1. The Three Pillars of Writers Workshop
NESA Spring Educators Conference
Bangkok, Thailand
April 4, 2011
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2. The Three Pillars of Writers Workshop
The Mini-lesson
Individual Student Conferences
Writers Notebooks
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3. Structure of a Workshop
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4. The Mini-Lesson Short Direct One teaching point (posted) Explanation
Modeling/demonstration/examples
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5. The Architecture of a Mini-lesson
Teaching Point
Connection
Teach
Active Engagement
Link
Share
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7. Mini-lesson Demonstration
What’s in a name?
Writers write about what they know well.
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8. Conferring With Writers
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9. The Architecture of a Conference
Research
Compliment
Teach
Link
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10. “What are you working on
Research
Instead of,
“How’s it going?”
ask
“What are you working on
in your writing today?”
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11. Compliment Authentic Specific
Keep in mind where you want to take this student as a writer. (Remember… you want to teach the writer not “fix” his or her writing).
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12. Teach Connect to the compliment
Small steps – take the writer from where s/he is to the next step
Demonstrate or show an example in your own notebook or draft
Give the student something specific to try then wait for evidence of understanding or check back in a few minutes
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13. Link
Apply your teaching point to writing in general
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14. Record Keeping Provides assessment information
Builds a profile of the student
Guides future conferences
Helps intentionally develop the student as a writer and a reader
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18. Types of Conferences Content Compliment Expectation Goal Inquiry
“Keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working!”
Expectation
when a student isn’t doing what they need to be doing
Goal
Example: stamina
Inquiry
“ Together let’s figure out some things you are working on and where you might go with them.”
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19. Conferring Around Notebooks
RESEARCH
Look for:
Habits
Effort
Generating
Developing ideas/meaning
Volume
Stamina
Growth
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20. Conferring Around Drafts
RESEARCH
Look for:
Meaning
Why is this important?
Is it focused in on a small moment?
Organization
Beginning, middle, end
Leads/conclusions
Craft
Action
Dialogue
Inner thinking
Detail
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21. “Cheat Sheets” What are the goals of the unit?
What are some common challenges of the genre?
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22. Conferring Practice “Student” “Teacher”
Read the piece of writing and make it your own.
“Teacher”
Confer with the student and record the parts of the conference. Remember…
Hands off the writing
Look for what is good.
Teach the writer instead of fixing the writing.
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23. The Heart and Soul of Writers Workshop
Writers Notebooks
The Heart and Soul of
Writers Workshop
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24. Writers notebooks… give you a place to write every day to
explore your writing
take risks
record your thinking
note your observations of the world around
you
practice living like a writer
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25. Getting Started
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26. What’s in a name? Where does your name come from?
What do you like/dislike about your name?
What about nicknames?
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27. This story makes me think of…
Think about a time something like this happened to you.
What feelings did you have when you listened to this story?
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28. Laundry Lists Best Life Events Worst Life Events Notable Quotes
Interesting Words
Unusual Facts
Scary Stories
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29. Observations – Using Your Senses
“Your writers notebook can work as an alarm clock to remind you to wake up and pay attention to the world” Ralph Fletcher
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30. Music to My Pen
“What is living if I can’t live free? What is freedom if I can’t be me?” Bonnie Raitt
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31. Tips Keep your own writers notebook Write regularly
Share your writing spontaneously
Praise effort – especially in the beginning
Be patient
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32. Caution Prompts Journaling or diary entries Teacher handouts
Note taking
Lack of growth/change over time
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33. Resources Mini-lessons
The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (and They’re All Hard Parts)
by Katie Wood Ray and Lester L. Laminack
Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 by Lucy Calkins
Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and Writing Workshops Grades 4-12 by Heather Lattimer
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34. Resources (continued)
Conferring
Assessing Writers by Carl Anderson
Notebooks
Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook by Aimee Buckner
A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You by Ralph Fletcher
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