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The Three Pillars of Writers Workshop

This presentation explores the three essential components of a successful writers workshop: mini-lessons, individual student conferences, and writers notebooks.

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The Three Pillars of Writers Workshop

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  1. The Three Pillars of Writers Workshop NESA Spring Educators Conference Bangkok, Thailand April 4, 2011 Janine A. King

  2. The Three Pillars of Writers Workshop The Mini-lesson Individual Student Conferences Writers Notebooks Janine A. King

  3. Structure of a Workshop Janine A. King

  4. The Mini-Lesson • Short • Direct • One teaching point (posted) • Explanation • Modeling/demonstration/examples Janine A. King

  5. The Architecture of a Mini-lesson • Teaching Point • Connection • Teach • Active Engagement • Link • Share Janine A. King

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  7. Mini-lesson Demonstration What’s in a name? Writers write about what they know well. Janine A. King

  8. Conferring With Writers Janine A. King

  9. The Architecture of a Conference • Research • Compliment • Teach • Link Janine A. King

  10. Research Instead of, “How’s it going?” ask “What are you working on in your writing today?” Janine A. King

  11. Compliment • Authentic • Specific • Keep in mind where you want to take this student as a writer. (Remember… you want to teach the writer not “fix” his or her writing). Janine A. King

  12. Teach • Connect to the compliment • Small steps – take the writer from where s/he is to the next step • Demonstrate or show an example in your own notebook or draft • Give the student something specific to try then wait for evidence of understanding or check back in a few minutes Janine A. King

  13. Link • Apply your teaching point to writing in general Janine A. King

  14. Record Keeping • Provides assessment information • Builds a profile of the student • Guides future conferences • Helps intentionally develop the student as a writer and a reader Janine A. King

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  18. Types of Conferences • Content • Compliment • “Keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working!” • Expectation • when a student isn’t doing what they need to be doing • Goal • Example: stamina • Inquiry • “ Together let’s figure out some things you are working on and where you might go with them.” Janine A. King

  19. Conferring Around Notebooks RESEARCH • Look for: • Habits • Effort • Generating • Developing ideas/meaning • Volume • Stamina • Growth Janine A. King

  20. Conferring Around Drafts RESEARCH • Look for: • Meaning • Why is this important? • Is it focused in on a small moment? • Organization • Beginning, middle, end • Leads/conclusions • Craft • Action • Dialogue • Inner thinking • Detail Janine A. King

  21. “Cheat Sheets” • What are the goals of the unit? • What are some common challenges of the genre? Janine A. King

  22. Conferring Practice “Student” • Read the piece of writing and make it your own. “Teacher” • Confer with the student and record the parts of the conference. Remember… • Hands off the writing • Look for what is good. • Teach the writer instead of fixing the writing. Janine A. King

  23. Writers Notebooks The Heart and Soul of Writers Workshop Janine A. King

  24. Writers notebooks… give you a place to write every day to • explore your writing • take risks • record your thinking • note your observations of the world around you • practice living like a writer Janine A. King

  25. Getting Started Janine A. King

  26. What’s in a name? • Where does your name come from? • What do you like/dislike about your name? • What about nicknames? Janine A. King

  27. This story makes me think of… • Think about a time something like this happened to you. • What feelings did you have when you listened to this story? Janine A. King

  28. Laundry Lists • Best Life Events • Worst Life Events • Notable Quotes • Interesting Words • Unusual Facts • Scary Stories Janine A. King

  29. Observations – Using Your Senses “Your writers notebook can work as an alarm clock to remind you to wake up and pay attention to the world” Ralph Fletcher Janine A. King

  30. Music to My Pen “What is living if I can’t live free? What is freedom if I can’t be me?” Bonnie Raitt Janine A. King

  31. Tips • Keep your own writers notebook • Write regularly • Share your writing spontaneously • Praise effort – especially in the beginning • Be patient Janine A. King

  32. Caution • Prompts • Journaling or diary entries • Teacher handouts • Note taking • Lack of growth/change over time Janine A. King

  33. Resources Mini-lessons • The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (and They’re All Hard Parts) by Katie Wood Ray and Lester L. Laminack • Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 by Lucy Calkins • Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and Writing Workshops Grades 4-12 by Heather Lattimer Janine A. King

  34. Resources (continued) Conferring • Assessing Writers by Carl Anderson Notebooks • Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook by Aimee Buckner • A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You by Ralph Fletcher Janine A. King

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