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Writing WorkshopEach day in class we have Writing Workshop time. Here is an explanation of our Writing Workshop time.
Components of the Writing Workshop Mini-lesson Student Work time Conferences Sharing
Why use Writing Workshop? The basic philosophy behind writing workshop is to allow students to daily spend time writing for real purposes about things that interest them. .In the our classroom, students learn to write daily through varied activities. Students learn the craft of writing through practice, conferring, and studying the craft of other authors. The ultimate goal of a writing workshop is always to develop life-long writers.The writing workshop includes a 5-10 minute mini-lesson, a 30-40 minute work time with conferring and a 5-10 minute wrap up/sharing time. Writer's Workshop exposes students to the organization and thought required to create a story or write about a favorite topic. Because they choose the topic, students are motivated to create and complete works to read to classmates. Kindergarten and first grade students' skills vary and progress at different rates. The goal, therefore, is to move emergent/ early fluency readers into the writing process by guiding them to use phonetics to sound out words, copy and use sight words in meaningful ways, create an awareness of punctuation, and refer to outside resources for spelling corrections. Young students enjoy the independence of early independent writing, the power of their words to express thoughts, and the opportunity to describe experiences to classmates.
What are Writing mini-lessons? Each day our writing time begins with a mini-lesson. A mini-lesson generally lasts 5-10 minutes. We choose a teaching point that we feel would benefit many members of the class. The mini-lesson is our forum for making a suggestion, raising a concern, exploring an issue, modeling a technique, or reinforcing a strategy. We often ask ourselves, "What is the one thing I can suggest or demonstrate that might help most?" In our school we use Lucy Calkins' Primary Units of Study as a resource for many of our mini-lessons. We also teach the 6+1 Traits of Writing:
You can read more about 6 Traits writing by clicking here.
What are Writing conferences? During writers' workshop, teachers individually conference with students about their writing. This allows for teachers to guide each child's writing and maximize growth for all students. While conferences are adjusted to the needs of the specific writer, other students often listen in and try to apply the writing techniques discussed. |
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