SECOND GRADE STRUCTURED WRITING CURRICULUM for Opinion Narrative and Informative

This completely done-for-you writing curriculum includes a year’s worth of second-grade writing lessons and activities for teaching opinion writing, informational writing, personal narrative writing, and beginning-of-the-year writing skills in second grade.

 

With this resource, we literally take your hand and walk you through, step-by-step, teaching writing every day of the year. Teaching writing will become the easiest, and most joyful, part of your day.

 

This yearlong writing curriculum includes 160 digital step-by-step lesson plans, all the blackline masters you’ll need, colorful posters, experiences for students to write about, ebooks, and daily step-by-step directions to make your teacher’s life as stress-free as possible.

 

We are talking NO PREP for opinion, informative, and beginning-of-the-year writing units and minimal prep for personal narrative writing. Each unit will take no more than 5 minutes of planning each day! It’s true!

 

This Common Core Standards Aligned resource sets ALL learners up to become confident, successful writers. It’s written in an organized, systematic format that helps students gradually learn how to write interesting sentences, opinion papers, informative papers, and personal narratives. You will LOVE how easy it is to implement.

 

A unique feature of this writing curriculum is that it includes eBooks and common experiences for background building so all students have something to write about. We are thrilled to say, ALL the resources you need are included in this unit (except for a few supplies needed for the personal narrative unit)!

 

Grab this Virtually No Prep, Stress-Free, and Effective DIGITAL second-grade yearlong writing curriculum TODAY!

 

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THIS RESOURCE?

 

160 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 keep students laser-focused on the objective of 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

 

· Watch Me Slides – The teacher can show the objective through thinking aloud and modeling. This is often interactive to keep student engagement high.

 

· Our Turn Slides – For students to practice the new skill with you.

 

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

 

PRINTABLE PAGES – After each writing skill has been explicitly taught and practiced, students are held responsible for their learning by engaging in a writing assignment aligned to the day’s learning target. Extra generic, printable pages are included in the Opinion, Informative, and Personal Narrative units 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. These easy-to-use checklists help you remember who is meeting targeted standards and who needs extra help. These checklists are helpful tools to refer to when planning for parent-teacher conferences.

 

WRITING RUBRICS – Each unit includes a writing rubric that is perfect for grading and discussing goals and progress with students and parents.

 

POSTERS – Each unit contains a set of posters to display in your classroom for students to refer to. There is a total of 80 posters.

 

 

HERE IS A GLIMPSE OF THE FOCUS FOR EACH UNIT:

 

Building the Foundation – Each Week’s WRITING FOCUS

• WEEK 1 – Write complete sentences with a subject and predicate
• WEEK 2 – Write statements, questions, and exclamatory sentences
• WEEK 3 – Recall information from experiences or gather information to write answers to questions
• WEEK 4 – Write expanded sentences by adding a when, where, why, and/or what
• WEEK 5 – Write expanded sentences by adding adjectives and adverbs
• WEEK 6 – Identify parts of a paragraph & complete unfinished paragraphs
• WEEK 7 – Write paragraphs with a topic sentence, interesting details, and closing sentences
• WEEK 8 – Edit and revise their own writing & be introduced to peer editing

 

Information Writing – Each Week’s Writing Focus

• WEEK 1 – Identify and write facts and opinions
• WEEK 2 – Note-taking, idea webs, and writing factual sentences
• WEEK 3 – Topic sentences, closing, sentences, and elaboration
• WEEK 4 – Create an informative writing piece
• WEEK 5 – Create an informative writing piece
• WEEK 6 – Create an informative writing piece/revise and edit
• WEEK 7 – Create an informative writing piece/revise and edit
• WEEK 8 – Create an informative writing piece/peer revise and edit

 

Opinion Writing – Each week’s writing focus

• WEEK 1 – Facts, opinions, and reasons
• WEEK 2 – Opinion statement, reasons with linking words, & concluding statement
• WEEK 3 – Elaborate on reasons by providing examples and evidence
• WEEK 4 – Revise and edit writing
• WEEK 5 – Write opinion pieces about books/revise and edit
• WEEK 6 – Practice opinion writing/revising and edit
• WEEK 7 – Practice opinion writing/peer revision and editing
• WEEK 8 – Practice opinion writing

 

Personal Narrative Writing:

• WEEK 1 – Features of a personal narrative
• WEEK 2 – With guidance, use a story plan to write a class personal narrative
• WEEK 3 – Write a personal narrative; begin to revise and edit
• WEEK 4 – Zoom in on a smaller moment; describe actions to strengthen writing
• WEEK 5 – Describe actions and feelings to strengthen writing; introduce dialogue
• WEEK 6 – Write a personal narrative that begins with a story hook
• WEEK 7 – Include adjectives and adverbs in a personal narrative
• WEEK 8 – Write a personal narrative/peer revise and edit

 

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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING THIS WRITING RESOURCE?

 

• The entry point for each writing unit is assessable to all learners.

 

• Lessons are carefully and thoughtfully scaffolded, ensuring success for all.

 

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

 

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

 

• Experiences and background information is brought to students to ensure ALL students have something to write about.

 

• At the completion of these units, your students will be confident, successful writers of opinion, informative, and personal narrative papers.

 

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WHO IS THE RESOURCE FOR?

 

• Second-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 beginning sentences, opinion writing, informative writing, and personal narrative writing using a direct instruction approach.

 

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

Is this resource aligned to the Common Core State Standards?

Yes! We built this whole resource around the Common Core State Standards for second grade.

 

Do students complete a writing assignment each day?

Yes, students engage in a writing activity each day. The assignments are highly engaging and help hold students accountable for their learning.

 

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?

Technically, yes. Because the digital lessons are made in PowerPoint, they can easily be converted to Google Slides and lesson slides can be pushed out to students. However, we don’t feel this is the best way to utilize this resource. (See next section for further clarification.) Also, the individual student pages are not compatible with Google.

 

How can I use this resource for Distance Learning?

If you are engaging in Distance Learning, we highly recommend creating videos for your students using something like ScreenCastify or using an online meeting format such as Zoom. The lessons need to be taught prior to students engaging in the writing activities. In regard to the student writing pages, just print out the unit and give it to parents. If you are unable to do so, almost all activities can be done in a notebook on plain paper.

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What other teachers are saying:

 

• This is hands-down the best writing resource I have used. It has been a complete game-changer in my classroom. The stress of planning and teaching writing is gone and my students LOVE writing time! Thank you so much! – Kimberly

 

• I love the explicit writing instruction and how the skills build on each other. Perfect for 2nd grade! – A. O.

 

• LOVE THIS RESOURCE! I feel like I am actually being productive while teaching writing this year and I can see a HUGE difference in my students’ skills! Writing has been one of my struggles and this has been a game-changer! I love it so much that I convinced my team to give it a try as well as the 1st-grade team to grab a copy of the 1st-grade writing unit! CAN’T WAIT for the rest of the 2nd grade to be ready! I am also excited to see how next year goes after having first grade go through their version of the writing program this year (yay vertical teaming)!!! – Erin

 

• Thank you, thank you, thank you! I absolutely LOVE how engaging and user-friendly this is! Everything I need is already there! – Teresa