Writers' Workshop: Empowering Kids to Write the Stories of Their Lives
- Meredith Goldberg, Elementary Cycle 3 English teacher, Selwyn House School
Writers' Workshop can be an empowering experience for students. It all begins with the Lifebook, a place to nurture the stories of everyday life. Through mini-lessons, these seeds are expanded into short texts, full of rich images and emotion.
What is Writers' Workshop?
A Lifebook is…
1. Procedures/Management
2. Writers' Craft
3. Conventions
Resources:
What is Writers' Workshop?
- Student-centered learning
- Authentic Learning
- Teacher Mind-Set
- Reading/Writing
A Lifebook is…
- A container for thoughts
- An incubator for ideas
- A place to collect things
- A playground for words
1. Procedures/Management
- Schedule for Writers' Workshop
- Choosing a Lifebook
- Using a stapler, staple remover, hole punch, etc.
- Using different kinds of paper
- Basic writing materials and how to use them
- Finding a good spot to write, conference and share
- Computer Lab/Laptop cart rules
- Using word processing software
- Using reference books
- Voice volume during drafting, conferencing, sharing
- How to whisper
- How to self-evaluate and why we do
- Where graphic organizers, rubrics, checklists are found
- What to do if you need help and the teacher is busy
- Organizing a portfolio
- Using a personal dictionary
2. Writers' Craft
- Finding seed ideas
- How to find inspiration in the world around you
- How a writer turns a seed idea into a fleshed out story
- Prewriting techniques
- Crafting good leads
- Showing, not telling
- Grounding dialogue
- Revision techniques
- Editing symbols
- Crafting good endings
- What to do if you are stuck
- Point of view
- Writing for an audience
- Watermelons vs, Seeds (sunrise to sundown vs. focused stories)
- Using strong verbs
- Other words for sai
3. Conventions
- Commonly misspelled words
- Possessives
- Paragraphing
- Ending punctuation
- Run-ons and fragments
- Subject and verb agreement
- Keeping a consistent tense
- Capital letters
- Dialogue punctuation
- Common spelling patterns
- Compound sentences
- Comma usage
- Pronouns
- Juicy adjectives
- Types of sentences
- Conjunction
Resources:
- How's It Going , Carl Anderson – A guide to conferring with students
- The Art of Teaching Writing , Lucy Calkins – A guide to writing in context from one of the masters in the field.
- Units of Studies for Primary Writing (K-2), Lucy Calkins – L. Calkins' newest series of books, a lesson by lesson how-to to teaching WW in grades K-2. A great source for teachers just starting to incorporate WW in the classroom.
- Units of Study for Teaching Writing (Grades 3-5 ), Lucy Calkins
- Craft Lessons , Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi – a book of writer's craft mini-lessons
- Writing Workshop , Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi – a guide to WW
- Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6), Irene Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell – an amazing resource for creating a seamless Reading & Writing Workshop
- A Fresh Look at Writing , Donald Graves – this book details the writing process and how to integrate it into the classroom. It touches on different genres and suggests routines for keeping track of students' progress.
- Revision Toolbox , Georgia Heard – Heard introduces three revision techniques, words, structure and voice, and the mini-lessons and tools to help inspire students to revisit and improve their drafts.
- In the Company of Children , Joanne Hindley – from the mini-lesson through assessment, this book details elementary reading and writing workshops including anecdotes and tips from teachers.
- http://rubistar.4teachers.org - the rubric creator resource for teachers
- www.eric.ed.gov - internet-based digital library of education research and literature. You can assess full-text journal articles on every aspect of education. A great resource for reading up on the thinking and research behind programs like Writers' Workshop.
- www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer
- www.hmco.com/indexf.html
