ESL LONG-TERM PLAN: WRITERS WORKSHOP

COURSE OVERVIEW & TIMING

This section is designed to help you see the flow of your units/topics
across the entire school year.

Unit Unit Length

4 Weeks
Unit
Launching Writer’s Workshop (08/30 –
1:
09/24)
4 weeks
Unit
Small Moments: Writing Personal Narratives (09/27 -
2:
10/22)
4 weeks
Unit Writing for Readers: Using Conventions to
(10/25 –
3: Help our Audience
11/24)
4 weeks
Unit
Revising Our Work: Making the Good Better (11/29 -
4:
12/17)
4 weeks
Unit Authors as Mentors: Writing Like our
(01/03 –
5: Favorite Writers
01/28)
8 weeks
Unit
Nonfiction Writing: Procedures and Reports (01/31 –
6:
03/25)
4 weeks
Unit
Poetry Unit (03/28 –
7:
04/29)
4 weeks
Unit
Realistic Fiction (05/02 –
8:
05/27)
4 weeks
Unit
Writing for Many Purposes (05/31 –
9:
06/16)
 OVERALL COURSE TIMING
This section is designed to help you compare the number of available instructional
days/weeks to the number of days/weeks you have accounted for in your Long
Term Plan.

Course
Length
180
instructional
Total number of instructional weeks/days in school year:
days/40
weeks
Total number of instructional weeks/days for all units included in
40 weeks
Long Term Plan:
*Note: Be sure to account for all instructional days in the school year, including
those after end-of-year testing (if any).

UNIT 1: Launching Writer’s Workshop UNIT 1 LENGTH: 4

UNIT 1 STANDARDS
 • What does it mean to be an author?
• What are the rituals and structures of a successful writing
Essential workshop?
Questions • How do we think about topics to write about?
• How do we improve our writing through revision?
• How can we “grow” our ideas to extend our writing?

• SWBAT identify one person, place, or event from their own

lives to write or draw about and then draw or write as
much as they can about it.
• SWBAT demonstrate proper use of pencils, paper, writing
folders, and the proper procedures for finding, distributing,
and putting away the writing tools.
• SWBAT explain the importance of writing conferences and
Objectives/Tea demonstrate proper conduct during conference time.
ching Points • SWBAT extend their writing by adding details to their story
and continuing to write for more than one page.
• SWBAT identify a real-life writing project and practice
writing it (e.g.: a letter to a friend, a birthday card, a list of
directions)
• SWBAT revise one of their pieces to get ready to publish by
adding to pictures and words and making a cover page.

• Author, idea, revise, draft, edit, image, topic, detail

Vocabulary

• 1.EL.2. Write in complete sentences

• 1.LD-D.1. Follow agreed upon rules for discussion, including
DCPS Standards raising one’s hand, waiting one’s turn, speaking one at a
time, and listening politely to the ideas of others.
• 1.LD-Q.2. Listen attentively by facing the speaker
ELP 1: Trace, copy, or produce words about self using models
and pictures.
ELP 2: Make lists for varying purposes using models and
WIDA
pictures
MPIs
ELP 3: Relate personal facts (e.g., to a friend or parent) using
models and pictures.

UNIT 2: Small Moments: Writing Personal

UNIT 2 LENGTH: 4
Narratives

UNIT 2 STANDARDS
 • How do authors “stretch” “small moments” of their lives
into stories?
• How can rereading our work help us as writers?
• What do authors do to add important details to make a
story come alive?
Essential
• How do authors write with a “sense of story”?
Questions
• How do writers improve their writing through better focus,
detail, and sequencing?
• How can we improve our writing through hearing and
recording sounds, using known words, and taking risks with
spelling?

Objectives/
•
Teaching
Points
• focus, detail, sequence, small moments, narrative, narrator
Vocabulary

• 1.EL.2. Write in complete sentences

• 1.LD-Q.2. Listen attentively by facing the speaker
DCPS Standards • 1.LD-O.5. Retell stories using standard grammar rules,
sequencing story events by answering who, what, when,
how, and why questions.
ELP 1: Trace, copy, or produce words about self using models
and pictures.
ELP 2: Make lists for varying purposes using models and
pictures
WIDA
ELP 3: Relate personal facts (e.g., to a friend or parent) using
MPIs
models and pictures.

UNIT 3: Writing for Readers: Using

UNIT 3 LENGTH: 4
Conventions to Help our Audience

UNIT 3 STANDARDS
 • How can we make our writing more comprehensible
through writing conventions?
• What is the importance of spelling, punctuation, and space
Essential
in allowing our readers to understand what we’ve wrote?
Questions
• How can we use word strategies to help us improve our
writing?
• How can writing partners help us become better writers?

Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
• capitalization, punctuation, conventions, chunking
Vocabulary

• 1.BR-PC.1. Understand that spoken words are represented

in written English by sequences of letters.
• 1.BR-P.18. Recognize high frequency words and irregular
DCPS Standards
sight words.
• 1.EL.7. Capitalize the first word of a sentence, names of
people, and the pronoun “I.”
ELP 1:
ELP 2:
ELP 3:
WIDA
Note: This unit may be delayed if my assessments suggest
MPIs
that the majority of the students’ writing is incomprehensible,
This unit may be lengthened to scaffold for a gradual
introduction and practice of English conventional writing.

UNIT 4: Revising Our Work: Making the Good

UNIT 4 LENGTH: 4
Better

UNIT 4 STANDARDS
 • What is the writing process?
• How can we as authors best plan for revision?
• How do we make our writing better by showing, not telling?
Essential
• How can adding dialogue help add flavor to our work?
Questions
• What is an effective lead?
• How can we revise by changing the genre?

Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
• dialogue, process, lead
Vocabulary

• 1.EL.1. Recognize that the names of things also can be the

names of actions (fish, dream, run)
DCPS Standards • 1.LT-S.8. Identify words that the author selects in a literary
selection to create a graphic visual experience..
•
ELP 1:
ELP 2:
WIDA ELP 3:
MPIs

UNIT 5: Authors as Mentors: Writing Like our

UNIT 5 LENGTH: 4
Favorite Writers

UNIT 5 STANDARDS
• How can we improve our craft by studying the many works
of authors?
• What are central themes in other authors’ work, and how
Essential can we find a central theme in ours?
Questions • How many lessons in craft can we learn from one text?
• How might we write a “many moments” story?
• How can the writing of authors we love help instruct our
own writing?

Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
• ellipsis, dramatic tension, research, mentors, artifact,
Vocabulary blurb,
 • 1.EL.1. Recognize that the names of things also can be the
names of actions (fish, dream, run)
DCPS Standards • 1.LT-S.8. Identify words that the author selects in a literary
selection to create a graphic visual experience.

ELP 1:
ELP 2:
WIDA ELP 3:
MPIs

UNIT 6: Nonfiction Writing: Procedures and

UNIT 6 LENGTH: 8
Reports

UNIT 6 STANDARDS
• How do we write a “how-to” book?
• How do we check for clarity, sequence, and purpose?
• What are the features of an “All About book?”
Essential
• How do we write an “All About book?”
Questions
• How do we write “texts that teach?”
• How can we fix our writing by asking ”can this fit
somewhere else?”

Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
• nonfiction, clarity, directions, menu, step-by step,
Vocabulary informational text, table of contents, fact (vs. opinion)

• 1.IT-DP.4. Follow a set of written multi-step directions with

picture cues to assist.
• 1.LT-G.4. Identify differences between fiction and non-
DCPS Standards fiction and determine whether a literary selection is
realistic or fantasy.
• 1.R.1. Generate questions and gather information from
several sources in the classroom, school, or public library.
ELP 1:
ELP 2:
WIDA ELP 3:
MPIs
UNIT 7: Poetry Unit UNIT 7 LENGTH: 4
UNIT 7 STANDARDS
Essential
•
Questions
Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
•
Vocabulary

• 1.LD-O.6. Recite poems, rhymes, songs, and stories,

speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
DCPS Standards
• 1.LT-P.7. Identify a regular beat and similarities of sounds
in words in responding to rhythm and rhyme in poetry
ELP 1:
ELP 2:
WIDA ELP 3:
MPIs

UNIT 8: Realistic Fiction UNIT 8 LENGTH: 4

UNIT 8 STANDARDS
Essential
•
Questions
Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
•
Vocabulary

• 1.LT-G.4. Identify differences between fiction and non-

DCPS Standards fiction and determine whether a literary selection is
realistic or fantasy.
ELP 1:
ELP 2:
WIDA ELP 3:
MPIs
UNIT 9: Writing for Many Purposes UNIT 7 LENGTH: 4
UNIT 9 STANDARDS
Essential
•
Questions
Objectives/Tea •
ching Points
•
Vocabulary

• 1.EL.1. Recognize that the names of things also can be the

names of actions (fish, dream, run)
DCPS Standards • 1.LT-S.8. Identify words that the author selects in a literary
selection to create a graphic visual experience.

ELP 1:
ELP 2:
WIDA ELP 3:
MPIs