Building the Writing Workshop the

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Building the Writing Workshop the Write Way
3rd-5th

• Catawba County Schools
• Lora Drum Kathy Keane

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Todays Objectives

• Participants will leave this session with the
  knowledge and tools to effectively implement the
  writing workshop
• model. The components of the Lucy Calkins
  (Units of Study) will be the focus, along with
  multiple hands-on
• activities and strategies for building a solid
  foundation for writing instruction.
• Participants will walk away with
• a tool box of items to use for journaling,
  modeling, sharing, and conferencing with
  students.

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Writing is all around us
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Goals of the Writing Workshop

• To help students see writing as a way of telling
  about things
• To develop students fluency in writing
• To provide opportunities for students to learn
  to use grammar and mechanics in the context of
  their own writing
• To help students learn about specific
• forms (genres) of writing during focused
• instruction to ensure that struggling
• writers are supported in order to maintain
• their motivation and self-confidence

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I Have, Who Has Activity

• Review of the components of Lucy Calkins
  writing Workshop

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Getting Yourself Ready

• Ensure that all students have a writers
• notebook
• Start your own writers notebook
• Have a 2 pocket folder for each student
• Have note/letter ready to send to
• parents
• Suggestion cover notebooks with
• clear contact paper or tape

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Tools for Writing Workshop

• Writers notebooks (suggestion MEAD
  composition books)
• Writers Toolboxes (basket/ tote that holds
  materials for writing pencils, pens,
  highlighters, tape, glue sticks, scissors,
• Post-it notepads, markers, etc.)
• 2 pocket folders
• Writing Mini-Offices

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Writers Notebooks
http//www.learner.org/resources/series205.html Pr
ogram 1 start at 118, Teacher 1- modeling
writing skip to 853
Teacher 3- modeling poem
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Writers Notebook EntriesGathering Ideas

• Poetry
• Family stories that we know
• Writing generated from conversations we've had or
  have heard
• Lists of people or place names of interest
• Entries about things we care about
• Things we wonder about
• Celebrations or victories
• Dreams

http//quest.carnegiefoundation.org/dpointer/jenn
ifermyers/workshopapproach.htm Writers Workshop
Introduction Mini Lesson by Jennifer Myers
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Getting Your Class Ready

• Getting Your Room Ready
• Establish a meeting area
• Arrange your room so that students can work in
  small groups
• Have toolboxes for each group

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Writers Toolbox
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• Basic Writing Workshop Format
• Call to Workshop
• Connections
• Teaching
• Active Engagement
• Linking
• Writing and Conferring
• Mid-Point Teaching Point
• Sharing
• http//www.learner.org/resources/series205.html
• Program 4 Mini-lesson- Introducing the
  Writing Workshop

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Connection

• Links what has been done to what is expected to
  be learned in the present lesson
• May serve as a quick review of previous learning
• Explicitly name what will
• be taught/learned

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Writing Workshop

• Mini-lesson (10 minutes)
• Students Writing/Teacher Conferencing (20-30
  minutes)
• Sharing (5-10 minutes)
• So what do each of these
• components look like

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Teaching (Mini-lesson)

• Has a Clear Objective - Teaching Point
• States the Purpose Explicitly
• Teacher Models Demonstrate
• May Provide Guided Practice
• Explains and Gives Examples

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Mini-Lessons

• Teacher models the process of writing for
  students
• Teacher writes in front of the class and thinks
  out loud about what she/he is doing as a writer
• Teacher models making decisions,
• making mistakes, how she/he puts
• words on the page
• Students are gathered together to
• observe, and make any notes in their
• writing notebook

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• Mini Lesson 10-15 Minutes
• The mini-lesson is where you can make a
  suggestion to the whole class...raise a concern,
  explore an issue, model a technique, reinforce a
  strategy. First the students are engaged in their
  own important work. Then ask yourself, "What is
  the one thing I can suggest or demonstrate that
  might help most?"   A mini-lesson generally lasts
  5-10 minutes. You should try to choose a teaching
  point that you feel would
• benefit many members of the class.

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Basics for Constructing the Perfect Mini-Lesson

• Choose a method of writing in front of students
  using chart paper, an overhead projector, or
  Schoolpad depending on the purpose (chart paper
  can be used to post as reminders)
• Students need to be gathered in a
• space separate from regular instruction
• Must be focused on one particular
• concept, skill, or technique
• Look at curriculum and students writing
• to determine focus of mini-lessons

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Types of Mini-Lessons

• Procedures
• Conventions
• Craft

Balance of Each Type is Important!
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Procedures

• Type of lesson used to set the structure and
  expectations during writing workshop
• For each procedure you want students to follow,
  use a mini-lesson to model and teach the
  expectation/process
• Important to have clear expectations
• and then demonstrate those to your
• students
• Any time you feel a procedure needs fine-tuning
• or complete change, use a
• mini-lesson to model that change
• Page 68- Minilesson Ideas for Management-
• Guiding Readers and Writers by Irene C. Fountas
  Gay Su Pinnell

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Conventions

• Key is to find a way to model using
  mechanics/grammar and editing mechanics in your
  writing rather than simply telling students
  about mechanics
• Get away from practice of having
• students practice mechanics in
• unrelated writing tasks
• Model using mechanics in your own
• modeled writing.
• Page 70 Minilesson ideas on Conventions
• Guiding Readers and Writers
• by Irene C. Fountas Gay Su Pinnell

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Craft

• Craft of writing deals with content
• How do you write a strong lead?
• How do you write a powerful conclusion?
• How do you narrow your focus?
• Use childrens literature as mentor
• texts for modeling
• p. 72-73 Minilesson IdeasThe Writers Craft
• Guiding Readers and Writers
• by Irene C. Fountas Gay Su Pinnell

http//www.learner.org/resources/series205.html Pr
ogram 7 Teaching the Writing Craft- start at
1904 mini lesson strong leads
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Examples of Mini- Lessons

• Content Focus
• Getting an idea-making lists-things you
  love-writing from emotion-experiences-moments
  in time
• Adding detail
• Adds responses/telling the inside story
• Choice of words/ descriptive language
• Replacing tired words
• Great beginnings
• Wow endings
• One moment in time
• Observations
• "I wonder" writings
• Something ordinary
• Staying on focus
• Working with a seed idea
• Developing a plan for writing
• Finding your voice
• Genre studies-poetry-informational
  reports-letters-autobiographies-biographies-pi
  cture books-persuasive-How-to books

• Conventions Focus
• Use appropriate spacing
• Spelling phonetically
• Spell "High Frequency" words correctly
• Spell using analogies
• Capitalize I, names
• Capitalize beginnings of sentences
• Ending punctuation marks
• Quotation marks
• Commas
• Use of "and"
• Using appropriate grammar
• Using paragraphs
• Recognizing and correcting run-on sentences

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Active Engagement

• At the end of the mini-lesson students are given
  the opportunity to try-out the lesson through
  sharing with a partner
• At times students may watch other students trying
  something out

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Link

• Before sending student off to write
  independently, restate the teaching point and
  encourage students to use the skill taught in the
  mini-lesson in their ongoing work for the day.

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Writing Time

• Students write
• Teacher confers with individual students or small
  groups

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Students Writing

• Students spend their time somewhere in the
  writing process planning, drafting, revising,
  editing, or publishing
• Students spend most of their time
• on topics of their choice
• Students do not publish everything
• they write
• Students work as writers work using
• the materials writers need

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• Independent Writing/Collecting Entries
• After the mini lesson, students work in their
  Writer's Notebook to collect entries that may
  later become published pieces of writing.  The
  total writing time lasts for about 35-40 minutes,
  but during that time some students may be
  involved in conferences with the teacher or with
  their peers.
• Students choose entries in their notebooks to
  take into "draft form."  It is these carefully
  selected pieces of writing that will be taken
  through the process of editing and revising so
  that they can be published and shared with
  others. 
• All entries in the Writer's Notebook do not
  become
• published prices of writing.  All published
  writing
• is added to each student's Writing Portfolio,
  
• and some pieces can be put into student
  created books.

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Student Writing
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(Mid-workshop teaching point)

• Sometimes you will find it necessary to stop
  and teach/re-teach a concept/skill during the
  writing workshop- this will be necessary when you
  are seeing several children struggling with the
  same issues

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Conferring

• The teacher may meet with students individually.
• The teacher may meet with small groups of
  students with similar needs
• The teacher takes the time to record her
  compliment and teaching points

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Teacher Conferring

• The teacher conducts individual conferences to
  differentiate the instruction and provide
  multilevel support for the students.
• Conferences are held every time writing occurs.
• A conference provides a weekly
• opportunity to assess student progress
• and make appropriate instructional
• decisions.
• Conferences are conversations, not
• interrogations.

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Conferring Teaching Points

• The teacher looks for what the student knows.
• The teacher looks for what the student needs to
  know next
• The teacher asks herself what is the most
  important thing that she can teach this student
  next?
• The teacher must decide how she is going to teach
  the child

Conferences are conversations, not interrogations!
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Types of Conferences

• Roving Conferences
• Individual Student/Teacher Conferences
• Teacher Scheduled Small Group Conferences
• Peer Conferences
• Teacher Drop-In Conferences

Conferences are conversations not interrogations!
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Roving Conference

• This is usually used as the students are
  beginning their writing. The teacher circulates
  around the classroom as the students are
  organizing their work. This is a quick session
  about two minutes in which the teacher asks the
  students simple questions, assists in a variety
  of ways and makes note of any difficulties that
  may be used as a focus for mini-lessons. As a
  teacher talks with a student, the know some of
  the other students maybe listening and learning
  from the conversation.

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Individual Student/Teacher Conference

• Teacher Conferencing is conducted after the
  mini-lesson, while the students are working on
  their individual pieces. Conferences can be
  formal or informal and can be conducted in a
  special spot or at their table. Use open-ended
  questions and allow plenty of time for students
  to think before they answer. The goal is to get
  them to tell you their thinking. Do not worry
  about punctuation and spelling at this time
  unless you are conducting a conventions
  conference.
• It is important to ask questions that lead
  students to discover what they have to say and
  want to communicate, and that encourage them to
  talk about their work. The teacher can, for
  example, ask
• Are you pleased with your writing?
• Who are you writing this for?
• Why did you choose this topic?
• Where are you now in your draft?
• Do the sentences make sense?
• Does your writing say what you want it to say?
• Are there any details that you could add which
  would make this clearer?
• What do you think you will do next?
• Where do you see this writing going?
• What is the most important/interesting part?
• Are the beginning and ending effective?
• What title would you give this piece?
• Have students reread parts and talk honestly
  about the story. If a conference is going
• well the student's energy for writing
  increases. You might want to complete an
  Individual writing conference record and have the
  student take notes as well. The student
• should leave the conference wanting to
  write.

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Small Group Conferencing

• This may also occur during the writing process
  and may focus on the introduction, modeling or
  reinforcement of a specific writing skill, to a
  group of students based on their needs. It also
  gives them the opportunity to observe how the
  teacher helps others improve their writing and
  then be able to do the same when they
  peer-conference.

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Peer Conferencing
P (Praise) What do you like about my paper? Q
(Question) What questions do you have about
my paper? P (Polish) What specific
improvements could I make?

• Here students independently listen and give
  feedback to their fellow student writers. Using
  what they have learned in the teacher- student
  individual conferences, the peer will comment on
  various pre-determined aspects of writing.
• In peer conferences, students need to know how to
  maintain a helpful and supportive relationship.
  Teachers need to take time to model good
  responses and set some ground rules such as the
  following
• Be positive. Respond to what the writer is trying
  to say and what the writer does well.
• Be helpful. Do your best to make comments that
  will be useful to the writer.
• Be specific. Talk about specific words, phrases,
  or paragraphs
• The tone of the response should be positive. It
  should emphasize what is going well and how to
  make things even better.

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Conferencing Guidelines

• Keep the conference short (3-5 minutes)
• Get the student talking
• Listen carefully to what the writer is trying to
  say
• Assess the writers confusions,
• confusions, strengths, next steps
• Affirm and reinforce what the
• writer has done well (praise, offer
• suggestions, provide resources)
• Provide scaffolding
• Establish goals with the writers input
• http//www.learner.org/resources/series205.html
• Program 12 Peer Conferences start 58,
• then skip to 523 (mini
  lesson eye to eye/knee to knee)

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Sharing

• Students return to same place that
• they were for the mini-lesson.
• The teacher may decide to restate the
• teaching point of the mini-lesson and share
  examples of student work.
• The teacher may decide to
• introduce a new writing behavior that was
  observed.
• Students are given opportunities
• to share their work

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Sharing

• We write to be read. Atwell, 2002
• Many students will write just for the opportunity
  to share with classmates.
• Sharing time is a critical component
• of the writing workshop.
• Students share parts of their writing
• pieces in progress or read their
• latest published works.

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• Sharing
• At the end of writing workshop everyday, students
  are brought back together for a 5-10 minute group
  share and reflection.    Sometimes a writer might
  share to ask for help or receive feedback from
  his or her classmates ("I like my story, but I
  can't think of a good title.").  The author might
  also want to share part of an entry of which he
  or she is especially proud.
• During many group shares, each student gets
• a turn to share a small part of an entry,
• especially if you have asked students
• to try a particular new skill during
• the day's mini-lesson. 

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End of Workshop Share
Authors Chair
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Sharing

• At the end of writing workshop everyday, students
  are brought back together for a 5-10 minute group
  share and reflection.  When students sign up to
  share or are asked to share, they take a seat in
  the coveted "Author's Chair."  Sometimes a writer
  might come to the author's chair to ask for help
  or receive feedback from his or her classmates
  ("I like my story, but I can't think of a good
  title.").  The author might also want to share
  part of an entry of which he or she is especially
  proud.
• During many group shares, each student gets a
  turn to share a small part of an entry,
  especially if you have asked students to try a
  particular new skill during the day's mini-lesson.

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Publishing

• Partner Sharing
• Out of the Classroom
• Authors Chair
• Publishing Party
• Young Authors Day
• Parent Tea

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PORTFOLIO IDEAS

• The final product becomes part of the students'
  Writing Portfolios.
• 1 Final Product will be selected to be included
  in each students portfolio each nine weeks.
• Each nine weeks final product for the portfolio
  should be from a different writing genre.

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Other considerations

• Establish non-negotiables
• Establish procedures for movement
• Decide on signal
• Use writing workshop language
• consistently
• Set the length and time for daily
• writing

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As you arrive back from lunch

• Please use your writers notebook
• to write a list of Heart Topics- those
  things that you consider dear to your heart,
  things that you care about and
• know about

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Mini-office and writers notebook
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Thematic Word Wall
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Thematic Word Banks
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Word Bags

• Purpose To prevent overuse of words and to
  encourage accelerated vocabulary.
• Place a word on the bag and have the students
• fill the bag with synonyms as they come across
  words in their reading.

marvelous
Good
spectacular
fabulous
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Word Closets
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Word Bank
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Link Chains
Run

• Purpose
• Sequencing Events
• Accelerated Vocabulary
• (synonyms, antonyms)
• Life Cycles
• Contractions

dart
dash
scamper
trot
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Picture Word Inductive ModelEmily Calhoun
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Writing Products
Third Fourth Fifth
Personal/ Imaginative Narratives Journal Entries Short Report Friendly Letters Poems Directions Instructions Learning Logs Diary Entries Notes Autobiography Personal/ Imaginative Narratives Journal Entries Research Reports Business Letters Letters of request Letters of complaint Letters to the editor Poems Directions Instructions Learning Logs Diary Entries Notes Autobiography Biography Personal/ Imaginative Narratives Journal Entries Research Reports Business Letters Letters of request Letters of complaint Letters to the editor Poems Interviews News Articles Essays Diary Entries Notes Autobiography Biography Memoir
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Writing Across the Curriculum

• http//www.learner.org/resources/series205.html
• Program 15

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