Hi Rosanna,
And thank you for your question! For children to become powerful writers, they not only need phonics proficiency but proficiency writing high-frequency “heart word” sentences, beginning with “I love you.” Please review Online Seminar #3 again for our sequence and proven approach to building kindergarten writers. You can build writers through daily Writing Workshop and additional practice of high-frequency word sentences. Notice how we give children writing models and expect them to copy these sentences (during morning settling-in time) until they are memorized. This gives children the confidence of “I can write!” and then they have the motivation and stamina to combine writing words that they know “by heart” with sounding out unknown words using phonics.
Also notice there is a four-page PDF of the teaching sequence, “A Yearlong Overview: New Heart Words, Handwriting…” located under Seminar #1 (ABC Phonics — scroll way down). It also contains a look at the first month of school.
Bilingual teachers adapt these strategies and may move slower. We look forward to adding more specific “Writing Workshop” online seminars in the next year.
Smiles,
Nellie
