Here's a place to talk about writing. What works! What doesn't work and maybe some ideas and/or links to answer the questions that come up. I think we can talk K-5 because the workshop format, lesson organization, and philosophy are all the same across the grades.
I am posting a picture of the Non-Negotiables of a Writing Workshop that are in the 3-5 Units of Study. Here they are: time to write, explicit instruction, ownership of topics, write for an audience, and "Teach the writer, not the piece." I think the last one is the biggest shift in thinking. I know it was for me. I had to change from creating the perfect product to developing the skills of the writer across pieces. I was able to focus my conferences better when I remembered my goal and let go of revising and editing everything, every time.
"Ownership of topics"
ReplyDeleteI have asked the writers to add another entry in their writing notebook. I am looking for narratives and have asked them to share another special moment of their life. Here is the conflict: They are so charged by the read aloud, Despereaux, that several kids just want to write a story about a little animal that becomes a hero."Can I please write my own story today?" Seriously, these kids were psyched to write! They wanted to own the topic but I had to stick to narrative entries. Right?
Debbie-
ReplyDeleteI have 2 thoughts...one is that authors write about what they know and personal narrative is the genre where writing craft can really develop and grow. Kids need to know that's why they are spending so much time on all these personal stories.
My other thought is that during class time they are doing all that writing development and maybe at home they can then write their story about the little mouse and apply the writing craft they are learning in school. I would never want to squash writing excitement! How great that they are using the read aloud as a model and seed for their writing.
I think there needs to be room for flexibility too. I'm not exactly sure how that works, maybe outside of writing time, or once a week/month? I thought we were told...our first year of implementation...to do what we can and get to know the program. Kids have been writing narratives for five years, by the time they get to fourth grade.
ReplyDeleteUmmmmm...I hear you. I need to do a little research and find out some more about these units of study when used K-5. I am curious about the beliefs that support narrative writing with such depth. This is definitely a topic to talk about further as we implement a program that should build from K to 5.
ReplyDeleteSome research...I found this in a binder and it's from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.
ReplyDelete"...We recommend that this first unit focus on small moment writing. You may ask why. There are lots of reasons. Shirley Brice Heath, the great language researcher, suggests that the sharing of stories is the most important precondition to rich literacy. She suggests, for example, that parents need not only to talk with sons and daughters about the here-and-now but that parents also need to help children use language to recreate other times and places because this symbolic use of language is the essence of school literacy. That is a compelling argument for us. We also believe that human beings come to know each other through the sharing of stories; that this is how communities are forged. And we believe that narrative writing is an essential component of most other kinds of writing - that even within a persuasive letter, for example, children will tend to include anecdotes (which are really small moment stories). More than this, your children will be reading lots of narrative texts, and the more they understand how those texts are made, the more they can construct meaning as readers. The data is clear that when children write narratives, they are given opportunities to understand inference, synthesis, prediction and interpretation from the inside out."