Transcript Document

They’ve had a lot of experience with what they are being asked to do , but
still, every year we find ourselves sort of waiting around, looking over their
shoulders and wondering, “Will all the teaching show up in the work they
are able to do?” Katie Wood Ray’s About the Authors (1)
Problem: I struggle with teaching writing. I know it is
hard for the students and I am not the best at it, so I
throw my hands up and put it to the side.
Where I am: techniques that I have used that are
not necessarily researched based. Spelling boxes,
copy from board (only), and tree maps later in
year.
What I do….not suggested!
*Copy from the board: Not too bad at the beginning; gives them
sentence structure and understanding of how to write left to right and
top to bottom. After the students get used to copying from the board,
I find it very difficult to give them anymore freedom, so we continue to
copy from the board each time we write. New skills – board copying,
certain theme – board copying. I had the fear of LETTING GO!
*Allowing students to be creative: sounds good, if I really let them do
that. I would give them a sentence starter and have the students
“fill in the blank”. Example: In the ocean, I see a _______. Again, not
so bad at the beginning, however, our Ocean thematic unit is in May
and yes (please don’t judge) I was still giving them the sentence starter.
*Give them Choice: Yes, they need this skill. I was not the one giving it to
them. Choice: what’s that? They did not have time to write anything on
their own because I had the fear of LETTING GO!!!!
Well, NOT ANYMORE!!!
EYE OPENER
“Basically, we feel that while these kinds of
activities might teach children something, the
are not teaching them how to write because the
children aren’t writing when they do them,
they’re not doing the hard work of generating
text. These activities often lead to pretty pieces
of writing, but we don’t see the evidence of
deeply engaged thinking we do when children
are writing themselves”. Katie Wood Ray’s
About the Authors (40)
Where I want to go:
*I want to find real research based
strategies that do work and that will help
my students find confidence.
*I want to set up a real writing workshop
that works in Kindergarten.
Starting with Structure
Get My Toolbox
How I Envision Writing Workshop In My Classroom
Toolbox/notebook to hold strategies for students all year long.
Strategies feed into the workshop that we will do at a later time
during the day (letter of the week, making sentences, poems).
When conferencing, I will able to remind students of their
Toolbox when they are looking for a specific strategy (spelling,
days of the week, family words)
To really understand the writing children do during the hourlong writing workshop, it is important to understand that this
is not the only time in the day that they are learning about how
our language works. Writing workshop is simply a time when
children get to try their hands at making written language work
– at generating text – all on their own. Katie Wood Ray’s
About the Authors (39)
Open the Toolbox:
From Structure to Strategies
Words they want to use: shapes, colors, high frequency
Sentence Structure: capital letters, punctuation, reason for writing
Literacy Station work: phonics such as letter stamping, word
building, rhyming, class names
Poetry Journal: copy of poem with highlighted words and letters
Content Work: writing skills that are used throughout the day beyond
writing time
Mini Lessons from Writing Workshop: name, date, thinking
maps
Specific skills for writing: the whys (capitalize, name, date, left to
right)
Your Turn…
• What are some tools in your toolbox?
• How will you help your students use these
tools during writing workshop?
•Sentence Stalking
•Complete Sentences
•Paragraph form/Alignment
•Project-Based Learning
•Mentor Texts
•Strategic Sharing
•Word building
•Punctuation Choices
•Matching Pictures to Words
•Reading Like Writers
•Aristotle’s Three Appeals
•Two different notebooks: one for seed
ideas, pictures, lists, etc—no structure;
another as a Writer’s Toolbox
•Use one comp book and flip it, using ½
for the toolbox and ½ for seed ideas
Let the Toolbox do the Teaching
Once the students have the toolbox and they see how everything they’re
learning about (words, letters, stories) can help them write – we’re ready for
workshop!
Mini Lessons for their writing
Add it to the toolbox
Try it out in their writing –
journal/student made books
Show how toolbox can help/model
during conference time
What we know about the authors, who find ideas and
choose topics and fill a whole year of their lives with
writing, is quite extraordinary. What we know about
the authors, who understand that they can make
decisions as they write, that they can craft with purpose
and intention, is quite extraordinary. What we know
about the authors, who stun us with their ever –
emerging insights about the wonderful promise of written
language, is quite extraordinary. Our greatest wish for
our teaching is that we will always have the knowing
eyes to see how extraordinary the authors really are.
Katie Wood Ray’s About the Authors (233-4)
References
• Ray, Katie Wood. About the Authors: Writing
Workshop with Our Youngest Writers.
Heinemann, 2004.
• Ray, Katie Wood. Study Driven: A Framework For
Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop.
Heinemann, 2006.
• Martin, Charles. (No Date). Nancie Atwell Facts:
Seven Principles That Guide Teaching and Student
Learning in the Atwell Curriculum.
http://home.moravian.edu/public/educ/Shosh/M
PLFS.html