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My Home Page » Writer's Workshop
Writer's Workshop
Making Writing Fun
Welcome to Writer's Workshop! 
This site has been designed to be used both at school and at home. It will provide students and parents with an outline to help you write at a variety of grade levels, teach you about a variety of different genres of writing, and provide resources to support your efforts. You may choose to refer to this site if you want some additional writing practice, when we are writing in school, if you need help with writing homework assignments, or if you just feel inspired to write! If you are really "into it", read all of this guide. If you are stuck on one part of your writing, skip to that section! Remember, even though I have checked out all these websites, never go on the internet without a parent's permission and guidance. I hope you have fun working your way through the information and checking out the links. I also hope it helps you strive to find the great Writer inside of you! I'm just a beginning writer...HELP! 
Everyone can and should write! In kindergarten we start out by creating a drawing, picture, sign or other graphic to represent a word or concept. By the end of the year, we are writing and editing a series of complete sentences, as well as exploring different genres, including reports, narrative writing and poetry. Here are some sites that will help the beginning writer get started! http://www.internet4classrooms.com/kplus_writing.htm Links to a variety of activities and printables that parents can use to get their kindergarten and 1st greaders writing. http://www.first-school.ws/theme/handwriting.htm More excellent links. http://www.education.com/activity/kindergarten/writing/ Fantastic site with fun activities for kindergarteners and their parents that can be done at home! http://www.education.com/activity/first-grade/writing/ Fantastic site with more activities for first graders!  The First Steps The first thing you need to do is decide on the "genre" of writing you are going to do. Genre means type or style of writing. There are many different genres including narrative, persuasive, informational, explanatory, poetry and creative writing. For more information on writing genres, click on the link below: http://www2.uhv.edu/trowbridges/RDG%204361%20Handouts%20and%20Content/Websites_-_Writing_Genres.htm A long list of sites parents can access to get information on the writing genres. http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/curriculum/writing/elem_writing/Bib/formschart.htm Great site with awesome links! You can really learn a lot about the genres we study in 3rd grade here! http://www.geocities.com/fifth_grade_tpes/genre.html http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson270/genre_sheet.pdf http://www.pcsp.ie/html/english/nonfictionwriting.pdf This is not a very "kid-friendly" site, but is a great resource if you have an adult to help you!  Picking a topic What do you want to write about? The best writing comes from things you know about or have a high interest in. When you are doing creative writing, poetry, narrative or even explanatory writing, you usually get to pick the topic...yeah! But, sometimes your teacher will assign a report or give you a subject to read and write about. And then, sometimes you want to write but are just plain stuck! If you know what you are going to write about, move on to the next step. If not, maybe some of these websites will help: http://www.kinderkorner.com/starters.html Good article for parents to read and extensive list story starters appropriate for younger children. http://www.kjclass.com/storystarters.html http://www.scbwi.org/creative.htm http://writingprompt.pbwiki.com/ http://web.tampabay.rr.com/memawscorne/Story%20starters.htm http://www.gkbledsoe.com/articles/process/writing_prompt_generator.html This site lets you put key words in and actually use your ideas to get a story started! http://writingfix.com/Traits_Primary.htm#forkids This sight is interactive and has some fun ideas to get kids started on writing activities. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm Great story starters! Who is your audience?  In class you have talked about "knowing who your audience is!" Your teacher has explained that it means that you don't write a letter to a family member the same way you would write to the president of the United States. You don't write a research report that you're going to read to the class the same way you write in your personal journal. Poems aren't written in the same way that an explanatory writing piece is. Sometimes you must carefully follow a format, like when you are writing a formal letter or a report. Other times you can be more playful with your writing, like with a poem on creative writing piece. Knowing your audience helps you to decide how formal your writing should be! Here's some more information on "audience" if you need it: http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/audience.html This is another one that may be hard to read but has great information!  Time to organize! You all know what I'm going to say now...follow the WRITING PROCESS and organize your work before you write. You are learning about lots of different organizers at school: webs, venn diagrams, lists, outlines and many more. As your teacher always tells you, choose the one that's best for the type of writing you are doing and the one you are most comfortable with. Here are sites where you can download a variety of graphic organizers: http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ Houghton-Mifflin website with a large variety of graphic organizers appropriate for kindergarten and first grade writers. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html?wtlA http://www.proteacher.com/cgi-bin/outsidesite.cgi?id=4731&external=http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/sorganiz.htm&original=http://www.proteacher.com/070037.shtml&title=Graphic%20Organizers http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/htree/Curriculum/ThinkingMaps.html This site doesn't have graphic organizers you can download, but does explain how to use many different types.  Let's WRITE!!!  You've got your genre, you've got your ideas, you're organized...now START WRITING. Let it flow! Write on paper, type on the computer...write in the morning, write at lunchtime...write in the bedroom, write in the bathroom. Don't worry about spelling or punctuation...just HAVE FUN!
 But what about spelling and punctuation?
Okay, eventually you have to edit. You know that in class the first thing you're suppose to do is self-edit. Well, even if you're at home you should do that! (Unless what you're writing isn't something you want other people to see...that kind of personal writing is great and you don't need to share it with anyone, unless you want to). After that we peer edit. If you're at home that could be hard, but you can always bring your work into school for someone to look at. Finally, ask a grown-up to take a look. That could be me, a parent, even a big sister or brother! If you need some forms to help you edit, we have them at school or, try these sites: http://www.powhatan.k12.va.us/teachers/sstodter/EditingChecklist.htm Very simple editing checklist and a very cute song to help children remember basic writing rules. http://jc-schools.net/write/checklist.pdf http://go.hrw.com/resources/go_ss/teacher99/toolkit/TOOLKT17.pdf http://www.barbaradawsonsmith.com/selfedit.html http://content.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/u/unit_autobio_peercheck.pdf  Now what do I do? Well, you want to write a final copy so that someone will read it. And, not just because your teacher told you to...ugh! Okay, that may be one reason but I hope that at some point this year you'll write just because you want to. Well, maybe if you had somebody other than me, or your parents, to write for you'd get excited about it. Here are some awesome sites that have contests and/or publish children's work. I hope you give them a look! http://www.stonesoup.com/send-work/ http://www.merlynspen.org/ http://www.surfnetkids.com/pubpoem.htm http://www.tooter4kids.com/classroom/writing4kids.htm http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/jack_home.htm http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/basic/yngwrite.html  How do I know if my writing is good enough?
Well, of course it is!!!!! You don't believe me? Well, when a teacher gives you a writing assignment they almost always give you a rubric that tells you what their expectations are. (It's on the back of the assignment). Here are some sites that tell you what is expected of writing at the different grade levels: http://www.maumee.k12.oh.us/Curriculum/Rubrics/kdg.html This is a great rubric for parents to use in assessing their kindergarteners writing at home! http://www.thinkfinityny.org/NYSS_ELA_kindergarten.htm This link will provide you with NYS reading, writing and listening expectations for kindergarten. http://www.thinkfinityny.org/NYSS_ELA_grade_1.htm This link will provide you with NYS reading, writing and listening expecatations for 1st graders. http://www.thinkfinityny.org/NYSS_ELA_grade_2.htm This link will provide you with NYS reading, writing and listening expectations ofr 2nd graders. http://doe.sd.gov/contentstandards/languagearts/docs/3_5Writing.pdf This link with show you writing expecatations for 3rd - 5th grade. http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/elacore.htm http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/pdfRubrics/6plus1traits.PDF This is a chart that you can use to assess your writing yourself! Do REAL authors really go through all this?     Jerry Spinelli Mary Pope osborne Eric Carle J.K. Rowling Why don't you ask them? Here are some excellent sites where you can contact real writers about how they write, why, when...and anything else you like: http://www.jerryspinelli.com/newbery_002.htm http://www.marypopeosborne.com/ http://www.poetry4kids.com/contact http://susanpearson.net/contact.htm http://www.gkbledsoe.com/ http://www.janbrett.com/ http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html http://www.pilkey.com/meet-dav.php http://www.robertmunsch.com/ http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/mailbox.html http://www.rlstine.com/#nav/home http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/ http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/junieb/author/author.html http://childrensbooks.about.com/b/2006/10/02/so-you-want-to-contact-an-author-or-illustrator-of-childrens-books-heres-how.htm If I missed your favorite author, try this site...it will tell you how to contact him/her! 
Well, that's it! I hope that as you are reading these last few comments that you have your first completed story, poem or report in your hands. If you do, you should be very proud of yourself. If you don't...GET TO WORK!
Betsy VanDeusen
East Greenbush
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