Units of Study. In Writing Workshops?!

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about units of study while reading Ray’s Chapter 12 in her book The Writing Workshop. I have always heard of unit plans and units studies in all other subject matters, but I have not had the experience of unit planning in a writer’s workshop period.

            Honestly, this semester has been my first experience of a writer’s workshop time period. I have really enjoyed getting engulfed in the material and watching the students work on their writing, and actually enjoy their writing. I never really understood writer’s workshop until this semester as I am placed in a first grade classroom.

            With that being said, I always get excited when a new approach to writer’s workshop emerges. With using a unit plan approach to writer’s workshop, I believe that the students can gain the most from the time that they are using for writing. By using a unit plan approach, the students can focus on one topic and fully engage in that topic that allows for growth. While reading, I thought a unit plan could be on nouns and verbs, but as I was reading, I realized that this was too small of a topic and would dead-end too fast. A unit plan should be one that the students can focus on for a time span of a few days to several weeks. Learning about this topic has opened my eyes to what a writer’s workshop could potentially look like in my future classroom. 

              On a different note, I noticed my first ever complaint of writing in my first grade classroom, and it was devastating! I was teaching a lesson on American Heroes and the students were really engaged in the book that I was reading. After the book, we talked about the person, and then they were to go back to their desks to create a page to go in their class book of what they had learned during the day from my lesson. The topic was broad, which I thought was good so I did not narrow any student into a certain topic, but it was also direct in who I wanted the students to write about. While I told them to go back to their desks, a few of the students responded, “Aw. I don’t want to write. I don’t like writing.” I think my face was priceless because I could not believe that the students were saying this! I approached the situation as I wanted the rest of the class to see their writing and to be able to read their writing in the class book, but I really did not know what else to say! Any suggestions?!