Scope and Sequence for Writing Instruction

For several years I have been looking for a scope and sequence for teaching writing, specifically for a first grade classroom. Unfortunately, I have come up with next to nothing. I have found developmental guides that show the progession from writing scribbles to representing ideas in words, but nothing that suggests how a year of writing should look in the classroom.

When I was teaching first grade, I implemented a modified Writers Workshop in my classroom. I worked with diverse learners (at one time I had 7 English Language Learners in my classroom speaking 4 different languages) and had multiple classroom management issues. Besides the challenges of working with young children (short attention spans, limited life experiences from which to draw, physical difficulty in forming letters), I had students in special ed, students taking first grade for the second time, students with ADD and ADHD, and students with a wide variety of home situations. I did not feel like a Writers Workshop in which students had complete control over their topics, genres, and revision process would be successful in my classroom. So we did more of a Guided Writers Workshop, where I taught mini-lessons and presented many teacher demonstrations and shared writing lessons, and then students were given an opportunity to write on a topic or in the genre of my choice. During their independent writing time, I would walk around and provide scaffolding for students as needed (writing for those who were in the "tracing" phase, encouraging more advanced writers to elaborate, etc.). We always celebrated each other's writing at the end of our writing time. Sometimes we took our writing through the entire writing process, but many times we did not. Students were free to explore topics and genres of their choice during their journal writing time (their entry task each morning), and often I was pleased to see them experimenting with what they had learned in our more formal writing lessons.

Because I chose the mentor text, topic, or genre for the day/week/month, I was able to come up with my own scope and sequence for the year:

First Trimester
Generating Ideas for Writing (2 weeks)
Basics of Writing (6 wks)
Narrative Writing I (5 wks)

Second Trimester
Expository Writing (6 wks)
Retell (4 wks)
Generating Ideas for Writing (1 wk)
Friendly Letter (2 wks)

Third Trimester
Research Report (3 wks)
Narrative Writing II & the Writing Process (5 wks)
Poetry (4 wks)
How-To Writing (1 wk)

I used this outline in combination with a skills-based sequence (My Integration of the Six Traits) to help organize my teaching. It is vague enough to allow for varying mentor texts, author studies, and across-the-curriculum links, yet structured enough so that I knew when I would "cover" each of the required genres. It also follows somewhat of a developmental sequence (My first graders were not ready to do a research report or write thoughtful poetry at the beginning of the year, although I know several first grade teachers who have been successful with teaching poetry first.). Additionally, it allows me to select anchor papers throughout the year from each genre to put into student writing portfolios and to guide in assessment.

I know not all teachers like following such a structure, but there is something to be said for teaching the same thing at the same time. When everyone at a grade level is teaching narrative writing, for instance, it makes collaboration that much easier: sharing ideas, discussing grading, forming and assessing rubrics.

I don't think a strict writing curriculum is the answer, but I also don't think Writer's Workshop in any form can succeed without specific teacher training and tools such as a writing scope and sequence so that teachers are knowledgeable about the process of teaching writing and have the support of their colleagues as they teach.