When a child has a story to tell or an idea to share, they are already an author. Ventana’s writing program teaches students the skills necessary to communicate effectively and to tailor their writing to suit varied purposes.
Students practice writing in multiple genres, including narrative, informational, reflective pieces, and opinion writing. We incorporate cycles of writing that begin with capturing an idea, refining it, making final edits, and publishing. This structure is used with the different types of writing learned and practiced throughout the year, and students will take most of their writing through these steps as they refine their skills. Students are taught effective ways to give and receive feedback on written work, and practice the mindset that constructive feedback can be a great gift.
The outcome of Ventana’s writing program is students who recognize writing’s value both as a means of communicating ideas and also as an expressive art form. They have discovered their own personal writing process and are able to utilize a series of tools and strategies while maintaining their unique writing voice. They understand the utility of writing but have also developed an appreciation for the beauty of the written word.
Fiction Writing
“Let’s pretend…” is a common refrain heard during children’s play, and Ventana’s writing program helps students understand the connections between their imaginative play and more structured written stories. In kindergarten and the first semester of first grade, we call this time “Story Workshop.” The purpose of the Story Workshop is to help students see the connections between the stories they tell when they play and the practice of writing stories. Students use materials to create stories and then transfer them into written pieces. The balance between play and writing changes as students move through these grades.
Starting in the second semester of first grade through fifth grade, students have transitioned out of the Story Workshop model into a Writer’s Workshop approach. Students use a variety of tools to brainstorm story ideas and to shape those ideas into coherent narratives. Photography, drama, and other artistic mediums are used to help students ground their narrative writing in observation. Teachers utilize “mentor texts” to illustrate the craft of writing, inviting students to study and reflect on what they notice about how an author uses language to convey an idea, an emotion, or an experience through their writing.
Nonfiction Writing
From kindergarten to fifth grade, students explore the various genres of nonfiction writing. As students grow, they learn about increasingly varied and complex structures for communicating facts and ideas. Students practice technical and instructional writing, opinion writing, reflective writing, and multiple varieties of essay writing. They learn how to analyze the value of their resources, extract and cite needed information, and use collected information to build ideas and construct meaning. Throughout the grades they develop the organizational skills to communicate increasingly complex ideas to with chosen audiences.
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During Story Workshop, children are given opportunities to play with materials and use the arts to allow the images contained in their stories to come alive. Children use materials and arts throughout the process of writing to brainstorm ideas, revisit, revise, add details, and finally publish a piece of writing. One-on-one conversations focus on skills appropriate to bring clarity and the appropriate writing conventions to their piece of writing. The Author’s Chair is used to share pieces of work with each other, giving young authors valuable feedback to make their writing more coherent and widely appealing. Students also have the opportunity to practice nonfiction writing by creating books that explain a topic they know well. In kindergarten, students learn or refine pencil grip, letter formation, and basic concepts of print.
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In the first half of first grade, we use a Story Workshop model to support writing development. During Story Workshop time, children can play with materials and use the arts to let the images in their stories come alive. Children use materials and arts throughout the writing process to brainstorm ideas, revisit, revise, add details, and finally publish a piece of writing.
In the second half of first grade, we transition students to a Writer’s Workshop model, where students are introduced to prewriting brainstorming strategies using pencil and paper to capture their written expression. Specifically, we focus on a five-step writing process that includes capturing an idea, transferring that idea to a draft, revising, editing, and finally publishing the story by rewriting to include all edits and revisions. Finally, the Author’s Chair is used to share pieces of work, giving young authors valuable feedback to make their writing more coherent for intended audiences. In first grade, students refine their printing with a greater focus on consistent sizing and spacing.
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In second grade, students have varied opportunities to allow creativity and stretch themselves as authors. They are taught how to expand upon their written expression. They utilize a variety of prewriting strategies to generate ideas, and then practice organization strategies for both creative fiction and nonfiction. Instruction in creative prose focuses on developing stories with rising and falling tension, including sensory details to descriptive passages, and using character and setting characteristics to develop their plots. Students are guided through formal research writing, where they collect sources and do research on a specific topic. Once they have gathered enough information, they write a formal nonfiction piece, complete with an introduction, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. Students in second grade learn cursive writing.
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Third grade introduces a greater focus on research and pre-writing organizational strategies for creative fiction and nonfiction essay writing. Students learn to collect ideas, descriptive details, and evidence from a variety of sources to support and broaden their written expression. They develop their understanding of the shades of meaning between different words, enabling them to make specific vocabulary choices and utilize more complex transition words that show connections between ideas.
Third graders engage in an in-depth research project that culminates in a final piece that utilizes basic essay structure. They conduct research, and take notes, for the purpose of writing about a topic, developing their ideas by providing facts, definitions, and details. In narrative fiction writing, third graders are crafting longer stories with plots that have more complex problems and solutions, while maintaining clear event sequences. They introduce more complex problems in their narrative writing and use dialogue and descriptions of actions and thoughts to develop more dynamic characters. Students in third grade learn basic keyboarding skills and work towards touch typing proficiency.
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In fourth grade, increased importance is placed on detailed descriptions and the specificity of language that allows the writer to convey meaning precisely. In narrative fiction, fourth graders craft more complex narrative stories that require a greater focus on perspective and sequencing. Students are taught to develop more nuanced characters and create problems for those characters that allow them to have an emotional journey through the arc of the story. They use dialogue, internal monologue, and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations. There is a particular focus on incorporating figurative and sensory language, and increasing specificity in descriptions of small details, such as facial expressions, that help a reader make inferences about characters. In other words, students are expected to “show,” not “tell.”
In informational writing, fourth graders craft research essays and persuasive essays, developing a deeper understanding of these structures. There is greater emphasis put on fully developing ideas and utilizing specific evidence to support assertions. Students learn to provide a mixture of facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples to support their thinking. They conduct in-depth research and take detailed notes, then use various strategies to organize their thinking and craft a structured thesis statement. In fourth grade, students learn to adopt a more formal, academic tone in their writing, but also routinely practice more informal reflective writing for personal reflection and broader analysis.
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Fifth-grade writing focuses heavily on organization. As students prepare for middle school, they need multiple strategies for organizing their ideas and lots of practice! In both narrative and informational writing, there is an increased importance placed on logical organization and using transitional words and phrases to help orient a reader.
In narrative writing, fifth graders craft characters who are more nuanced and will put those characters in situations that instigate an emotional journey. They learn about “high stakes” and “low stakes” scenarios, how to ramp up tension in their stories, and how to develop a satisfying conclusion to a story that demonstrates the growth of a character. Students also practice including more sophisticated details in their writing; details that allow a reader to infer meaning. They explore ways to utilize figurative language to convey specific meaning, tone, or mood, and work on developing “flow” in their writing.
In informational writing, fifth graders learn how to apply organizational structures that help them convey their ideas clearly and practice using transitional words and phrases to show the relationship between categories, concepts, and ideas. Building on their previous learning, they refine their application of standard essay structure and explore alternative structures that can be applied for specific purposes. There is greater emphasis placed on objective analysis and the consistent application of a formal, academic tone. Fifth graders practice multiple styles of informational writing, including research and persuasive essays. They also have many opportunities to write reflective and personal opinion pieces. In all styles of informational writing, students learn how to use supporting evidence effectively, quote from a text accurately, and cite sources appropriately.
