1 Dig Up Buried Stories
Writers Workshop Daily Plan
Ideas
1. Mini-Lesson Focus:
ELACC.1.W.3: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events,
including some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide
some sense of closure.
Dig Up Buried Stories.
Call students over to the meeting area. “All writers have to ask and
answer the question, What am I going to write about? Today I want you to try something that will help
you think of things you could write about. First, I want you to think of a special place, a place that has lots
of memories for you. It could be a house where you used to live, a vacation house that you might visit, or
your grandmother’s house.
Draw a map of a special place. The map will probably be rough. As you draw, you might mention
things that happened in various places. (This was my secret place under the bushes. This is where we
always had a big campfire. This is where I use to play in the creek.)
See what I am doing? Now I’d like you to do the same thing. You’ll need some blank paper. Make
a map of a special place. This isn’t a drawing contest-the idea is to get enough down to remind you of
things that happened in that place.”
Give students 7 minutes to make their maps. If certain students draw a blank after three or four
minutes you may want to confer with them.
“Okay, it looks like you’ve made a good start. On a pirate’s map, X marks the spot where you
might find buried treasure. But with the kind of map you are making, X marks the spot where your stories
are buried. That’s your job – to look for two or three places where you could put an X where something
happened that you could write about. Next to the X you may want to write a word or two to remind you of
what happened at the spot.”
Give students time to mark X’s on their maps. Have them choose one spot on the map to
describe to a partner.
“Now it’s time to write. You might decide to write the story you just told your partner. You might
pick something else on your map. You might decide to choose another topic altogether. What ever you
write about I want you to hang on to your map. I think you’ll find that it will work as a “bank” for other
ideas.”
2. Status of Class –
3. Student Writing/Teacher Conferring
4. Author Share:
Student
Teacher
Call students back to meeting area. Students should share some of the special places from their maps
Troup County Schools 2012
1st Grade Language Arts
2 Dig Up Buried Stories
Materials
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Time Frame
Sample special Place Map
Chart Paper and Markers
Be prepared to make a sample map of
a special place from your life
Writer’s Workshop
Reminder
Worksheets don’t create
writers. Writing creates
writers. You can use
worksheets every now and then
to reinforce a skill but students
become good writers by writing
often, on a variety of topics and
in a multitude of forms.
Mini-Lesson:
Status of Class:
Write/Confer:
Sharing:
Conferencing Tip
Most conferences should
end with the larger lesson.
One that can guide a writer
not just today with this
piece but any day, with any
piece.
Troup County Schools 2012
1st Grade Language Arts
15 minutes
5 minutes
25 minutes
5 minutes
Literature Connection
Captain Abdul's Pirate
School
by Colin McNaughton
How I Became a Pirate by
Melinda Long