I will admit to anyone that I know that Writing is not my strong subject to
teach. For the 3 years I was in FL, I had used it as my PDP. My 1st year back
here in MO, I took it again. After being transferred to one of the best schools
in the state, I knew that I had my work cut out for me. I had heard the buzzword
"Writer's Workshop" and knew that I wanted to use it in my classroom. I just
really wasn't for certain where to begin.
I have spent this year fumbling through the Publishing Notebook, the Writing
Process, and how to organize this workshop. Although I still claim that I am not
the best Writing Teacher, I am finding out what works best for me with my
teaching style. It is still a work in progress and I am certain that things will
change, but for the first time in six years, I can actually say that I am
pleased with how my students have grown as writers.
Check out the information below to see how I run my Writer's Workshop.
The
Gist of It All
First thing to understand is that in order for this whole thing to
work, students must spend time EVERY DAY as writers. This was the
hardest for me as I have a very tight schedule to begin with. It's
also the first thing that I have always seemed to pass off if I'm in
a time crunch.
I decided that if I was going to make this work, then I would start
it off the same way that I do most of my other lessons, with a
mini-lesson. Most of my mini- lessons involve the reading of a
picture book or writings by myself. I then give the students a
"mission" to work on while they write independently. I have a
writing mini-office for each student. Their Writer's Notebook is for
their final publishing. While students are writing, I informally
conference with as many students as I can. I usually conference for
about 3-5 minutes.
My
Schedule
Below is the schedule that I have found to work for the time I am
allowed. I do have a push-in person on Monday's and Wednesday's so
Writing is done at different times on those days. For the most part,
we have Writing immediately after lunch.
10 Minutes
Mini-Lesson
30 Minutes
Student Writing/Conferencing
5 Minutes
Share Time
Getting Started
Before I began any sort of lesson planning, I wanted to be certain
that I had all the materials necessary for the students to be
successful at Writer's Workshop. Below is a list that I have
compiled of everything that should be made available to the
students. Currently, they are on a few different shelves and sorts.
Ideally, I want to have it all in one convenient location for
students with a nice backdrop with the "No Excuse" Words and other
helpful tips & tricks.
Writing Center Materials
Writer's Notebooks: Composition or Spiral Notebook
Paper-lined, unlined, construction, stationery
Pencils, pens, color pencils
Blue Colored Pencils for Revising
Red Colored Pencils for Editing
Markers
Highlighters
Hole puncher
Tape
Paper fasteners
Stapler
Folders
Notebook Rings
Date Stamp
Stickers
Stamps
Stamp Pads
Clipboards
Rulers
Glue
Erasers
Alphabet Cards
Books/Magazines to cut apart
Bag full of interesting things to "spark" ideas
Magnetic letters
Map
Greeting Cards to cut apart
Thesaurus
Dictionary
High Frequency Word list
Food Word list
Number Word list
People Word list
Examples of different types of book-making
Lesson Planning
Just like the set up for Guided Reading, Writer's Workshop requires
spending a few weeks setting up routines in the classroom. Many of
these ideas are ones from various teachers that I have learned from.
I cannot take credit for most of these ideas and will not.
Here are the mini-lessons that I use to introduce Writer's Workshop
routines. After I teach each one of these mini-lessons, students
write independently. These routines cover the first few weeks of
school. After that, the students are writing to the district prompts
that are provided for us.
Managing a Writer's Workshop
Ideally, I would have every student on the same page, but the
reality is that doesn't happen. I have tried several different ways
to "Status the Class". I have tried the "raise the hand" method, the
"move the clip to the stage you're on" method, and my favorite
(note: Sarcasm) the "move your card to the stage you're on" method.
None of these worked for me. I noticed that the students we're not
moving their clips like I had intended. I purchased these wonderful
student flipcharts from
Really Good Stuff. I have
placed a piece of Velcro on the bottom of these and on the students'
desks. This way when they move on, they flip their chart to the next
stage. What I mostly love is that the side the students see tell
what each stage of the writing process means, the side that I see
says what they are doing. Instead of keeping these on their desks, I
store them in a bucket. When the mini-lesson is finished, I dismiss
students back to their desks. On their way back, they are to pick up
a flip chart and go ahead and place it on the correct step.
I always forget who I need to conference with. To make this easy on
my I created a
weekly chart with student names. Each one has enough
space that I can write down notes about what we talked about. By the
end of the week I can see if I talked to everyone. I have 4 groups
in my class. Since, I teach writing 4 days a week (Fridays are
Catch-Up day), I conference with those from that group. So on
Mondays, I see my first group, Tuesdays my second, so on and so
forth.
Grading
Because our district uses Prompt writing, I have created rubrics to
go with each of the Unit Prompts. Typically, there are 3-4 prompts
per grading period. I also calculate in their Grammar grades.
Nothing is weighted. As a fellow experience 3rd grade teacher once
told me, "there's no need to weight things in 3rd grade, let the
secondary teachers take care of that. The rubrics that I use follow
the rubrics for our writing series. I have aligned them to the 6+1
Traits and added on points for neatness. Students in MO have a
writing portion on the state test. It is important that students
understand that if the judges can't read it, they won't grade it.
It's amazing how quickly their handwriting improves when they see
the "0" they got in presentation.
Persuasive Letter Rubric
Fairy Tale Rubric
How-to Rubric
Writing Picture Books
Those that know me, understand my passion for using children's
literature throughout all of my lessons. Click on the links below to
take you to the list of books I use in my classroom.
