Launching the Writer’s Notebook and Writing Workshop

1. Launching the Writer’s Notebook and Writing Workshop Dr. Beth Frye Appalachian State University Inspired by Donald Graves, Donald Murray, Lucy Calkins, Aimee Buckner, Ralph Fletcher, and Stacey Shubitz

2. Children want to write…if we let them. Donald Graves • Pioneer in the teaching of writing to children • “Father” of writing workshop • Writing instruction was revolutionized as a result of his research conducted in Atkinson, New Hampshire • Graves speaks to us as teachers of writing… • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ_sXJKiiSA

3. Graves’ Fundamentals in the Teaching of Writing: • Children need to choose most of their own topics. But we need to show them all the places writing comes from, that it is often triggered by simple everyday events. (CHOICE) • Children need regular response to their writing from both the teacher and other readers. (RESPONSE) • Children need to write a minimum of three days out of five. Four or five days are ideal. (TIME) • Children need to publish, whether by sharing, collecting, or posting their work. (PUBLISH) • Children need to hear their teacher talk through what she is doing as she writes on the overhead or the chalkboard. In this way the children witness their teacher’s thinking. (WRITE WITH CHILDREN) • Children need to maintain collections of their work to establish a writing history. Collections show that history when they are used as a medium for evaluation. (NOTEBOOK) From Writing: Teachers and Children at Work (Graves, 2003)

4. Graves on Choice… How well I remember Amy, a fourth-grade youngster in our research project in Atkinson, New Hampshire. The researcher, Lucy Calkins, kept asking this remarkable young writer how she wrote but got little response. Finally, Amy announced that she knew how she wrote: “Last night I was sitting in bed wondering how I would start my fox piece. But I couldn’t come up with anything. My cat Sidney, sat on the bed next to me. I said, “Sidney, how am I going to start my fox piece?” but I still couldn’t come up with anything. Finally, at about 10:30, my sister came home and turned on the hall light. Now over my doorknob there is a round hole where you’d have a turnlock. When my sister turned on the hall light a beam of light came through the hole and struck Sidney in the face and Sidney went squint. Then I knew how I would start my fox piece.” The piece goes something like this: ‘There was a fox who lived in a den beneath a stump. At midday a beam of light came through a crack in the stump and caught the fox in the eyes and the fox went squint’. That’s how I knew I’d start my fox piece.” Here is a child in a constant state of composition: she knew that tomorrow she would write (time) and that she could write about the fox (choice of topic). The time she devoted to pondering the best lead for her piece was time well spent. When children choose their own topics, I can expect more of their writing. “What did you set out to do here? Did you have an audience in mind for this?” From the beginning in our conference I can focus my questions on their initiative and their intentions.

5. Graves on Writing TIME… • If students are not engaged in writing at least four days out of five, and for a period of thirty-five to forty minutes, beginning in first grade, they will have little opportunity to learn to think through the medium of writing. Three days a week are not sufficient. There are too many gaps between the starting and stopping of writing for this schedule to be effective. Only students of exceptional ability who can fill the gaps with their own initiative and thinking, can survive such poor learning conditions. Students from another language or culture, or those who feel, they have little to say are particularly affected by this limited amount of time for writing. • When a teacher asks me, “I can only teach writing once a week. What kind of program should I have?” my response is, “Don’t teach it at all. You will encourage poor habits in your students and they will only learn to dislike writing. Think of something you enjoy doing well; chances are you involve yourself in it far more than one or two times a week.” • “The Seven Conditions for Effective Writing, from his book, A Fresh Look at Writing, 1994

6. Responding to Writing … My first response to student work comes in the form of short conferences (see Chapter 5) as I move around the classroom during writing time. Each class session I rove among the desks, connecting with perhaps six to ten students while they are engaged in writing. Students are constantly writing; as soon as they finish one piece they begin another. Some may be just starting to write, while others are beginning a second draft, and still others are considering final copy. I recognize that since students are constantly writing, it is not possible to respond to all of their work. I keep careful records on which students I visit so that each student, over time, gets a response. At the end of each class, time is set aside for sharing students’ writing and their learning experiences during their writing. One or two students share a piece while the rest of the class listens carefully,  first stating what they have heard and remembered from the piece [students RECEIVE the piece], then asking questions to learn more about various aspects of the piece. This general sharing can also include talk about practices that worked and those that didn’t, new verbs, quick profiles of the genres in which children are writing, and brief introductions to fictional characters. This end-of-class experience reaffirms the essential conditions for writing: in this class we experiment and learn.“The Seven Conditions for Effective Writing, from his book, A Fresh Look at Writing, 1994

7. Write with the children… • Teachers don’t have to be expert writers to “write” with the children. In fact, there may be an advantage in growing with them, learning together as both seek to find meaning in writing. However, it does take courage to show words to children who haven’t seen an adult write before… • When teachers compose before the children on an overhead projector or on large sheets of paper mounted on an easel, they speak as they write. Children need to hear the teacher speak aloud about the thinking that accompanies the process: topic choice, how to start the piece, lining out, looking for a better word, etc. … • Modeling helps teachers understand their own writing. Because they model various elements of the writing process, they will know what to observe in the children. They see differently because they have been through the writing process, composing the words before the children. • From Writing: Teachers and Children at Work (Graves, 2003).

8. Writing Workshop • Let’s take a look at a 1st Grade Class-Writing Workshop • Writing workshop is a block of time set aside to…write! The period of time consists of teachers modeling, demonstrating and teaching students about writing; students writing authentically then sharing their work. • Teaching-minilesson (5-15 minutes) • WRITING-Rehearsing, Drafting and Conferring (25-35 minutes) • Sharing-reflecting-author’s chair (5-10 minutes) Donald graves suggests that both teaching and writing are crafts. The writing workshop involves BOTH. “We don’t find many teachers of oil painting, piano, ceramics, or drama who are not practitioners in their fields. Their students see them in action in the studio. They can’t teach without showing what they mean. There is a process to follow. There is a process to learn. That’s the way it is with a craft. Whether it be teaching or writing. There is a road, a journey to travel, and there is, someone to travel with us, someone who has already made the trip.” (p. 6) From Writing: Teachers and Children at Work (Graves, 2003).

9. Over time in a writing workshop I hope to see students developing... • Sense of self as writers • Develop Writing Stamina • ways of reading the world like writers, collecting ideas with variety, volume, and thoughtfulness • as members of a responsive, literate community • ways of reading texts like writers, developing a sense of craft, genre, and form in writing • a sense of audience, and an understanding of how to prepare writing into the world • Please take a look at what it means to be INVESTED in your writing…and the art of imitation.  From: The Writing Workshop, by Katie Ray

10. 4th Grade Teacher’s Minilesson • Method of teaching the whole class short, focused and memorable lessons that will help students become more effective writers. • Elements of the minilesson: • Connection: 1-2 minutes • Teaching: 5-6 minutes • Active Engagement: 2-3 minutes • Link: 1-2 minutes

11. Minilessons • Organized around the following features of writing: • Organizational: Procedural, Guidelines • - Rules for writers' workshop • - How to organize a writing notebook • - How to locate materials: writing center, writing folder • - How to help yourself • - What to do when you think you're done • See Two Writing Teachers for their beginning procedures • Strategies • - How to generate topic list—see minilesson • Likes from ME MAPS • SEE MR. DAVIDYAK’S ABOUT ME PAGE • - How to revise for meaning • - How to add details-5Ws and H=Sentence Expansion • - How to narrow the focus from topic to small moment • - How to eliminate unnecessary information • - How to edit for spelling errors and self-correct • - How to reread • - How to organize your paper

12. Minilesson Topics • Conventions • - How to use closing punctuation • - How to use commas in a series • - How to use pronouns correctly • - How to use quotation marks • Author's Craft • - How to bury “tired” words (Word Graveyard) • - How to use dialogue tags • - How to create a good lead • - How to use figurative language • - How to "show not tell" • - How to create setting • - How to use vivid verbs and descriptive words • See these links for minilesson resources: • http://busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/writing_workshop.html • http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/writing_workshop%20Structure.htm

13. Why Write…4th Graders Explain

14. WHAT We Write:

15. What might we work on with this student? Which type of minilesson might work well?

16. Minilesson Checklist • Connection • I connected today's work with our ongoing work. • I explicitly stated my teaching point. • Teaching • I restated my teaching point. • I told a personal or class story connected to the teaching point. • I demonstrated by thinking aloud. • I pointed out things students should have noticed. • I involved a student in re-teaching the concept (as often as possible). • Active Involvement (Includes sharing) • I asked students to be actively involved by turning and talking. • I listened / observed / coached their active involvement. • I shared examples of what I heard / observed. • Link • I restated the teaching point. • I told students how what I had taught can be used in the future.

17. What is a Writer’s Notebook? A writer’s notebook is a place to record ideas, observations, memories, overheard conversations, words, reactions, etc. It is a place to write down what you love, what makes you angry, melancholy, or amazed; to write down what you noticed and don’t want to forget. A writer’s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer. “I journal to understand my life as I’m living it. I use my journals as a place to put the things that spill out over the edges of my life: photo negatives, scraps of paper, poems I have heard and loved, my sorrow, and epiphanies, the true and the questions. My journals have become guideposts for my life. Maybe it’s the same way for you, and so I invite you inside my world. With this journal, you can create the book you most want to find.” - Sabrina Ward Harrison

18. Writer’s Notebook • A Writer’s Notebook gives students a place to write every day…to practice living like a writer. The purpose of a notebook is that it provides students the practice of simply writing. It’s a place for them to generate text, find ideas, and practice what they know about spelling and grammar. It’s the act of writing — the practice of generating text and building fluency– that leads writers to significance. Aimee Buckner • See these 3rd graders’ notebooks!

19. Journal=Notebook • Personal journal writing can be a means of validating each child, of saying to each child that what goes on in your life is important, that what you think and feel is relevant, and that everyday events are the things writers write about. Children are full of stories, regardless of their backgrounds, but many of them don’t know they have stories to tell. An encouraging teacher can help bring out children’s stories and celebrate them. In doing so, we affirm our students, build their self-esteem, and encourage them as writers. • Regie Routman- Invitations: Changing as Teacher and Learners K-12 (p. 197-199)

20. Benefits of Notebooking… • Promotes fluency in writing and reading—a place to practice writing • Builds writing stamina • Encourages risk taking • Provides opportunities for observation, discovery and reflection • Validates personal experiences and feelings (everyday experiences) • Provides a safe place to write • Promotes visible thinking • Promotes the development of written language conventions • Provides a vehicle for evaluation and a record of writing • Provides an opportunity for writers to find significance

21. How do we launch the notebooks? • Possibilities include: • Aimee Buckner’s read aloud/storytelling session—using literature as a springboard for writing in the notebook • An invitation to begin the notebook—wrap the notebook up like a present and an include and invitation. See examples on next slides… • What else…your ideas • Ralph Fletcher’s Tip for Young Writers

22. 4th Grade Teacher Ms. Burris INVITES Her Students to Notebook! • Why do we write? • to express ourselves • to collect ideas and thoughts • to tell stories about our life • to collect memories • to learn about ourselves • to observe our world • to have fun • to be a writer • Pictures of Invitation This is a Writer's Notebook. It is a place that belongs only to you. You can put anything you want in it. A place to write about your life, your dreams, your fears, and yourself. Your Writer's Notebook will be your new friend who listens only to you.

23. 4th Grade Teacher Ms. Burris INVITES Her Students to Notebook! Your first assignment: Decorate your notebook! You can use anything-pictures, drawings, crayons, colored pencils, glue. Be creative! This notebook should reveal who you are! Your second assignment: Make a list of what you like. Write a few details about each item on the list. • Pictures of Invitation

24. Additional Ideas… • See examples of classroom teachers’ invitations! • Examples of Journal Invitations:

25. Strategies for Generating Notebooking Ideas • Please explore Ruth Ayres and HER NOTEBOOK IDEAS! • (Ruth is one of the teachers from Two Writing Teachers…LOVE HER!) • Wonderings: What do you wonder about? Pay attention to what you constantly think about or what haunts you…what images or memories keep running around in your mind even when you try not to think about them? • Explore these questions in your notebook.

26. “Observation of the Room” • Read the room right now. • Write a quick entry about what you notice, how you feel about school today, an overheard conversation or anything else you wish to record about what’s happening in here this morning.

27. Favorite Place • Think of a favorite place. What season is it? • It could be anything from your favorite chair in the living room, to your deck, to a favorite vacation spot. • List small moments related to that place. • Write about one of those small moments in your writer’s notebook.

28. Important Person/Animal to YOU • Think about a person or animal who is important to you (living or deceased). • List as many small moments as you can about that person or animal. • Write about one of those small moments with him/her.

29. Read a Photograph • Read and study the photograph. • Think about: • Who or what is pictured? • Where was the picture taken? • When was the picture taken? • Why did you choose this photo to bring in today? • Write about the small moment related to the photograph.

30. Look at an Object • Examine the object closely. • When did you get it? • Where did you buy or acquire it from? • Who gave it to you? • Why is it important? • List everything! • Write a small moment entry related to this object.

31. Writing Small Use your writer’s notebook to jot down interesting details you see, smell, hear, taste, feel, etc. We know it’s the details that make writing come alive! You can train yourself to notice the details around you. Use all of your senses. Reread your notebook and look for places where you are using tired, general words. What other words could you use???

32. Dreams Get into the habit of writing down dreams before they leave you. Dreams can make for interesting stories. Remember to keep you journal by your bed…

33. Snatches of Talk Writers are fascinated by talk, obsessed with what people say and how they say it, how they interrupt themselves, the words they repeat, the way they pronounce or mispronounce certain words. The way we talk reveals who we are. Notebooks can be filled with dialogue. Learn to listen wherever you go.

34. Lists Many writers keep lists: favorite songs, favorite places, favorite books, movies to see, ideas for all sorts of writing projects. Keep a section in your notebook for your favorite words, unusual words, new words, and remarkable words. Listing facts is one of the best ways to brainstorm about a subject that interests you.

35. Memories Memories just may be the most important possession any writer has. Our memories shape what we write. As a writer, you need to connect yourself with your own unique history. When you explore memories in your writing, pay attention to the feelings connected to it. Exploring a memory includes looking into not only what happened but also how it affected you then, and how it affects you know.

36. Writing that Inspires The notebook can work as a scrapbook to collect important relics from your life. You can also use your notebook as a different sort of scrapbook, a place to gather writing that inspires you. Use your notebook as a container to hold all the beautiful writing you collect.

37. Minilessons That Address Notebook Entries • Process/Procedural • Qualities of Good Writing-Narrative entries • Volume • Conventions **This slide and the next 6 slides were borrowed/revised from Stacey Schubitz**

38. Process/Procedural Goals • How to get started (on an entry) • What to do when you get stuck. • How to go from one entry to the next entry.

39. Qualities of Good Writing Goals • Entries include the following: • Focus • Choose a topic that you know about and care about • Focus on one aspect of the topic-a small moment • Show/explain what happened • Include how you feel about what happened. • Easily Understood • Appropriate use of… • Dialogue • Sensory description • Crafting strong leads and endings • Development of the internal story • Show and don’t tell.

40. Volume Goals • Aim for 2 entries/day. • Approximately 12 entries/week. • You should expect their entries to be about 1 page long.

41. Convention Goals • Spelling • Hold students accountable for spelling patterns that have been previously taught and words they can spell with their spelling dictionaries. • Punctuation • Making appropriate choices about when to use periods, exclamation points, question marks, commas and quotation marks. • Paragraphing • Whenever there’s a new person introduced, a new person talking or there’s a move to a different place.

42. Management Tipsto establish during the first weeks of school • Always work towards independence. • Don’t be afraid to use Workshop time to teach management. • What to do when you’re done with an entry. • My job/your job in a conference. • Make sure you’re building stamina. Increase amount of writing time daily until you are where you wish to be. • Use mid-workshop interruptions to give students a break. • Can be compliments that reflect independence. • Create word walls and tools (for WW folders) to help students with their spelling, word choice, etc. • Compliment Conferences • Quick conferences that consist of 1-2 research questions, then give the student a “paragraph worth of speech” as a compliment. Then, move on! • Teach-Only Conference • Drop a teaching point to kids as you work the room. • Example: “Oh, don’t forget to do _______________.” • Build-in time to move around the room to see what’s going on in-between conferences. Adapted from a presentation at T.C. by Jen Serravallo, 8/18/06.

43. Notebook Rubric

44. You never know how a day is going to turn out. Some days you wish you’d never gotten out of bed. Some days you feel like you’re walking on air. And some days are in-between. I’m going to keep a notebook for a year, collect a bunch of days, and see what I end up with. I’m hoping that if I look at a whole year of writing, there’ll be more good stuff than bad. • Amelia’s 5th-Grade Notebook by Marissa Moss

45. Lucy Calkins Lucy Calkins-Research Assistant under Graves; developed the concept of minilessons; launched writing workshop to be the foundation of language arts instruction • “When we teach writing, we will probably not begin by talking about writing, but rather, by demonstrating the power and purposes writing has in our lives, and by inviting students to discover ways that writing can enrich their lives as well.” p. 31 • “In the workshop children write about what is alive and vital and real for them—and other writers in the room listen and extend and guide, laugh and cry and marvel.” p. 19 The Art of Teaching Writing, (Calkins, 1994) 

46. From Calkins (1994): • When teachers asked the author Avi, “What do we do if our kids won’t write?” Avi answered, “First you have to love them. If you can convince your children that you love them, then there’s nothing you can’t teach them.” (pp. 17-18)

47. Excellent Resources • http://www.davidson.k12.nc.us/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=27980&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-55201&PHPSESSID=e1f35eb392a0532fff2fb8755e89ad62 • http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/