Lesson 1 October 16, 2012 What is the Writers Workshop?

Today’s Objectives Begin the routines and rituals of a daily writer’s workshop Set up your writer’s notebook Reflect on yourself as a writer

Writers Workshop Community of writers Lessons help you an informative/explanatory essay Target Word: informative/explanatory writing N. nonfiction (real, not just “realistic”) that informs or explains something to the reader. This writing is factual and unbiased, and provides extensive information about a topic Similarities to other essays Pick a topic Become an expert on that topic Share your findings with others

Differences to other essays You will learn strategies that writers use to find and learn about subjects they are interested in You will be able to choose to explore-and become expert in- a topic of your choice Much of the work will be done in class, where other writers (you and other students) can help

How it will help you excel Learn to use writing to communicate Study a lot of great writing in various genres to learn and practice styles and techniques Learn strategies for discovering ideas to write about – drafting first thoughts and trying out ideas with each other Give each other support and learn how to fine-tune your writing before you publish it

Routines and Rituals Daily Purpose Write Learn writing strategies from authors and writers (published, students, you, the teacher, and classmates) Writers Workshop Routines Independent Writing5 min Opening Lesson5 min Work Period35 min Closing5 min

Independent Writing Workbooks important Simply writing Any dancer, musicians or athletes? How did practices begin? How many hours dancers/musicians? Athletes during season? More time is spent practicing than performing Same for writers Modeling strategy Target words – terms writers use when talking about their work

The Writer’s Notebook Keep information you gather Thoughts you may have Snippets of conversation you overhear Descriptions of people/places you see Organize your ideas, insights and information Easily found

What goes in to a Writer’s Notebook? Observations Reflections Explanations Great lines from television, newspapers, friends, teachers Questions Dreams, hopes, goals, possibilities Noticings Try-outs Free-writing

Setting up a Writer’s Notebook 1. At the center top of the very first page write the title TABLE OF CONTENTS 2. Skip a line then add in the middle, TITLE 3. To the left of the title, write DATE 4. To the right of the title, PAGE # TABLE OF CONTENTS DATETITLEPAGE #

4. Seven pages in, write a title for the page, WRITING EXPLORATIONS 5. Place the #1 in the lower right corner WRITING EXPLORATIONS 1

Ten pages from the back, label GLOSSARY OF INFORMATIVE/EXPLANATORY WRITING

My Experience as a Writer