From the Toolbox to the Tools Building An Effective Writers Workshop in a Kindergarten Classroom Lindsey Black Oakland Elementary

They’ve had a lot of experience with what they are being asked to do, but still, every year we find ourselves sort of waiting around, looking over their shoulders and wondering, “Will all the teaching show up in the work they are able to do?” Katie Wood Ray’s About the Authors (1) Problem: I struggle with teaching writing. I know it is hard for the students and I am not the best at it, so I throw my hands up and put it to the side. Where I am: techniques that I have used that are not necessarily researched based. Spelling boxes, copy from board (only), and tree maps later in year.

What I do….not suggested! *Copy from the board: Not too bad at the beginning; gives them sentence structure and understanding of how to write left to right and top to bottom. After the students get used to copying from the board, I find it very difficult to give them anymore freedom, so we continue to copy from the board each time we write. New skills – board copying, certain theme – board copying. I had the fear of LETTING GO! *Allowing students to be creative: sounds good, if I really let them do that. I would give them a sentence starter and have the students “fill in the blank”. Example: In the ocean, I see a _______. Again, not so bad at the beginning, however, our Ocean thematic unit is in May and yes (please don’t judge) I was still giving them the sentence starter. *Give them Choice: Yes, they need this skill. I was not the one giving it to them. Choice: what’s that? They did not have time to write anything on their own because I had the fear of LETTING GO!!!! Well, NOT ANYMORE!!!

“ Basically, we feel that while these kinds of activities might teach children something, the are not teaching them how to write because the children aren’t writing when they do them, they’re not doing the hard work of generating text. These activities often lead to pretty pieces of writing, but we don’t see the evidence of deeply engaged thinking we do when children are writing themselves”. Katie Wood Ray’s About the Authors (40) EYE OPENER

Where I want to go: *I want to find real research based strategies that do work and that will help my students find confidence. *I want to set up a real writing workshop that works in Kindergarten.

Starting with Structure After reading Katie Wood Ray’s Study Driven, I realized I wanted to start teaching my writers instead of the writing. What I did: Strategies Help First Writing What I want to do: Writers Help First Writing

Get My Toolbox After reading Study Driven, About the Authors, and being in this workshop – I want to build my own workshop. So, I’m starting with my structure. Three Elements: choice (writers need their own topic) daily time to write (writers need chunks of time) conferencing (writers need reponse Nancie Atwell

How I Envision Writing Workshop In My Classroom Toolbox/notebook to hold strategies for students all year long. Strategies feed into the workshop that we will do at a later time during the day (letter of the week, making sentences, poems). When conferencing, I will able to remind students of their Toolbox when they are looking for a specific strategy (spelling, days of the week, family words) To really understand the writing children do during the hour- long writing workshop, it is important to understand that this is not the only time in the day that they are learning about how our language works. Writing workshop is simply a time when children get to try their hands at making written language work – at generating text – all on their own. Katie Wood Ray’s About the Authors (39)

Open the Toolbox: From Structure to Strategies Words they want to use: shapes, colors, high frequency Sentence Structure: capital letters, punctuation, reason for writing Literacy Station work: phonics such as letter stamping, word building, rhyming, class names Poetry Journal: copy of poem with highlighted words and letters Content Work: writing skills that are used throughout the day beyond writing time Mini Lessons from Writing Workshop: name, date, thinking maps Specific skills for writing: the whys (capitalize, name, date, left to right)

Your Turn… What are some tools in your toolbox? How will you help your students use these tools during writing workshop? Sentence Stalking Complete Sentences Paragraph form/Alignment Project-Based Learning Mentor Texts Strategic Sharing Word building Punctuation Choices Matching Pictures to Words Reading Like Writers Aristotle’s Three Appeals Two different notebooks: one for seed ideas, pictures, lists, etc—no structure; another as a Writer’s Toolbox Use one comp book and flip it, using ½ for the toolbox and ½ for seed ideas

Let the Toolbox do the Teaching Once the students have the toolbox and they see how everything they’re learning about (words, letters, stories) can help them write – we’re ready for workshop! Mini Lessons for their writing Add it to the toolbox Try it out in their writing – journal/student made books Show how toolbox can help/model during conference time

What we know about the authors, who find ideas and choose topics and fill a whole year of their lives with writing, is quite extraordinary. What we know about the authors, who understand that they can make decisions as they write, that they can craft with purpose and intention, is quite extraordinary. What we know about the authors, who stun us with their ever – emerging insights about the wonderful promise of written language, is quite extraordinary. Our greatest wish for our teaching is that we will always have the knowing eyes to see how extraordinary the authors really are. Katie Wood Ray’s About the Authors (233-4)

References Ray, Katie Wood. About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers. Heinemann, Ray, Katie Wood. Study Driven: A Framework For Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop. Heinemann, Martin, Charles. (No Date). Nancie Atwell Facts: Seven Principles That Guide Teaching and Student Learning in the Atwell Curriculum. PLFS.html PLFS.html