcut. We also saved student writing samples each year so we could use these during minilessons too. Using student writing is very powerful. So I recommend saving/copying student writing along the way. The TC website has some writing samples for each unit, too.
For 3rd grade, we did Launching, Raising the Quality of PN, and Breathing Life into Essays (which we stretch out and go slowly with because it is their first time with this genre). We supplement our own units for the other genres we are required to teach in 3rd. We end the year by revisiting Raising the Quality in preparation for our state standardized test in the fall of 4th which emphasizes personal narratives.
I loved reading the lessons Calkins and the teachers from the Teacher's College wrote but they are wordy. I recommend highlighting and really reading the lessons. Yes, it takes time but it helped me be more purposeful and truly think through my lessons and the language and I use.
The first year will take the most work but the kids writing will be transformed if teachers teach with passion and voice. They need to be patient.
My last recommendation...sorry this is so long...is that teachers often place a lot of emphasis on the minilesson because they're so used to mega-lessons and this is a big shift. However, when I went to NYC for a TC Summer Institute in August, they really drove home how the minilesson is just a small part of a workshop. The majority of time is spent during independent writing when teachers confer and work in small groups. We need to focus on this time, too, not just planning minilessons. They really emphasized how conferring and supporting students in small group work will truly lift the levels of our students' writing. That was a big AhHa! moment for me!
Good luck! You'll be great!
Can you tell me where you found the target clipart that you used for your writing target anchor chart? We do learning targets and I would love to find it! Thanks!
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