Writing Strategy In Action: Post-It Notes

A few weeks ago, I shared some writing strategies. Here is one of them in action. We used post-it notes to help construct and learn about letter writing.  What you need to know: This is a First Grade classroom. You can adapt this strategy to really any grade level and for any struggling writer. 

Click on the link for the video, scroll below for the lesson plan. 

Click here for short YouTube Video on Writing Strategies

Materials: 
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Large Post-It notes
A teacher model represntation of using post-it's

We read aloud the funny and rythmic book by Doreen Cronin, Click, Clack, Moo. The story is about cows who write letters to Farmer Brown. They are complaining of the conditions at the farm. The chickens and the duck become involved in the negotiations between Farmer Brown and the cows.

After reading the story, we look back at the letters. We take notes of how a letter is written:
salutation, body, closing.

The teacher then explains how we will be pretending to be a farm animal and we are going to ask Farmer Brown for something. The children were instructed to think of a farm animal, what that animal might need or want, why they need or want that item, and what would the animal do if Farmer Brown doesn't  provide the item. In the story, the cows threaten to not produce milk, and the hens threaten to not produce eggs. 

Next, the teacher models for the students. First, the teacher writes, the salutation on one post it. Then, the teacher takes a second Post-it and writes the introduction and so forth with the help of the students. Next, the children discussed their farm animal and their plea in the group. Then, the student's were released back to their desks with 6 Post-it notes to begin writing. The teacher and the assistant moved around the room guiding the students. Finally, when the notes were in order, and had been edited for COPS (Capitlization, Organization, Punctuation, Spelling) then the students were free to write their finaly copy.

Do you have an idea for using Post-it's in your classroom? Share below.

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