Herb Budden, Co-director, Hoosier Writing Project, IUPUI

http://budden.wikispaces.com

Goals:

To increase background knowledge for WHY Writing Workshop is a valuable approach

To leave knowing the essential components & practical aspects of establishing a Writing Workshop

Much attention, many ‘strategies’How do 6+1 Traits of WritingWriting ProcessWriters’ Workshop

Fit together coherently??

Some Challenges to Common Beliefs:

Students, not teachers, should be the main audience for each other’s writing.

Teacher-assigned writing topics too often encourage fake writing.

Writing is the key to differentiation in diverse classrooms.

Writing is the best preparation for high-stakes tests in all subjects.

Today’s kids are the most experienced authors most of us will ever teach.

Writing can be fun. It can bring out the best in kids: curiosity, voice, craftsmanship, and playfulness.

FOUR IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING WRITING IN

SCHOOL:

 

Although writing is natural, it is activated

by enabling environments

These environments have the following

characteristics: they are safe, structured,

unobtrusive, and literate

Adults in these environments have two special roles: they are

fellow practitioners, and they are providers of

possible content, experiences and feedback.

Children need frequent

opportunities to practice writing, many of these

playful. Janet Emig. 1983. The web of

meaning: essays on writing, teaching, learning, and thinking. Portsmouth,NH: Boynton/Cook.

WW is where writers use writing to do powerful things… We should USE the

writing process, 6 Traits, and the WW

We should not DO them, as

…that implies these things are a curriculum to be ‘covered.’

Writers as builders…

Some reasons WW is valuable: It ensures that kids actually get writing done.

It lets you instantaneously see what they are succeeding with and what is tripping them up, whether in the writing or in the content you are teaching.

It allows you to individualize instruction you can help, explain, or teach a lesson to just the students who need it, just when the issue is on their minds.

It’s actually much more efficient than whole-class instruction—you can decide whether to help one student (while the others are working), a small group, or everyone, based on what you observe on the spot.

How does WW foster learning?

Through:

Student Engagement, created by:

TimeChoiceResponse

Individual Goal Setting

Through: Students working independently

Focused teaching Modeling Teacher-student conferences and observation

Through:

Progress tracking over time through: Conference records Writing folders

Sharing results with an immediate, real audience.

To review: Essential Characteristics of WW… Choices about content Time for writing Teaching Talking Periods of focused study Publication rituals High expectations and safety Structured management Ray, Katie Wood. 2001. The writing workshop: working through the

hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: NCTE.

Typical Components of WW, regardless of grade level: 1. Minilessons 5-15 2. Status of the Class 2-3 3. Writing / Conferring Time

20-40 4. Sharing / Author’s Chair

5-10

1. Minilesson: a short piece of direct instruction. (5-15 min) Procedures. A lesson on what needs to

be done to participate in the workshop, like how to store and organize papers, how to request a conference, etc.

Strategies Writers Use –”Craft”. Things like “how do I pick a topic?” or “how do I write a good lead?” Best focused on the writing process.

Qualities of Good Writing “Craft and Conventions”. These lessons let students see how to judge writing. 6 Trait time!

Minis work best when:

They are suggested by students

They are taught in the context of authentic student writing

The teacher models for students as the lesson is delivered

2. Status of the Class: a quick way of finding out what students will be working on. (2-3 min) Out loud: students tell what they’ll

be working on…writing process stage is most helpful

Visually: Students indicate on chart what they’re working on

Recorded on paper: a sheet is circulated or teacher records

Status of the Class works best when: if you do it out loud everyone can hear everyone

else students choose their own

topics, forms, and genres and manage their own way through the writing process

3. Writing Time… the centerpiece of the workshop; the teacher: (20-40 min)

Models…work on your own writing; an extremely valuable thing to do!

Confers with students…this is the most valuable teaching time

Conducts small-group conferences

Writing Time works best when: Students have internalized

effective classroom procedures Students write frequently and for

longer periods of time on a regular schedule

You write with your students for at least a few minutes during most WW.

Conferring…working individually with students..keys are good management (during writing time) Management: Students need to be able

to know when the teacher is available for conference; how to request a conference in an appropriate way; how to be specific about what they want help with; have all materials ready

Execution: Conferences are brief! Model conferences; ask questions before making recommendations; work on one thing at a time; make sure the student knows what to do when leaving a conference

Conferring works best when: Students know how to do it You stay focused on one thing at a

time Conferences are less than 5

minutes You check back with students from

time to time to see if they’re following up on what you conferred about

More advice on conferring: Don’t correct… Inspect the writing closely Detect those parts that work and those

that don’t Reflect on why some things work and

some don’t Connect reactions to author’s intent Respect the writer’s reactions Perfect the communication between

author and audience Expect to repeat the process

4. Sharing/Author’s Chair: a chance to address a real audience for feedback (5-10 min)

Whole Class: gives authors good feedback, but takes a lot of time. Great tool for building community

Small Group: Time efficient, but harder to manage. Monitor each group’s members for participation

Partner: Most time efficient, but feedback may be less helpful

Sharing works best when:

It is voluntary The author asks the audience to listen for

or help with something specific Kids with long pieces read only a short

section Students make constructive comments

using common language from 6 Traits Everyone knows that all comments, even

the teacher’s, are suggestions only Students ask mostly questions instead of

making comments

General TIPS: Concentrate on classroom management by focusing on

procedural minilessons at the beginning of the year If you have less than 40 minutes, drop the minilesson and

sharing. Do a quick SOC and then go right to writing time.

Teach students to run their own WW so you don’t have to Keep a list of things from your reading program that

students like, and use it as basis for minilessons Encourage shy kids to share by asking if you can share

for them Keep an in-class library of published student work for

students to read Have fun every day

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR WW Remember that WW is flexible! The essence of WW is not what you

teach, but how you teach it. If most of your writing time includes kids writing on their own topics, if you participate as a fellow writer, if everyone shares writing regularly, and if you follow the kids and teach to their needs instead of a pre-planned curriculum, you’re doing WW

Four Approaches to WW:

“Traditional”-- includes mini, status, writing/conferring, sharing in that order…

Most people start this way—is most similar to traditional teaching…use to exert control, to set the stage for lesson content or an important goal, or to start everyone off on a specific type of project. Some people use this format every day.

“Share First”– Sharing, Mini, Status, Writing Time…

Kids love sharing first; teacher gets a chance to collect thoughts…as kids share, listen for specific things to work on…then ask kids if they’d like a lesson on it.

“No Lesson”-- includes only status of class, writing time, and sharing.

Good approach when short on time or don’t have a lesson you want to give. It’s good to do this regularly because it lets kids know they have to get right down to business. Good to use later in the year when everyone knows the procedures.

“Dynamic” – you do any of the components in any order only when you judge them important…

Good to change the tempo of the class, switching can help settle kids down, allows the most flexibility

LOGISTICS– Keeping Writing Organized

Organizing student writing Gr K-2:Use wide-ruled notebook of some

sort for pre-writing and drafting plus a simple tw0-pocket folder. On one side of the folder, students keep writing ideas and teacher handouts. On the other, they keep on-going work. The teacher keeps a third set of files for each student to store published work.

Organizing student writing Gr 3-up: Many teachers use a Writer’s

Notebook-Draft Folder-Showcase Folder system

Some teachers use a 3-ring binder with divider sections named for each stage of the writing process. As students move a piece through the process, they store their work in the appropriate section

Working folder

Showcase/Portfolio

Writer’s notebook

Writer’s Notebook…a typical setup P. 1-3 Table of contents P. 4-10 What should I write? P. 11-12 Terms I need to remember P. 13-14 My spelling demons P. 15-40 Craft—what good writers do P. 41-65 Editing issues P. 66-- My writing

Date

Name

PW: pre-writing—webbing, story mapping RD: rough draftC: conferring, peer response, review RV: reviseED: editing PUB: publishing

Independent Correction Sheet

Use this sheet to keep track of areas where you can improve your writing. The various selections enable you to track areas where you can strengthen your writing.

Write the sentence where the problem occurs here:

Write a corrected version of the sentence here:

Identify the particular problem and the problem area here:grammar punctuationword choice sentence structurerun-on verb tensecomma documentationclarity active voicespelling dead wordsgrammar punctuationword choice sentence structurerun-on verb tensecomma documentationclarity active voicespelling dead wordsgrammar punctuationword choice sentence structurerun-on verb tensecomma documentationclarity active voicespelling dead wordsgrammar punctuationword choice sentence structurerun-on verb tensecomma documentationclarity active voicespelling dead words

Desks and seating: Many teachers prefer a semi-circular

arrangement where all students have an unobstructed view of the sharing and teaching positons. Rows & columns are not good!

Many teachers have writing resources and conferring ‘stations’ or designated areas in the room.