Transcript Writers’ Workshop A guide to getting started…in the real world.

Writers’ Workshop
A guide to getting started…in the real
world.
Step 1 - Storying

Storying is one way to help students become better
writers. Often students are hesitant to write because
they think they have nothing to say. When
classrooms spend time storying, students discover
they have many stories just waiting to be told.
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Spend the first 2-3 weeks of school storying, before
writing in notebooks. (You might feel tempted to
have your students start writing sooner, but wait.)
You will most likely find that storying will help build
community in your classroom. You will know your
students better, and they will know you better. It is a
chance to see each other as real people.
The teacher gets things started:

Gather students together in the meeting area
and tell a story of your own
(demonstration/modeling). You will set the
topic for that day's storying. (For example,
you might tell the class that today you are
going to tell a story about a time that you
were afraid.) There are a variety of ways to
get started each day.
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Tell a story from a memory. (A time I was sad, afraid,
excited, embarrassed, etc.)
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Read from your own writer's notebook
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Use a read aloud to start a conversation (For
Example: You might read a book about sledding or
playing in the snow, and then tell about a similar
experience you remember.)
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Students bring in an object with special or sentimental
meaning (not a toy or something of monetary value –
this is not show and tell)
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Tell about a wish or a dream
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Describe someone special or something interesting.
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Do a "quick draw" and then tell the story inside the
picture
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Tell about something you love (friends, rainy days,
fuzzy blankets)
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Tell about something you hate (people fighting, the
sound of fingernails on the chalkboard, etc.)
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Students bring in photographs from home and tell
about the event or people
Then the students take over:
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After you have told your story, give everyone
else in the class the chance to tell a related
story. (For example, children might tell a story
about a time they were afraid.) You will, of
course, want to talk to them about the
importance of good manners: listening to
others, taking turns, responding correctly, etc.
There are a variety of ways to have children
share their stories:

Talking Into the Circle
You can ask children to just take turns telling
their stories. In this case, children don't raise
their hands and wait to be called on. They
simply begin talking. If more than one person
begins talking at the same time, then one
waits, allowing the other person to talk first,
knowing he will go next.
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A/B Partner Talk
Each student has a partner. One is partner A and
the other Partner B. Each partner gets 2 minutes to
tell his story. Partner A tells a story on a given topic.
Partner B listens and then asks questions he has
after the story. Then Partner B tells his story and
partner A listens and asks questions. Then, the
students turn to a new partner. They repeat the
same process. This time, students might remember
to add the detail their partner asked them about.
Each student should share with 3 partners. This
process helps children develop their stories orally
and teaches them how to revise by adding detail to
their stories and taking out unnecessary information.
Focus on the TALK

Do not send students back to their desks to
write these stories. The intentional focus on
oral language will help your students build
confidence and a repertoire of ideas. You and
your students may want to develop an idea
list on a chart in your room. The ideas should
be more general so that they could apply to
many students. The following is an example
of a class idea list. Remember, however, that
the power is in the students creating the list.
Step 2 - BUILD ANTICIPATION!

Storying usually lasts about 20-30 minutes,
which will be your whole Writing Workshop
block for the first couple of weeks. Students
will begin to get excited about writing as they
realize they have something to write about.
The following are a few more suggestions of
ways to build anticipation toward writing:

Set a date to begin writing. Mark it on the calendar and
begin talking about it with excitement.

Begin a writer's notebook of your own and show it to
the class. Talk about the things you are already
thinking about putting in your notebook.

Have students personalize their notebooks. Decorate
the covers of the notebooks. You can use pictures,
drawings, wrapping paper, anything! You can cover
them with clear contact paper to keep them looking
nice.

Have Students share their notebooks with each other.
Share Notebook-Like Literature
Amelia series by Marissa Moss, including:
Amelia's Notebook
Amelia Writes Again
Amelia Hits the Road
Luv, Amelia, Luv, Nadia
Amelia Takes Command
Dr. Amelia's Boredom Survival Guide
Emma's Journal, Marissa Moss
Rachel's Journal, Marissa Moss
Dilly's Summer Camp Diary, Cynthia C. Lewis
Amazon Diary, The Jungle Adventures of Alex
Winters, Hudson Talbott & Mark Greenberg
Hey World, Here I Am! Jean Little
One last note on storying:

While generally, storying is a way to begin the year,
you may want to consider using it throughout the
year. For example, storying can be helpful in getting
students motivated again after a long break, such as
winter break, or after you complete a genre study.
During these times, you will probably only want to
spend about a week storying. During that week, you
could use your mini-lesson time to story with your
students, and then use the remainder of the time to
write and share.
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A Writer's Notebook, Unlocking the Writer Within
You, Ralph Fletcher
Schedule for Writers’ Workshop:
1. Mini-Lesson (5-10 min.)
2. Status of the Class (2 min.)
3. Writing & Conferencing (20-40 min.)
4. Sharing (5-10 min.)
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2
3
Status of the Class:
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I have a poster with library pockets for each student.
In each pocket I have 3 cards, red=Work in
progress, Yellow=Illustrating, Green= Publishing.
Each student may have any of these 3 colors in their
pocket depending what they are working on.
I look at the pocket chart to see who is publishing
(An edited, word processed piece ready to be
illustrated.) I excuse those students to get their
writing folder and sit down at their desks. I then
excuse the illustrators (Those who have been hired
by someone who is publishing to help and/or do it
for them. Illustrators receive full credit on the
published work.)
Mini Lessons
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The mini-lesson is our forum for making a
suggestion to the whole class...raising a concern,
exploring an issue, modeling a technique,
reinforcing a strategy. First our students are
engaged in their own important work. Then we ask
ourselves, "What is the one thing I can suggest or
demonstrate that might help most?"
Excerpts from The Art of Teaching Writing, p.
193,4,5
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The writing workshop mini-lesson is the whole-class
teaching time, which generally lasts 5-10 minutes.
The teaching must be explicit and concise. Choose
only one focus for the lesson. This could be a
content focus or a conventions focus. Be careful,
though. We often over-focus on conventions when it
is the content that is the heart of the text, the
message to be communicated. The conventions are
merely an avenue to communicate the message.
There are a variety of ways to teach a strategy or
skill during a mini lesson. Most teachers use one of
the following:

Teacher Demonstration
Often a teacher will demonstrate writing an entry in front of the children
on a chart or overhead. This works well if you can actually put the
overhead projector on the floor and gather the children close to you.
The teacher uses this demonstrated writing like a think aloud.
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Your Own Writer’s Notebook
Reading from your own writer's notebook is a great way to let your
students see you as a writer. You can show them how you have worked
through different issues in your own writing, strategies that you have
tried, and a variety of genres you have tried.
You might share a writing you have tried and ask the students for
feedback on how you might improve the writing. After all, they are
readers and will have opinions on what they read.
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Student Writing
Often students learn best from each other. When one child in the class
decides to try something, the others will want to try it, also. You will
need to get the child's permission before sharing their writing in a mini
lesson. You may want to focus on something new they tried in their
notebook, a strategy they learned and applied, or anything they did
really well. We only use student writing to show what they did well, not
what they did wrong.
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Sometimes the mini-lesson will be designed
to create a warm glow around the workshop.
The easiest way to do this is to read aloud
from wonderful literature... a story, a poem...
and to do so without turning the reading into
a lesson. Instead, we simply read aloud . . .
and then immediately, and with no
discussion, we write and write and write.
The Art of Teaching Writing, p. 194
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Teaching with Picture Books
Writing/Conferencing
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"We think of the writing conference in two parts. In
part one, the teacher listens carefully to what the
student says about his writing and asks questions to
clarify and deepen his understanding of the
student's work. In part two, the teacher makes a
teaching decision based on the conversation with
the student, and then explicitly teaches the student
one thing that will help him, not only on this writing,
but on many writings in the future.
How's It Going? by Carl Anderson
Expert Teaching during Conferencing:
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While students are busy in their own writing work, the teacher
confers one-on-one or with small groups of students. In
kindergarten, the teacher and assistant try to confer with every
child every day. In grades 1-5, the teacher confers with 3-5
children per day.
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After sending all of the students off to do their job, continue to
write. This models for them how to complete the story. (They also
tend to bother you less if you are busy. They tend to try
themselves first.) After 2-3 minutes, begin to individually
conference with the students, working on anything from helping
them with ideas to write about or motivation. Help the students
revise and edit their stories. Help them determine when they are
ready to move forward in the writing process. Do this for about
20-30 minutes, depending on how well the students are working.
How to get that conferencing done:
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Since some students are working on publishing and
others on illustrating, that leaves just a few students
who need to work on stories. The students get their
folders so you can review what they are working on
and what they need to finish. Conference with each
child to brainstorm on writing ideas, and to help
them to organize their thoughts, or to continue a
previous story. Students can have 5-6 stories in their
first folder pocket before picking one to move toward
publishing. Stress just as in real life not everything
we write needs to be published. Being able to visit
with several students a day allows you to keep each
on track and move them forward in the writing
process.
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The conferring time is often referred to as the heart
of the workshop. During this time, the teacher has
the opportunity to see if the child is applying all that
has been taught. It is a time for the teacher to: (1)
affirm what the child is doing well and (2)
teach/reteach a skill or strategy within his/her own
writing.

Be careful to teach the writer, not this piece of
writing. In other words, don't go about helping the
child fix up the writing to make it perfect... how you
think it should be. Avoid the temptation! Instead,
teach the child one strategy he/she will be able to
use on many other pieces of writing in the future.
Sharing
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The purpose for the share time is two-fold. First, it gives children
a real audience for which to write. Secondly, it provides children
with immediate feedback from the teacher and other students.
This will eventually help the child to self-revise because he will
begin to predict what others will ask about the writing. For
example, the writer might predict that students will ask how he
felt when his lost puppy came home. So, he will add this detail
before sharing time.
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Sharing usually takes about 10 minutes. If you run short of time,
do not skip the sharing time. Instead, either save the sharing time
for later in the day or use a simplified method for sharing, such
as having everyone turn to a partner and read what they have
written. You would not want to get in the habit of doing this all the
time, however, because students need feedback from the
teacher and from the larger group.
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Generally, about 3 children share per day. In primary grades, the
most common form of sharing is in the Author's Chair. The
author's chair is any special chair which students sit in when
sharing their writing. The author's chair signifies that the person
sitting in it is a "writer" and has something to share with
everyone.
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After the child reads his writing, the class gives feedback
consisting of positive reinforcement (e.g., "What I like most about
your writing is...) and wonderings (e.g., "What does your dog look
like?). The teacher will need to demonstrate both kinds of
feedback for several weeks in younger grades before turning the
task over to the children. It is very important to set a tone of
encouragement in the classroom early on, where no is allowed to
put another child or his work down.
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Reading Into the Circle
Older students often use /Reading Into the Circle,
recommended by Joanne Hindley in her book In the
Company of Children, to share their writing work.
Students gather in the meeting area in a large circle.
The teacher might ask children to simply read a
portion of their writing they would like to share or
she might ask students to share something they
tried from the mini lesson that day (e.g., a great
beginning you tried). Students don't raise their hand
to share. They simply start reading. If more than one
person begins at the same time, then one simply
waits and knows he will go next. Everyone is invited
to read, but it's okay if they choose not to that day. It
is expected that they will eventually share.
Creative Publishing Ideas:
Once students have gathered multiple entries in their writer's
notebooks, begin the publishing process with a few students.
First, they will need to select an entry they feel they would like to
publish. Then, they will need to think of what they might make out
of it. The following are a few ideas students might consider:
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a guided reading book for other students
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a newspaper for the school or an article for a local newspaper
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a picture book or chapter book,
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a "How-To" or teaching book for the school or class library
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a letter to send to a friend, family member, or an important
person
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a biography or autobiography
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a poster to decorate the room for a holiday party
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a song for you or others to sing
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a list of directions or rules for parts of the school
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a flyer or brochure
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a scrapbook for your family (e.g., family vacation,
memories from growing up, etc.)
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an alphabet book
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a framed word portrait or poem to hang on the wall
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a skit or play to be performed for or by other classes
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a poem to be read at a poetry reading
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a comic strip for the school office, your doctor's office, etc.
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a "Get Well" card or poem for a sick friend
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a "Keeping" quilt with memories or poems written on it
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a calendar with your best poems or other pieces on each month
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a collection of memories placed in a time capsule
Publishing supplies
Students will need access to a variety of supplies if they are to take on the task of
publishing. Keep in mind, the child needs to do the work of publishing whenever
possible. The following are a few suggestions:
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blank paper in a variety of sizes, lined and unlined
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materials for covers (construction paper, wallpaper cardboard, etc.)
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markers, colored pencils, pens pencils, crayons, etc.
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tape
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glue
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scissors
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stapler
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stationary, envelopes, stamps
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phone books for mailing letters and cards
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catalogues
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paper clips
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erasers
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correction tape
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posterboards
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word processors
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dictionaries, encylopedias, atlases, thesauruses
The Process of Publishing
When you feel students are ready to publish a piece, teach them the following
steps:
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Read your writing out loud to at least 2 other people. You might ask one or more
of the following questions:
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Does my writing makes sense?
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Are there any parts that aren't clear?
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Does my writing leave you with any unanswered questions?
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Did my words paint a picture in your mind?
Check your own work with a revising/editing checklist.
Have a conference with your teacher to see what one new thing she can teach
you about being a writer.
Try the strategy that your teacher suggests to you in the conference. Then, turn
the writing in so your teacher can make the final edits.
Go to the publishing center and choose the materials (paper, crayons, etc.) that
you want to use in publishing this piece. Be sure to make the corrections that
your teacher has written on your practice copy.
How do I get my students to edit?
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Students need to become responsible for checking their own
writing for errors in conventions or places where the content
needs to be revised. The following are suggestions for helping
students take this task on:
Spelling
There are many ways for students to check their own spelling.
Suggestions
Student Revising/Editing Sheets
The following are samples of revising/editing sheets, which range
from least to most difficult. There is no one perfect editing sheet
for any one classroom. These editing sheets change, not only
from class to class, but from student to student. The
Developmental Writing Continuum can be of great assistance
when deciding the type of editing checklist that is appropriate for
your students. You will want to focus on edits that you have
already been taught and placed on an editing wall.
Spelling suggestions
1. Read the writing backwards, from the end to the beginning. This will
make you less likely to read what you meant to say.
2. Identify words you think may be misspelled and look to other
resources for help.
Environmental print (displays in the room, word wall, etc.)
Literature
A friend
The dictionary
Charts displayed containing spelling patterns
3. Use a spell check form
4. Try to spell the word a variety of ways and ask yourself which way
looks right.
5. Ask yourself, "Is this word similar in meaning to other words I can
spell?" Do I know parts of the word. (Ex. courage - courageous)
Editing Checklist 1
Name: _____________________ Date: __________
1. Does it make sense?
2. Did you leave spaces between your words?
3. Did you use capital letters to begin sentences?
4. Did you use ending punctuation marks?
5. Did you check the spelling?
Editing checklist 2
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Name: _____________________ Date: __________
1. Did you reread it carefully, checking for places where readers
might be confused?
2. Did you check the spelling using a variety of sources?
3. Did you use correct punctuation? (ending, quotation marks,
commas)
4. Have you tried to take out extra words that don't add much?
5. Did you reread it carefully, paying close attention to choice of
words? (strong verbs, descriptive language, etc.)
Editing checklist 3
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Name: _____________________ Date: __________
1. Did you use appropriate punctuation? (ending marks,
commas, quotation marks, etc.)
2. Did you use capital letters appropriately?
3. Did you give enough information so the reader won't be left
with questions?
4. Did you use several sources to check your spelling?
5. Does your writing flow in an organized, sequential order?
6. Did you indent and use margins when using paragraphs?
7. Did you use details and descriptions?
8. Did you write an effective beginning and ending?
Editing Wall
When building an editing wall, introduce one convention at a time.
(Demonstration) Introduce the convention during a mini lesson and
then remind students of the convention for several consecutive days.
(Shared/Guided) Ask students to use the convention when writing in
their writer's notebooks. When conferring with individual students,
check to see if they are using the convention correctly. If not, show the
child how to use the convention on part of his own writing. Then, stay
closeby as he tries it on the next part of the writing.
(Independent) Once most of the students in the class are using the
convention correctly, place the convention on the editing wall and
explain to students that it is now their responsibility to remember to use
the convention from now on. Explain that they will be asked to check for
this convention before publishing a piece.
Then, select the next most appropriate convention and introduce it in
the same manner.
A true story of starting the process of
rotating responsibilities:
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I like to introduce Writer’s workshop by reading THE HUNGRY
GIANT, and THE HUNGRY GIANTS SOUP by Joy Cowley. I read
these books during shared reading. (This takes about 2 weeks.
They need a lot of experience with the books.) Then I set them
up with the idea about extending the story to part 3. I have all of
them write their stories. I pick about 1/3 of the class to publish. I
type them up and we assign illustrators to help illustrate. The
finished product is the word typed on the bottom of a regular ditto
page they color right on the ditto paper. I then have 1/3
Publishing, 1/3 Illustrating, and 1/3 with work in progress. That
means I will be conferencing with only a few students. This helps
me to get comfortable with the entire process. I am not stressed
to do everything at once. You will find time to really work
individually with students.
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Here's the other hint. I make sure students who are illustrators
must publish a book before they can help illustrate another book
this makes sure those artistic students get to publish also.
Our favorite part is the author chair reading the final bound
product. They are so incredibly proud. They are the favorite
books in the class.
In the beginning of first grade. (and second) I feel that too much
editing a child's story “ruins” that child’s self-esteem. How many
times have you seen a child come up to show you their story with
a smile on his/her face, only to go back to their seat with a paper
full of red marks that they are expected to recopy. Without
making even more mistakes, than when they started! Resulting in
feeling like they don’t know how to write. I feel that many times
over editing does more harm, than good, in the early writing
process.
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When I edit I don’t over do the editing. I address the major
punctuation mistakes, misspelled words found on the word wall,
and anything we have learned during our mini lessons. But I
leave much of it alone. This helps that kid who is struggling just
to get a few sentences out, time to feel like he/she is a writer.
Mid-year in second grade I address more editing, during my
individual conferences.
I use something called “legs” when doing my conferences. Many
times a child will seem to have 2 or 3 different stories going on
inside their original story. I use these “legs” to help the child
expound on the best one. It's the easiest way to teach revising. I
take a piece of paper and cut it in half horizontally and I tape it to
the original paper. I have the student expound on the good idea.
We together add each leg as needed. It begins to look like a
spider, sometimes with very long legs! We draw arrows to show
where to connect each “leg.” I edit the rest later if needed, and
follow the legs when I type up the story later that day.
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The children enjoy writing more to their story because the "Legs"
seem to make writing fun. They are excited to add more. Once
they have created a wonderful story that makes more sense it is
easy to talk them into removing the part of the story that doesn't
make sense anymore. The children often ask for the other stuff to
be crossed off, because they understand it’s really not part of
their great story. By using the legs I don’t get those sad faces
after you tell them to go back and work on it some more.
Many times they just don’t understand how to make it better or
even what to add. I have found that once the students have
added legs onto their paper fixing the parts that need more
details, their stories are much better and they are proud of their
hard work. The results are now mid-year in second grade I am
having to use “legs”, less and less, because they are now
understanding how to write a story without jumping around from
idea to idea. I’m getting wonderful stories so I can spend more
time on editing and less on keeping the story line going.
Credits
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Springfield Public School District 186
http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/resources/lang
uagearts/instruction/?mod=105
Jeanne Morris ([email protected]).
Maple Elementary, Fontana, CA
Writers workshop
http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/writers/i
ndex.html