I had the honor of working with the first-grade teacher, Mary Frisbee, at Seward Elementary.  Her students created a book about an animal of their choice.  Mrs. Frisbee used Step Up to Writing’s informal outline to help her students organize their writing.  When I attended the publishing party, I saw so many cool things…

Well-Organized Writing/Informal Outline

Student Excitement- I love this outline.  When I ask this student what he liked best about writing his own book, he said his outline.  He specifically said, “It makes me feel like a real author, and my teacher let me cross stuff out!”

When we explicitly teach vocabulary and utilize a word wall, students’ written vocabulary will increase drastically.  Below a first-grade student from Seward used the word substantial. “I’ve got a substantial amount of interesting facts about pandas.” Substantial was a “wow” word on Mrs. Frisbee’s word wall.

Creative Idea:  Mrs. Frisbee let the students select a decorative duct tape to bind the sides of their books together!