Writing Workshop is one of our favorite times of the day! We absolutely love writer's workshop. Our workshop starts out with a mini lesson that focuses on something that good writer's do. Often we read a literary work that models what we are learning about. Sometimes we do an interactive write or group edit a piece. Regardless of the method of presentation, one thing remains constant. After every mini lesson writer's get to write! Writer's choose their own topics, making their writing more meaningful. The format includes think time, write time, conferring, editing, publishing, and sharing. During our sharing we often help our classmates edit their work.

How can you help your blossoming writer?

Young writer's move through a series of writing stages. The earliest writers scribble. Writer's then move towards creating identifiable pictures and adding random letters. From there writer's begin to notice sound/letter correlations and begin to include some of the sounds they hear. As writer's develop they will include more and more of the sounds they hear. Eventually they will progress to a transitional stage where they begin to write high frequency words correctly while still relying quite heavily on invented spelling for unknown words. The final stage is the conventional stage where most age appropriate words are spelled correctly.

We often refer to student writing as "Kid Writing". I encourage learners to use their letter/sound memory to write words. At this point it is not important that all words be spelled correctly. When editing a piece it is not necessary to correct every spelling error. Listen to your child read his/her piece. After listening offer to underwrite, write the conventional spelling under their writing, select several words to discuss with your child. Talk about any sound patterns that can help them spell the words correctly.