Tips for a Successful Writers Workshop

The way we speak to children has consequences, positive and negative, on how they view themselves and the world.

To that end…

“Writers, in workshop today, I want to teach you about a strategy that can help you when you are stuck for an idea….”

“Writers, I’m interrupting your powerful work to share with you something I noticed _____ doing when she was figuring out her closing sentence.”

“Writers, I look forward to hearing your work during our sharing circle today. Please gather around the rug for sharing.”

This next one might make you a little itchy…or feel the urge to throw tomatoes my way. But please…hear me out!

If you’ve got a tomato in hand, please, before you throw anything…read the next pic, then come back up to this one. 🙂

Why content over conventions? For the same reason we want kids to spell using their very best approximation instead of just writing words they know how to spell correctly.

Wanna read piece after piece that sounds like a laundry list of repetitive sentence formats where the writer knows how to correctly punctuate and capitalize that specific sentence format…written that way because it’s safe? Me, either.

In order to “write like a reader” you have to “read like a writer” and be willing to take risks.

To build risk-taking, authentic, meaning-creating writers…honor their content…frequently and enthusiastically. Our actions towards writers become writing partner’s actions towards one another, too. Kids are always listening and seeing what WE do and it often becomes what THEY do.

For sure, the conventions make it a bit difficult to read. This writer has made wonderful progress this year, yet I still needed him to read it to me. When he did, my writing teacher heart was SOOO happy!

How awesome is that? Talk about incorporating the teaching points of Opinion Writing:

Introduction that hooks your reader…Check

Details that keep your reader hooked…Check

Include facts and opinions in your piece…Check

Closing sentence that makes the piece sound finished (without using the words, “The End.”)…Check

This writer absolutely views himself as a writer and this has FAR reaching impact across his life.

This one is big. Mega big. Colossal, even.

When you (respectfully and honorably) hold your writers accountable for conventions that are appropriate for where they are at developmentally, you are communicating your belief in them. You are communicating that you know they are capable of what you’re asking of them and that you won’t accept less.

Developmentally appropriate accountability means you are working at the cutting edge of your students’ learning.

How do you know what’s developmentally appropriate for each child? Look at their writing and notice what they are doing sometimes, but not always.

For a child who is putting spaces between words sometimes to often, but not always, it would be developmentally appropriate to cheerlead them to put spaces between all words. Yet, if they are including spaces only occasionally, you’ll want to pick a different convention to hold them accountable for…look closely at their spelling – are they including multiple dominant consonants for words, but not all words? Holding them accountable to sound stretching for multiple dominant consonants in most to all words would be more developmentally appropriate.

For a child who is including ending punctuation correctly sometimes to often with multiple sentences, it’s appropriate to hold them accountable for correct ending punctuation at the end of most to all sentences. Yet, if they are using ending punctuation incorrectly, you’ll want to look closely and find a different convention.

When, with respect and positivity, you hold students accountable for what is within their reach, not only are you helping prevent sloppy habits from forming, you are encouraging them to be more invested in quality work and their rate of progress will likely improve.

When we, as teachers, provide topic after topic to writers (especially reluctant writers), we are enabling the lack of investment of these writers in coming up with their own writing topics.

It is important to make it an expectation. They need to know it’s non-negotiable…or they’ll keep trying to have you (or someone else) give them a topic.

When writers know that each day they are going to write and that they will be selecting their topic for the majority of their writing, they are much more likely to be invested in their writing.

When writers see and hear all the time that ANY story (not just special things) can become a writing topic, the pressure is off and the floodgates open. For some writers it takes longer than others. It will come, as long as you stay consistent.

Time spent together near the beginning of the unit (after immersion in mentor texts) with table groups generating topic ideas and listing/illustrating them on 12×18 construction paper is time well spent. It gets the ideas flowing and builds investment in the topics.

Yet…

In my writing workshop, I will typically provide two topic ideas as a scaffold for “back up” ideas, because I want my writers to write during the time they are given (as opposed to sitting there feeling frustrated that they can’t come up with something).

But, I don’t make them too exciting because I want them to come up with their own ideas that they are interested and invested in writing about. Topic generation is an expectation of all my writers, but I’m not unreasonable…all writers are stuck sometimes.

Or if it’s during an opinion unit, I’ll say something like, “If you are still stuck on finding a topic, it’s important to get started. If you haven’t started, write your opinion about what you ate for breakfast this morning or for dinner last night.”

Spending time at the beginning of any writing unit for students to have ample time to generate topic ideas is time VERY well spent!

Then, as I walk around the room, I’ll be complimenting those friends who were slow to start that day, saying things like, “Check it out, Jonny – you had a hard time getting started today and now you’re started and on a roll writing about your morning! Doesn’t that feel so much better than sitting there not working? I bet you’re proud of yourself for getting started!”

During sharing time on days that I’ve had a couple writers stuck for a little bit, I’ll say something like, “As we listen to each other’s hard work this morning, you will probably think to yourself, ‘Hey, I could write about that topic, too!’ because writers get so many ideas from each other all the time. Thank goodness for so many chances to be inspired by our classmate’s writing!”

Something that has helped my writers as spellers a lot is differentiation.

Once I’ve completed and scored the feature analysis from the Words Their Way inventories, I know exactly which work students need on which skill…this is the BEST! It’s so easy to group students for games and small group lessons according to what they need!

Currently in the works is a Differentiated Digraphs pack that will follow a similar format as the Blends pack – this is SO helpful in helping first graders be able to focus on the skill rather than the format and visual layout of the page.

Sharing has become a precious and essential part of writing workshop. When I first began writing workshop, this was the hardest part for me to make time for. I’d keep conferring until time was basically up and we had to clean up. Now, my students won’t let me not share. AND, I don’t want to miss it, either!

Why do we want students to share?

Motivation…many students tell me their favorite time in writing workshop is sharing time. They enjoy sharing their own pieces, sure, but they also love hearing other writers’ pieces, too.

Inspiration…we get ideas from others…topic ideas…illustration ideas…writers’ craft/authors’ move ideas

Accountability…for students who tend to avoid work, knowing that they’ll be accountable to sharing their work helps them gitrdun.

Depth…my responses to what the students have written articulate and reinforce any of the teaching points I’ve already had…in connection to a current student’s writing. I LOVE opportunities to re-state important teaching points to a captive audience.

How do I do it?

Partnerships – I have done partnerships a variety of ways over the years This year I tried trios (many students had kind of a lot of absences, and it made last minute pairing up a conversation I wanted to eliminate from our already busy days). It went so well, that I plan to continue.

Sharing Circle – Once or twice a week I have a sharing circle in place of partnerships. We meet in our sharing circle for 10-12 mn, facing one another in an amoeba-ish circle. Everyone brings what they wrote that day but two to three students share their piece in it’s entirety. The students listen to each other so closely during sharing circle – it is AWESOME! And it provides another opportunity for me to reinforce teaching points and also publicly (yet respectfully and positively) nudge a writer to work on a particular aspect of their work.

This is similar to an earlier tip, but goes a bit deeper. Rather than referring to what you say when you get the students attention or to make your teaching point, it shifts the lens more specifically and personally to when you’re conferring directly with a student.

With my students, I’m transparent about the fact that I’ll be complimenting and nudging each and every one of them throughout their day, for ALL their work as first graders (academics, habits & behaviors).

When I’m teaching writers about what to expect in workshop (writing, math AND reading workshops), I tell them that there will be times I work with them one on one, in small group and in large group. That I get to be their “cheerleader” and their “nudger”

So, during a conference, after I’ve decided on the specific nudge, I’ll state it using “writers” to make it less personal.

Instead of…”You need to go back and edit for ending punctuation.”…I’ll say…”Writers make their work easier to read by making sure it has ending punctuation. I’m going to show you a strategy for doing that and then you can get started.”

Instead of…”You don’t have an introduction.”…I’ll say…”Writers hook their readers with their first sentence, written to introduce what they’ll be writing about. Sometimes an introduction starts with a question like, ‘Have you ever…’ or ‘What if”…What kind of introduction are you thinking about writing?”

Compliments during a conference may also use “writers.” For example, I might say, “Writers use repetition carefully and on purpose. You did exactly that on this part right here!”

There are important reasons to focus instruction and practice on a specific genre for a period of time. All while building the undercurrent that writers write and illustrate with intention and purpose in all types and formats of writing.

On the other hand, I lovvvve when students (and students love it, too) have the opportunity to self-select their genre. Some students are reallllly passionate and motivated by certain genres. This year, I have a big crew of boys who are totally jazzed about writing informational books. They write incessantly about dinosaurs and sharks, specifically. They talk about their writing on the playground and in the halls, they research their topic by selecting books about the topic, they watch tv shows and youtube videos about their passion. Why would I want to squelch that?

My workaround is to provide a minimum number of completed pieces within our focus genre and then they can use writing workshop time for choice writing.

In addition, choice writing is one of the things they can select when they first arrive at school in the morning. It’s also included in our Fun Friday choices (some writers choose to write over iPads, games, puzzles, math tools & building!).

I decide on how many pieces will be required based on how long our pacing guide gives us to instruct on that genre, how much actual work time there will be. When they get to choice writing, they can still write within the genre we’re working on. Choice writing pieces, once complete, go home right away. I collect the required pieces and send them home after we’ve ended our unit with a mini-celebration.

I cannot speak enough to the value of mentor texts and weaving that we read like writers and write like readers throughout the day, day after day. With every topic. With every read aloud.

While I read aloud, a pause to reflect on the writer’s moves might sound like this.

“I’m going to reread that part. Listen to how the author stretched out the importance of that detail by adding extra sentences about _____. It helps us know how strongly the character felt about ____. In your writing you can add extra details about the important and special parts, too.”

“Check out how this author used three synonyms right next to each other to help put a picture in our mind about the character. It says, Anderson was strong. He was as mighty as three sturdy trees. The author really wanted us to picture Anderson’s strength! Strong. Mighty. Sturdy. All synonyms.You can try that in your writing, too. When you want your reader to understand something really clearly, you can put three synonyms near each other.”

I am THRILLLLLLLLLED to FINALLY post this post!!!!!

Hope you’re just as excited to try out some new tips!!!!

Let me know what works for you! And…don’t forget to PIN it so you can find it easily.