by newschoolsyr | Jun 16, 2025 | grade 1, grade 2, language arts, writing workshop
Small Moments is a personal narrative writing unit from Lucy Calkins. Students were asked to think of a small moment in their life they could stretch into a detailed and structured story. These young writers began with brainstorming before writing a draft, revising,...
by newschoolsyr | May 26, 2023 | 2022-2023, grade 1, Kindergarten, Kindergarten and 1st grade, language arts, Uncategorized, writing workshop, youngest students
Children in Kindergarten and First Grade participated in a writing class this spring where they “played” with words and pictures. They worked on rhyming, fact & opinion and writing descriptive sentences. Here are some examples of their...
by newschoolsyr | May 30, 2021 | 2020-2021, grades 6-8, language arts, writing workshop
A group of our six older students were part of a poetry class inspired by Amanda Gorman’s spectacular presentation of “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. Gorman’s poem provided a natural extension for our year-long study of...
by newschoolsyr | May 29, 2021 | 2020-2021, Cortland Student Teacher, grade 4, grade 5, grades 4 - 6, language arts, writing workshop
From about mid-March to mid-April Misha, Sam, RJ, Stuart, and Jiyong participated in a short story unit where they further developed their writing skills and critically examined the parts of a short story and learned how to write one themselves. The unit started off...
by newschoolsyr | May 14, 2021 | 2020-2021, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, Kindergarten, writing workshop
Lucy Calkins inspired a poetry unit for our students in grades K-3. Starting in May, each week of this unit inspires children to consider a new “ingredient” or strategy. The unit began with experimenting with looking at ordinary things in a new way. Subsequent classes...
by newschoolsyr | Jan 18, 2021 | 2020-2021, affective education, grades 7-8, language arts, writing workshop
A group of older students studied speech writing in a 5-session, online class. We listened to speeches written by Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, and watched Martin Luther King deliver his “I have a dream” speech. We also discussed techniques...
