The planning and drafting lesson about one's chosen pet went pretty well as I expected. Most students filled the bubbles with at least three adjectives and wrote sentences to describe their pets. A couple of students took the challenge and wrote more than six sentences. I used a chart to help expand their thinking while they planned their ideas. I let the students come up with details about what they wanted to know about somebody’s pet such as size, color, eyes, ears, etc. Most students did a good job planning and drafting.

I payed special attention to ELL and slow learning students by giving them extra support. The ELL student and another below grade level student tried very hard to put some words and sentences down with one-on-one teacher support. They were asked to verbally express their ideas and drew their pictures first before their writings. The teachers then helped them to find frequency words in the classroom or pointed to the correct letters for them to write them down.

There are two ADHD students in class as well. I managed to help one to stay on task. But the other one was going through an emotional moment and put his head down and didn’t participate during the lesson period. I wondered how I was going to get him engaged. Fortunately, when he was calm the next morning, we had a nice talk about his pet and he wrote about his pet dog.

I think the writing went well as planned because the students were well prepared for the session. For instance, prior to this lesson, they gathered pictures of their pets and shared their pets’ information in class. I also checked out a box of pet books for them to browse through during center times. Most of them also finished their cover pages by using the computer drawings.

If I teach the same lesson again, I probably will make the following changes. For the ADHD students or any students might have trouble writing in class, I will give them a lot of encouragement first. I could deliberately display their pets’ pictures for the whole class to see and talk about a little longer when they share their pets’ information with their groups. While doing that, I would also specifically orient them to think about writing about their pets as just another way to tell others about their special animals. Hopefully, they could get more engaged in their later writing activities.

I will also arrange them to use the computer program to finish their cover page first so that they could get their thoughts a little more organized. When they started to write, they could feel more special about their project. The more engaged they could be, the better they could stay on task and write. I could also check with their parents to find other ways to help them focus in class.

This writing experience left me with more confidence in teaching writing to first graders. I learned the art to scaffold them to plan and draft their writings. I also learned that these young students could all take the challenge and make great progress in their informational writing. I feel that they are really getting a great start toward their writing endeavor.