Launching the Writing Workshop

1. Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5 Chelsea Belcher EDRE

2. Starting the Writing Workshop • Build your student’s identities as writers by praising stories they’ve already told • Build your student’s enthusiasm for writing and explain writers workshop • Name a teaching point explicitly- Today we will learn about… TEACH: Invite children to become writers, and you’ll teach a strategy for generating personal narratives

3. Mini-Lesson • Think of a person who matters to you, then list clear small moments you remember with him or her. Choose one to sketch and then write the story that explains it.

4. Mom • Dad • Trevor

5. List 2-3 little moments in your head • When I brought Trevor home • When Trevor heard his first storm • When Trevor saw fireworks for the first time • Draw a snapshot of when that moment started • Now draw what happened next. • Now, using tiny details- share your story with your neighbor • Begin writing your story

6. Generating More Writing • Remind students that writers use many strategies to write • Give examples of a writer using that strategy • Have students try that strategy TEACH: Teach students that writers sometimes think of a meaningful place, list small moments related to it, then select one and write about it.

7. Qualities of Good Writing • Detailed • Always be explicit • Seeds- Not watermelon ideas • Peer workshops/groups • Celebrate TEACH: Teach students that good writing should be focused, detailed, and structured. Good writers tell their stories in scenes rather than in summaries.

8. The Writer’s Job in a Conference • YOU are the best model • Structure • Study • Avoid asking about topic- focus on writing • Self- evaluation TEACH: Introduce students to the structure of a writing convergent and teach them ways writers talk about their writing

9. Questions you may be asked • What are you working on as a writer? • What kind of writing are you making? • What are you doing to make this piece of writing work? • What do you think of what you’ve done so far? • What will you do next? • How will you go about doing that?

10. Building Stories Step-by-Step • Cyclical process • Summarizing v. Storytelling TEACH: Teach students that wtiters unfold stories bit by bit rather than summerizing

11. Choosing Seed Ideas • Seed ideas can come from anywhere • Leave it as a seed or let it grow TEACH: Teach students that writers reread their notebooks, selecting and committing themselves to an idea they develop into a finished piece of writing

12. Revising Leads/Endings • Motivate students in the beginning stages • Writing for your audience • Making those decisions TEACH: Teach students that writers deliberately craft the lead and ending of their stories.

13. Taking Charge of Our Writing Work • They are the writer which means they are the creator. TEACH: Emphasize to students that writers make decisions abut their own work, including when to finish pieces and to start new ones.

14. Timelines TEACH: Teach students that writers can use timelines to plan and structure narratives

15. Mini-Lesson • Timelines as tools for developing stories

16. Let’s make a timeline together using my seed idea.

17. Stretching Our Writing • Where can students elaborate • Summarizing v. Storytelling TEACH: Teach students that writers replay life events to write in ways that let readers feel the experience by writing whole paragraphs from single key events.

18. Mini-Lesson • Writing in passages of thought

19. Developing the Heart of a Story • Give students time • Include in conferences TEACH: Teach students that writers revise by asking, “What’s the most important(or my favorite) part of this story?” and developing that section.

20. Publishing • CELEBRATE! TEACH: Students should celebrate being a community of flourishing writers and share the writing with the public.

21. Remember • Start as early as possible • Don’t get discouraged • Leave last years students in last years memories • Your students are WRITERS and they can’t wait to share their story with YOU!

22. THE END NOW BEGIN WRITING!