SECOND GRADE EXPLICIT OPINION, NARRATIVE, AND INFORMATIVE WRITING CURRICULUM

Are you ready to get stellar results through an explicit and systematic approach to writing instruction? Here's a year's worth of structured, standards-aligned 2nd-grade writing lessons, prompts, and activities for teaching opinion writing, informational writing, and personal narrative writing.

A beginning-of-the-year writing unit is also included to build strong foundational skills in your second graders starting on day one.

The best part? It's completely done for you - just click and teach

With this curriculum, we literally take your hand and walk you through, step-by-step, teaching writing every day of the year.

Teaching writing will seriously become the easiest, and most joyful, part of your day.

So say goodbye to teacher overwhelm and hello to your newfound confidence as an amazing teacher of writing.

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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!

Talk about a time saver!

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This 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'll 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)!

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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 – For the teacher to show the objective through thinking aloud and modeling. This is oftentimes 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.

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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 a closing sentence
• 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/revise 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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WHY EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION FOR WRITING?

It’s simple… IT WORKS!

Explicit instruction (also called direct instruction) works for all writers…not just the stronger ones. It’s a strategy that allows teachers to scaffold learning by giving structured, sequenced lessons targeting specific skills or standards. It’s teacher-led with a gradual release of responsibility to students. This method truly allows all students to succeed.

If you are thinking, that doesn’t sound like Writer’s Workshop, you’re right. It’s not. Years ago, we implemented Writer’s Workshop in our classrooms, but it didn’t work for us… or our students.

The biggest problem was that it was very difficult to manage and keep students on track. It was also a planning nightmare trying to find mini-lessons to match our students’ diverse needs. And to make matters worse, when we gave mini-lessons, students didn’t necessarily practice the targeted skill because they were at a different stage of the writing process.

We were disappointed, frustrated and knew we had to do something different.

We decided to put structure and intentionality into our teaching. We clearly state what students will be working on, give thoughtful instruction through modeling and discussion, and provide time to practice as we observe and guide. It is so simple to manage and gives students the support they need. The result? Students are now writing better than ever! This method truly works!

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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

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?

Yes! We have included a link to a Google Slides version in this resource.

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WHAT TEACHERS LIKE YOU 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

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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 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

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This is an absolutely fantastic writing curriculum! It really steps it up a notch and helps my second graders understand higher expectations of writing. I'm looking forward to your other units! -Sarah

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I love these writing units! They are the best ones I've used... and I've used a lot! The lessons are so easy to use and they make learning fun and easy. The lessons build on one another and include plenty of practice so that the kids will be able to write independently by the end of the unit. Thank you so much for making writing fun again! -Jannis

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Permission to copy for single classroom use only.

Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product.

Cindy & Becky

Team Primary Bliss Teaching