Thoughts from the Katie Wood Ray workshop: Developing Curriculum for Writing Workshop June, 2009

BEFORE THERE CAN BE REVISION, THERE MUST BE VISION.

Read aloud is the most important tool we have in the teaching of writing. Writers have to know what good reading SOUNDS like. You have to be able to imagine doing what the author did and think on your toes. “ What if I did something like that, but I wrote about “X” instead?” What motivates people to write? People want to make stuff with their writing! Let students have a folder of “stuff” they’re working on that is all their own – it doesn’t matter what’s in it.

Students have a VISION, taken from their reading life, of the kind of thing they’re trying to “make.” A feature article like you’d read in a Ranger Rick magazine. A series of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or the Mr. Putter books. A review of the new Monsters vs. Aliens movie like the reviews they have in USA Today. A short story – adventure – like Gary Paulsen writes. An interview like they have with celebrities in People magazine. Etc., etc.

As we help students imagine filling a year up with writing projects, we need to ask them… What kinds of writing “things” would you like to make this year? Magazine articles, picture books, newspaper articles, novels, series books, poetry collections, plays, editorials, songs? What have you read that is like what you’d like to write? What passions do you have in life? Are there one or two topics that you love so much you could see yourself doing a lot of writing about them? Are there any occasions or specific people in your life for whom you’d like to do some writing? What have you never tried as a writer that you’d like to try this year?

Cont’d. Have you written things in the past that you’d like to revisit and rework? Maybe a second edition or a sequel? Are there any stories in your life, your family, that are just begging to be told? Are there writers whose work you really admire? Would you like to study those writers closely and let them be your mentors? Do you have causes in your life which you might want to address with writing? Writing can be a powerful means by which we make things happen in the world.

Start with an organized pile of books/texts. Each student’s purpose is to write something that could be added to this pile. The stack of books/texts gives you VISION. You have to look at the writing with the attitude of “I’m going to do something like that.”

The Predictable Rhythm of Product Study in the Writing Workshop Gather a short stack of texts that are good examples of what we want to study. Make sure students know what it is we’re studying and that they’ll be expected to write under the influence of this study. Can be formalized in written expectations or simply an announcement. Immersion Phase: immerse ourselves in reading and talking about the texts we’ve gathered and what we notice about how they’re written. Close Study Phase: study a few of them closely until we’ve become articulate (and can chart) about how people write this kind of text. Writing Phase: write something that could go in this stack of texts we’ve been studying and be articulate about how it fits in the stack.