Launching the Writing Workshop

1. Launching the Writing Workshop Writing Process for Upper Elementary Grade Writers Grades 6-8

2. Launching the Writing Workshop • Introductions • Sharing: Personal Narrative • Model & demonstrating • Partner introductions & sharing • Writing: How are you feeling about your experience so far? Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5

3. Writing Choice: • Write about a time when writing was successful or empowering to you…. OR • Write about a time when writing was frustrating or did not feel good to you. Be prepared to share your experience with a partner.

4. I. Starting the Writing Workshop • Connection • Begins minilesson – how it will fit into their lives as writers • Celebrate the wonderful memories that fill the classroom, but remind students that the goals is not only to remember but also to think. • Teaching Point: tell students what you’ll be teaching them • Teaching • Next – something they’ll use often as they write • Demonstrate a strategy we use to write with greater accuracy, fluency and comprehension. • Use an example of one child’s work in order to show the steps a writer can take in order to generate and shape expository sections of a text. Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5

5. I. Starting the Writing Workshop cont’d • Active Engagement • Then give all students a quick opportunity to try what we’ve taught… • Set students up to examine one student’s draft, looking for the structure in it • Review the steps this student took to structure her writing and timeline her thoughts, steps that you also hope other writers might take • Link • To bring closure, we usually link the minilesson to what the class learned on a previous day… • Jot a note in the margin and keep going. Remember the writing process involves drafting, then researching, analyzing and deciding, then making and revising plans.

6. Writing • What are the big things you think about? • Record three. • Pick a small moment. Choose one to write about. • Which aspect of a small moment had most high emotion or conflicting emotion? • Make a connection to the personal narrative. Make a ‘movie’ and act it out – play and make meaning. • What are the emotions from your small moment? • Record them. • What are the conflicting emotions? • Record them. Expand on one of these emotions.

7. Share: • Mid-workshop (mid-interrupt strategy) to add a new piece from the group • Complement a place of success to build on positive in conference

8. Discussion & Sharing • Who is the reading for – audience? • Mini-lesson attributes & set up • Personal narrative • Small moment

9. References

10. II. Generating More Writing pg 15 • Minilesson • Connection • Teaching • Active Engagement • Link Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5

11. 3. The Writing Process for Upper-Elementary-Grade Writers • Teaching 8-, 9-, & 10 year-olds the Writing Process • Read pages 12 & 13 to yourself JIGSAW – Chapter 3: Each member reads two sections to share with whole group • Pacing & Materials • Rehearsal for Writing • Drafting • Revision • Editing • Cycling through the Entire Process A Guide to the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5

12. Linking Reading and Writing • Writers can start a story by describing the setting. We can name the time and place, but we can take this further as in… • Lois Lowry’s - Crow Call

13. Linking Reading to Writing • Writers use gestures, postures, and facial expressions to show the emotions that our characters are experiencing.