Studying Anchor Papers for Writing

This is always a powerful exercise, leaving my first grade writers more aware of their own writing "moves" and helping them become more engaged in the writing process. The quality of writing typically improves when we have these discussions around anchor papers. I highly recommend trying it out in your own classroom. You can gather up student samples OR (an idea I like even better) you can draft samples of your own. If you're writing your own, they need to align with your grade's, school's, or district's expectations for student achievement.

In this example, I wrote four different samples based on the same topic: Going to the beach and seeing a stingray. (I live in Florida. Everyone in Florida knows about stingrays, some personally...ouch.) Then, based on my district's criteria for this time of the year, I wrote four versions of varying strength. These four writing samples have become the inspiration for several lessons during our writing workshop this week. 

On Monday, I read each of the samples and teams of students were challenged to study the stories, discuss their thinking, and put the stories in order from weakest to strongest. (All but one team actually put them in the correct order. The group that didn't, only reversed samples 3 and 4.)

On Tuesday, I asked the same teams to study only samples 3 and 4, the two strongest samples. The challenge this day was discuss why the 4 was stronger than the 3. The students came up with amazing observations and, as a group, they discovered everything I hoped they would. I recorded some of their comments on sticky notes and we used sticky-note-arrows to highlight specific examples in the sample.

On Wednesday, we studied sample #1 and talked about why that sample was difficult to read and I asked, "What would make this writing stronger?" I loved it when one of my most fragile writers said, "If this writer tried Stretchy Snake or used the word wall, it would be easier to read. He's only using the first letter. You have to guess what it says." 

Brilliant observation, I thought.

So, tomorrow is only Thursday, but I'm already seeing the benefits of these three days of discussion. It started with an inquiry question: How do writers know if their stories are interesting and strong? It developed into a rubric the students can refer to when evaluating their own stories as we move through this narrative unit. A tool like a rubric can be a powerful parent-piece, too. It's very visual and can help parents see what meeting expectations and exceeding expectations look like.

If you need to save a little time, these anchor papers and rubric pieces are available here.👇 

👉 ANCHOR PAPERS SET

Your Turn:

What early writing lessons have you done with your children to help them monitor and self-assess their writing? 

Happy teaching!