Personal Narrative Writing Unit

We just completed our personal narrative unit during writers workshop time. Since first graders LOVE to tell stories about themselves, this was an easy unit to do!!!  We started the unit by reading a ton of books by Ezra Jack Keats and Donald Crews to model and guide my minilessons.  We also read some books that had clear, descriptive settings (I love using Owl Moon for this).
Below are some pictures. The first shows our anchor chart that includes some of the minilessons. The second shows one student's plan before he started writing. We talked about how writers "zoom in" on a small moment and stretch it out like a movie. So they drew "scenes" from their movie. Then they used their writing plan to help them write their stories. The plan was very helpful because it kept them focused. 

Now their stories are off to be laminated and made into books!  I can't wait until we have out writer's celebration when they return!

Anchor Chart

A Student's Writing Plan (I can't rotate it...ugh!!)