Writing

Goals of the Writing Workshop

*        to help students see writing as a way of telling about things

*        to develop students' fluency in writing

*        to provide opportunities for students to learn to use correct  grammar and mechanics in their own writing

*        to help students learn about specific forms of writing (personal narratives, friendly letters, informational reports, etc.) during focused instruction

The Structure of Writing Workshop

Mini-Lesson:

The mini-lesson is where I can make a suggestion to the whole class...raise a concern, explore an issue, model a technique, or reinforce a strategy.  A mini-lesson generally lasts 5-10 minutes.  I try to choose a teaching point that I feel would benefit many members of the class.

Independent Writing:

After the mini lesson, students work in their Writer's Notebook to collect entries that may later become published pieces of writing.  During this time some students may be involved in conferences with the teacher or with their peers.

Students choose entries in their notebooks to take into "draft form." It is these carefully selected pieces of writing that will be taken through the process of editing and revising so that they can be published and shared with others.  All entries in the Writer's Notebook do not become published prices of writing.  All published writing is added to each student's Writing Portfolio, and some pieces will even be put into student created books.

Most of the time though is spent on focused writing.  Students receive instruction in specific writing genres.  If I am teaching the students how to write fictional narratives, we will read many examples of fictional narratives together, discuss those examples, and I will model writing a fictional narrative to the class with their input.  Students are not just assigned a piece of writing, they are guided until they can take what they have learned and apply it to their own piece of writing.

Sharing:

At the end of writing workshop everyday, students are brought back together for a 5-10 minute group share and reflection.  When students sign up to share or are asked to share, they take a seat in our coveted "Author's Chair."  Sometimes a writer might come to the author's chair to ask for help or receive feedback from his or her classmates ("I like my story, but I can't think of a good title.").  The author might also want to share part of an entry of which he or she is especially proud.

During many group shares, each student gets a turn to share a small part of an entry, especially if I have asked students to try a particular new skill during the day's mini-lesson.

Conferencing:

While students are involved in independent writing, I use this time to confer with my writers.  I take notes during conferences to document students' progress and to plan future mini-lessons.  During this time I may:

·         Listen to students read their entries aloud

·         Help students decide what they want to say

·         Provide feedback

·         Re-teach skills taught during mini lessons

·         Teach necessary new skills

·         Reinforce a writer's strengths

·         Give writers new ways of thinking

Grammar

In my class we use the Easy Grammar approach.

Students memorize and learn prepositions first (see attached file below).  Many fun activities help students learn and identify prepositions and prepositional phrases.  They then delete them from sentences.  After prepositional phrases are crossed out, the student no longer needs to be concerned with them.  The subject and verb of a sentence won't be in a prepositional phrase.  This makes it easy for students to find the subject and verb of a sentence.  Example: In the following sentence, students who do not use this approach may respond that the subject is beard, carriage, or driver.  For a verb, a student's response may include smiling.

One man with a long gray beard spoke to a smiling carriage driver.

In this approach, students are actively engaged in learning. They love the "hands on" manner and the process makes them successful.  This approach is used to help students to understand direct objects, subject/verb agreement, etc.  Another important difference is that concepts are introduced and reviewed throughout the school year.  For example, students will be introduced to direct objects after the preposition unit.  In the verb unit, students will use them with the irregular verbs sit/set, rise/raise, and lie/lay.  They will encounter them again in the pronoun unit.  In addition, reviews and cumulative reviews are provided along the way to help ensure mastery learning.

40 Prepositions (PDF 5 KB)

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