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2 First Grade Writing Conferences: K-5 Common Core Conferencing with WriteSteps

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Components of the Writing Workshop:                                         1. Read-Aloud

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Components of the Writing Workshop:                                         1. Read-Aloud

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This is an aspect of the writing workshop in which the teacher reads a story aloud to the children that contains examples of strategies they would like the students to implement in their writing. They could point out things related to sentence fluency, certain patterns like repetition, and or the organization of the story itself. This could also be interactive, if the students are asked to point out things that the author did well.  The teacher could take elements of the story and build off of them by making the students incorporate those elements into their own writing. There are many ways in which the read aloud can address the important aspects of the writing pieces. The overall purpose of read aloud is to read mentor texts to help the student generate ideas of their own to use in their writings

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In a mini-lesson we set aside about ten to fifteen minutes for the students to brush up on material taught prior or to teach skills the students need work on along with allowing students to share their useful strategies. We make sure to open meaningful lessons about something that children may employ in their own writing.  The ten to fifteen minutes we provide tend to be focused and short.  We believe that it is beneficial to start mini-lessons about community and classroom procedures. Some lessons that we have done focused on genre, reading like writers, beginnings, and final punctuation.  The students are able to communicate and collaborate because of our classroom setup.  Our carpet allows our students to sit in a whole group community to share out ideas, listen, and feel comfortable.

Writing Process:
Collecting, nurturing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing

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This includes a lot of planning, drafting, and revising. We believe it is important to provide a variety of materials and tools so that students can select what to use and apply to their writing. Students should always have choices of what to write about, in what language, on what paper, for what purpose, and in what format. We try to keep away from limiting our student's writing time so that they can produce the best work possible.

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Foundational to sharing is the reminder that thinking about writing is essential and that others are interested in what has been written. Therefore, it is not a time for us teachers to address skills, but to encourage questions and learn about each student's skill set to address later. Sharing in our classroom will take about fifteen minutes where students can listen to others and wait to offer comments at the end.  As the students read their writing pieces aloud, students can connect or relate to each other and encourage friendships.

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According to Souto-Manning and Martell, it is important that classrooms have set ups for all types of learning including whole-group communities, small-groups, pairs, and children sitting independently. Another key fact touched upon in the reading stated, "In K-2 classrooms, there should be room for movement and choice" (S-M & Martell, 2016, p. 42).

The layout of our classroom is designed to encourage writing workshop and allow for different working communities, such as peers or the teacher conferences. Each table will include four to five students to allow them to share ideas amongst one another and assist them in their work. Not only are they able to work at their tables, but we also have a carpet that can bring the whole group of students together to share at the end of the writing process.  We will give our students comfort through the beanbag chairs and our wide array of diverse books.

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Viewing can be done through models, mentor texts, and samples.  Models are used in our classroom through our work that we will present to our students.  Mentor texts not only include our work, but the work of prominent authors.  We have found that students enjoy the samples we share of past student work that helps them to compare to their work and catch any mistakes.

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Communication Skills:                    A. Listening

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Communication Skills:                    A. Listening

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It is essential to listen to the stories children tell and to genuinely value them in our teaching. Many of our lessons will evolve around the skill level and interests of our students. We will also encourage our students to listen to others, during writing workshop, so that they feel the same respect when they are presenting their work. Also, when the students listen to their peers, they can gather and use some of those ideas to help them in future writings.

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Writing is the main part of the writing workshop. The writing process is how students write their words on paper and in turn, this  communicates meaning. The writing process includes but is not limited to, ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Writing in our classroom will allow our students to write what they do not feel comfortable speaking or saying aloud. Also, it helps them express themselves in the way they feel about the world around them. They do all this in the writing workshop

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During the writing time of the writing workshop, brainstorming is one of the first things the children will do to begin the writing process. When brainstorming, students can represent their work by drawing out details in a picture to capture all of their ideas and enhance their writing. The use of visual aids in our student's writing allows us a better chance to understand the meaning of the words the child is trying to portray in their piece, as well as give them a visual of what they are going to write about.

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Tamra McHaffie and Kim Vorse, Sherwood Elementary

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Reading in a writing workshop helps the students comprehend what they are writing. They use this communication skill when they are either reading their own work or a peers work.

“In today’s K-2 classrooms, one of the most prominent approaches employed by teachers to support this development is based on the balanced literacy framework, which combines phonics and whole language approaches to teaching reading” (Martell, p. 30).

Reading also occurs when the teacher reads a mentor text at the beginning of the writing workshop in the mini-lessons. Sometimes the teacher will ask a student to either repeat what she says or read a line in the book.

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Working With Gifted Students and Students With Special Needs

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Working With Gifted Students and Students With Special Needs

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o Advocating for all different levels of academic abilities, is the goal of this writing workshop. Inclusion is very important to implement into not only writing workshop, but in school as a whole. We will evaluate students based on their current performance. From this, decisions will be made and goals will be set for and by the students to improve their writing. Every student develops at their own pace and learns differently as well. Therefore, it is essential to give each student their own personal steps and resources to be successful and improve.This could mean more time for some students, and for others it might mean an extra boost of encouragement. Free Write, every morning, will help every student become familiar with writing and get better and better with consistency and help throughout the school year.

Gifted Students:
One way to help the students that are gifted is to give more writing activities for the students to do, because they will most likely finish before most of the students in the classroom.

Special Needs Students:
One way to help the students with special needs is to modify the writing assignments to accommodate their level of learning. This could mean using simpler terms or creating a whole new assignment.

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o Speaking in writing workshop is used for communication between peers and with the teacher. Through speaking, the students can share their ideas, ask questions, and provide feedback to the teacher on the stage of the writing process they are at. We will use speaking so that the students can hear certain feedback from others as well.

o Speaking is key to how they make sense of the world, and it is important for developing culturally relevant teaching in the form of language. Speaking also serves as a platform for children to learn about their family funds of knowledge and honor language variation as the norm.  In our classroom, we will advocate this communication trait through activities that support the  development of friendships, fairness, and fantasy.  Examples of speaking important to our classroom include:

§  Self-talk

§  One-on-one

§  Peer group

§  Small group

§  Whole group

§  Play settings

Conference Sheet:

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In our classroom, we move around groups to allow collaboration in a language the student's are most comfortable with and can learn from one another.  We encourage our students to use their native language to allow personal growth, which then teaches other students and ourselves new information. Souto-Manning and Martell agree:

“By acknowledging multiple languages in the classroom and valuing them in authentic ways, you will be teaching every child to respect each other in ways that will forge an inclusive and culturally relevant learning community—while maintaining high expectations and addressing their academic needs” (S-M & Martell, 2016, p.15).

There are many ways in which accommodations could be made for these students in the writing workshop. One example would be allowing the students to free write in their native language so that it is easier for them to write the prompts. During student conferences, the teacher will create a vocabulary table of common adjectives that the student can use in their writing. One side would be in their native language and the other side would be in English. This will accommodate for the student's need and make it easier for them to broaden their English writing vocabulary.