“ We learn about writing from writers—their lives and their craft. A writer talk is a glimpse into a writer’s life that reveals details important to her work.” Preparing a Writer’s Talk: What can you learn from the writer that helps you as a writer? What did you learn about the writer that gives you a new understanding about how the writer writes? What did you learn about the writer that gives you a new understanding about a particular book he wrote?

Read aloud from a passage in an autobiography, a writer’s biography, or memoir. Use these excerpts to provide details about how or why a person writes, something about how he writes, and something about a particular book he wrote. Focus on: Something that influenced the writer in her work. Insights about his books or illustrations. Where the author gets his ideas. Advice from the writer on how to get started in writing. An anecdote from the writer’s childhood. To help students create their own writer talks: Model talks with them. Provide a list of writers’ websites for authors to use. Create a basket of biographies and autobiographies of writers. Create a basket of audiotapes, interviews, or cds by various writers.

“A writer’s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of the day.” A writer’s notebook is a place to preserve ideas so they will be available for future conversations and writing. Writer’s notebooks may also include sketches, photos, diagrams, and other visual representations that represent the writer’s thinking. You can introduce the writer’s notebook with mini lessons that show students how important notebooks are to writers and how writers use them. One of the most powerful ways to motivate your students to do their best work is to share your own notebook with them.

Record their memories. Capture beautiful or interesting language or images. Freeze moments in time. List ideas. Store special documents such as letters, photos, clippings, or poems. Write a response to a piece of literature, film, current event, or a work of art. Record questions. Experiment with different types of writing. Describe characters. Plot ideas. Write letters. Record favorite poems or book passages. Keep “top ten” lists. Create webs of ideas or concepts.

The Growth of a Writing Project [Seeds} Writer’s Notebook: A place to plant seeds and grow ideas Quick –Writes, lists, topics [Sprouts] Discovery Draft: A place to grow stories Get the whole story out. Write quickly. [bud] Second/Final Draft: A place to feed and nourish stories Make changes. Add details. Cross out. Edit. Very best handwriting. [bloom] Published Piece: A place to display developed stories Final changes, Teacher edit, Special paper/format, Typed or very best handwriting

“Investigations provide a structure for students to use their reading, writing, oral, artistic, and technological skills across the curriculum.” Asking questions can lead to a student research project or investigation. This allows students to plan and work over time. It provides authentic research experiences that require skills in reading and writing. Students get an opportunity to examine primary and secondary sources. It allows them to use the processes of inquiry while they pursue topics of interest. Inquiry involves formulating questions, using a variety of resources to investigate the questions, come to conclusions, and share the results. Research techniques include: Interviewing, creating questionnaires, note taking, viewing or listening to CD-ROMs, videotapes, and audiotapes, searching the internet, visiting websites or museums, and conducting direct research.

Suggestions for organizing and presenting projects Students give an oral presentation including a display board. Study groups help the students break their big questions into smaller questions. Each student writes a proposal that includes the big question, smaller questions, plans for conducting the research, and displaying the information. Study groups use check lists similar to rubrics to guide the projects and create the display boards.