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I love the writers workshop conference notes Carissa sent. I keep it with me to ensure I consistently ask the right questions as I confer with the students. I feel much more confident. Also I have my mentor text with me during the conferring sessions now. Thank you for this insight. It is so much better to show the great writing techniques as we are conferring. 

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I love the writers workshop conference notes Carissa sent. I keep it with me to ensure I consistently ask the right questions as I confer with the students. I feel much more confident. Also I have my mentor text with me during the conferring sessions now. Thank you for this insight. It is so much better to show the great writing techniques as we are conferring. 

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Help finding the just right describing word..the gift that keeps on giving

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Make a tool kit for myself to remind me of the steps involved in conferring.

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Differentiated Feedback

"When children come to hoping for solutions to problems they could have resolved on their own, try to remember it may be  easy to solve the problem, it is wiser to put yourself out of a job"
This is so right on! So many times I want to give the solution. This chapter made a huge impact on me, with solid steps to conferring with students.

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Student checklist made into conferring sheet.

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Student checklist made into conferring sheet.

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I find that using what has already been developed is more helpful than trying to come up with a tool. These assessment tools available through our online resources are very helpful when conferring with students, it puts the ownership back on them.

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This is a great tool to use. It's easy to follow and helps all student access writing at all levels.

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Today I had a student who had his story in his head and did not want to make a plan but I knew that he has difficulty remembering what comes next. We wrote down the events on sticky notes and made them into an arc. We had a great conversation about the heart of the story and the details that I would expect for certain parts using the post its.

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Just a few tools we use in Kindergarten while we're writing.  The little spacemen are just like my big spaceman I use during interactive writing so the students are well aware of his job!

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Ellray Jakes Is Not a Chicken= great mentor text about bullying.  I am currently using it to support the Realistic Fiction Unit ( Up the Ladder).

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Ellray Jakes Is Not a Chicken= great mentor text about bullying.  I am currently using it to support the Realistic Fiction Unit ( Up the Ladder).

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Reflection from page 16. “Writing is just like any other practice, playing piano, runnng, knitting.” I love this. And it’s so very true.... we have to practice to become stronger writers by writing daily. I often write when my students are writing “fast and furious.”

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“The minilessons  in this series offer many more ways for students to be actively involved in the frontal teaching than there were in the earlier units of study books.”

I like how there is teacher talking time and then student turn and talk time. This allows the students to immediately discuss and work through what has just been taught. It gives them time to process through discussion.

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I have each session as well as examples, anchors, and graphic organizers. I also included the pre and post on demand prompt.

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Conversations in the Writing Workshop: Friendships, Partnerships, and Silent Writing Time

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Conversations in the Writing Workshop: Friendships, Partnerships, and Silent Writing Time

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Most of the teachers I know best like young writers to work at tables rather than desks because this encourages the conversations that are vital to children's work. You'll want your youngsters to work side by side, so they can make running commentaries. These commentaries do a lot to make writing workshops into the richest sort of language workshop imaginable.

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many great stories....

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Today is the day we share!!!!

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Kids will learn more if you don't try to teach the entire process of writing within one minilesson.

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Kids will learn more if you don't try to teach the entire process of writing within one minilesson.

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It is so hard for me to limit my instruction to one teaching point when I see that my students need a whole slew of writing techniques. This usually happens at the beginning of the year and I just need to remind myself, one lesson at a time, one lesson at a time.

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"If the people working under your direction were grown-ups instead of children, the job of managing the workers would be regarded as highly demanding leadership work. But all too often in schools, classroom management is treated as task akin to doing the laundry. That's wrong."

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"if you like our post you get a prize, if you don't you get mud."

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"if you like our post you get a prize, if you don't you get mud."

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Kimberly and I believe that 'children are interested in other children.' Our young authors are eager to share their pieces- just as they are ready to hear suggestions and compliments from their peers. This too, is a time for us to point out the one or several student(s) that can nourish other students' imaginings of what is possible.

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"If children are expected to work hard and are held accountable for getting a lot done, the room will be more apt to have that wonderful "workshop hum." (pg.55)

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"If children are expected to work hard and are held accountable for getting a lot done, the room will be more apt to have that wonderful "workshop hum." (pg.55)

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The message is that students should be writing a lot and working hard.

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"I work hard to make the teaching points crystal clear and, when possible, memorable and worth remembering." (pg.62)

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"I work hard to make the teaching points crystal clear and, when possible, memorable and worth remembering." (pg.62)

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By clearly stating the teaching point it gives the students a goal and an opportunity to see how they can use it to improve their writing. (Charts/checklists are important when they are working independently).

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I love this cover celebrating children reading!!

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 “The difference is not just a matter of words.  It’s a difference of intent.  In a minilesson, you must plan to teach writers something they do repeatedly, perhaps today, and certainly for the rest of their lives” (pg. 63)

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 “The difference is not just a matter of words.  It’s a difference of intent.  In a minilesson, you must plan to teach writers something they do repeatedly, perhaps today, and certainly for the rest of their lives” (pg. 63)

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As I read this chapter I realized that language is and important factor in the minilesson. Being cautious about what is said and keeping in my mind the goal of the minilesson.

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“Writing workshops are structured and predictable, consistent way that the infrastructure of most workshops remains almost the same throughout the year and throughout a child’s elementary school experience.” (pg. 47) 

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“Writing workshops are structured and predictable, consistent way that the infrastructure of most workshops remains almost the same throughout the year and throughout a child’s elementary school experience.” (pg. 47) 

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I believe it is important to maintain structure and predictability during the writer's workshop.  Students know what to expect each day!

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Pg. 64-Effective Methods of Instruction for the mini lesson=“ We can teach people how to do something in the following ways : Demonstration, Guided practice, Explanation with example, Inquiry.” *Students need to be taught using one of these methods in order for the mini lesson to have an impact and be effective.

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“To teach  writing , you need to establish the structures and expectations that ensure that all students will  work with engagement and  tenacity at their own important writing projects. Otherwise, your entire attention needs to be on the effort to keep kids working— and you therefore aren’t able to devote yourself to the all —important work of scaffolding and teaching.”

This is the second year that we have used the Lucy Caulkins writing program at PES. I’ve noticed a huge difference in the students ‘ ability to write independently and for longer periods of time.

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I knew I needed work conferring and focused on that chapter. I had heard 1:1 conferences and small groups lots of times before but wasn't really sure how to put it into action. After making a copy of Michelle's conferring sheet and having a tool kit to reference, conferring became so much more clear to me.  I was really missing the tool kit as a shared resource and place to start the conference.

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I taught this lesson on Friday and used John Reynolds Gardiner's book Stone Fox (because they read it last year) and Julie Brinckloe's Fireflies! as Mentor texts. We talked about how authors take their readers on a character journey and show us how their character is feeling by his words and actions without saying the character was happy, sad, etc. it was fun to send them off to write like Mr. Gardiner and Ms. Brinckloe. Here is the anchor I created for their notebooks.

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Managing Writing: Heart and Soul of the Writing Workshop

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Managing Writing: Heart and Soul of the Writing Workshop

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pg. 50  "It is during writing time that you are free to support, scaffold, and foster students' growth as writers in whatever ways seem most important for each individual writer."   The Teachers College reminds us that the main work of the workshop happens when students are writing.

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Conferring has always been difficult for me. I found in the past when I conferenced with a student, others would get off track, or come over to ask questions regarding their writing. The chapter on Structures and Management Systems has been very helpful. I actually read this when I first got the book and used some of the strategies and then recently reread it and found more great ideas. I love the part about teaching students to ask open ended questions so that partners can help facilitate more writing.

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"The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."
Maya Angelou

"Writing is the painting of the voice."
Volaitre

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Children find and mark a place in their own writing where they could do the work of the demonstration... Friday's session was about teaching our young authors that when writers study mentor authors they think not only what this author has done that they could try out but why this author has done this. Then they revise to make sure that they've emulated craft moves in ways that make sense. On this day STICKY NOTES were used;)
I LOVE MY JOB!

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"If the people working under your management system were grown-ups instead of children, the job of managing the workers would be regarded as highly demanding leadership work. But all too often in schools, classroom management is treated as a task akin to doing the laundry."

This stuck out to me because all too often, we hear that teaching is such an easy profession, but we know that there is so much more that goes into it.

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Many students are shocked when I inform them that I will not be editing their work.  In the past teachers have gone through students' writing and done the hard work of editing that students need to learn to do.

When my students are done revision and ready to edit, I hand them this editing checklist. I tell students to only focus on one skill at a time. It becomes too overwhelming to edit for everything at once.

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Love seeing students embracing the use of tool kits. This one I made after last week's class on when to start a new paragraph.

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To teach students to end their personal narratives with a final message for the reader I read and discussed the ending to Charlotte's Web.

However, I have found that the most powerful mentor texts come from peers. Nothing inspires students to attempt a new narrative goal better then hearing a classmate effectively  use it in his/her writing.

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Angela and I found this to be enlightening: "If children are ELL, the partnerships or maybe triads often contain a more and a less proficient speaker of English." We currently have a struggling ELL student and this really helped validate and support what our plans are for her in Writer's Workshop

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Angela and myself were working together to build toolkit’s that we are proud of and find useful. We used Michelle’s to help guide us!

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"The hardest part of writing fiction is getting characters from here to there."

Another point that stood out to me was, "In the writing workshop, it would be rare for the teacher to determine the topic." Would it also be rare to dictate the genre?

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"Children need to go through the entirety of their own entire writing process, to show you and themselves what they do on their own, and to receive feedback on the decisions they made.  For this to happen, you need to accept that they will do work that is less than perfect."

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"Children need to go through the entirety of their own entire writing process, to show you and themselves what they do on their own, and to receive feedback on the decisions they made.  For this to happen, you need to accept that they will do work that is less than perfect."

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One of the tools that my partner and I started to make last week was a partner chart. We used pictures of ourselves to help teach our students what it means to be a partner

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When we learn our letters in K we say we have them in our back pocket!

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When we learn our letters in K we say we have them in our back pocket!

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Working on trying to organize all my WW resources into one Tool Kit. Should be very helpful once I get it set up😊 Thank you Carissa for my new bookmarks!

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I use this Conference Question sheet when I am struggling with how to help a student in their writing. I think it came from one of our RW trainings. It is from a resource called “How’s it Going” by Carl Anderson.

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I made this during our class last week! Only 20 minutes 😊

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This book helped teach dialogue

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Quick words for spelling that they keep in their writing folders

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This was the book I shared from my room.

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This contains the videos for all of the sessions in the Up the Ladder units of study for Narrative writing. As I unpack the other units in this kit I will send along the other videos. Click where it says google docs and hopefully it will open it up. Let me know if you need help.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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To introduce leads I used a variety of texts and read just the first few paragraphs of each. After reading them all we discussed the author's strategy and what they decided to focus on:
-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone-author's voice (thank you very much!)
-Holes - setting  (Woohoo, Camp Green Lake!)
-Charlotte's Web - emotion, dialogue (not the ax Papa!)
-My Side of the Mountain -plot (I decided to run away, 40 minutes later I was home)
-A Wrinkle in Time - character traits and setting (It was a dark and stormy night)

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This is a great tool to help with language while conferring with a student.

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This is a quote from Jane Yolen that we refer to when teaching narrative writing. The students discussed the quote with their writing partners. They connected with it because of the sports reference. At the beginning of Writers' Workshop one day a student exclaimed, "time for our writing practice -I'm going to the major leagues like Dustin Pedroia, I'll be a famous author some day!" 

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This is a quote from Jane Yolen that we refer to when teaching narrative writing. The students discussed the quote with their writing partners. They connected with it because of the sports reference. At the beginning of Writers' Workshop one day a student exclaimed, "time for our writing practice -I'm going to the major leagues like Dustin Pedroia, I'll be a famous author some day!" 

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Concerning Chart

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PATS Paragraphing

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Hearing sounds and matching them to letters with our brave writers takes a lot of practice;)

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I had ordered this magnetic letter storage container from Really Good Stuff last year.  I was so happy to see that it's the perfect place to store the letter tiles for necklaces (phonics) in Kindergarten!

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I had ordered this magnetic letter storage container from Really Good Stuff last year.  I was so happy to see that it's the perfect place to store the letter tiles for necklaces (phonics) in Kindergarten!

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This highlights the introduction and some craft moves the students could try to get the reader's attention.

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I used the information checklist to help explain and organize their topic and a Table of Contents.

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I decided to delve into second grade Non-fiction Writing because this is a unit I have not yet taught. I marked up the mentor text Koalas by Laura Marsh.

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I used the story "Sled Dogs Run" by Jonathan London in my mini lesson on revising with intent. I love the first sentence of the story and there is a wonderful imagery of the snow. "In winter, the snow comes. White on white, as soft as owl feathers. I lie down in the softness and make a snow angel".

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This year for open house I had nearly all my students come into the Learning Center. The students were excited to show show off their work. They had both hand written work and the printed work from their chrome books in their writer's notebooks. It was exciting to hear them explain the mini-lesson and what specific skills they were working on. They were able to show their progress through writing. - This made the parents very happy and proud.

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The short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros is an amazing mentor text for many reasons. This week we focused on how she used exact words the characters said or thought to reveal feelings and character traits. We also discussed how dialogue can be used to create a specific mood.

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Second graders struggle sometimes with beginnings and even more so with endings. I made this poster for my classroom so they could refer to it. One of my struggling authors was finishing his piece on playing basketball on a team last year. While conferring with him, we reread the poster. He looked at me smiled and said, "I'm looking forward to playing basketball again this year."

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A space for mini lessons and for sharing writing.

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We are working on "show, don't tell" as we develop our narrative fiction stories. Yesterday, I veered from Lucy and did a mini lesson on dialogue. I discussed correct punctuation for quotes, then held a funeral for our dear friend Said, who passed away when students entered fourth grade. I played "Taps" and we bowed our heads for this popular word. However, he left behind many wonderful, interesting children. His children are listed on the following sheet, and students have this chart glued into their notebooks. (I did not create the list).

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In fifth grade we are working on moving away from writing summaries of small moments to writing scenes in our personal narrative unit. When I conference students need to focus on a story telling technique they have implemented.

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I taught the Story Arc lesson this week on my partner's classroom. I made it interactive using the events in Fireflies! By Julie Brinckloe. Students helped me create the arc but then I added a new event and had students decide how that would change the story.

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This year grade K is using  google docs to help share and grade our pre and post On Demand writing pieces.  The grading is based on the Lucy checklists and rubrics.

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Hi! My name is Rebekah Castleberry and I am a kindergarten teacher at MCS. This is my fourth year teaching, but my first in grade K! I am excited to learn more about the writing process in K and how set up my students up to love writing and feel successful at it.

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This is one of my anchor charts for story arcs. I used it with lesson 5 in the narrative unit.

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This is one of my anchor charts for story arcs. I used it with lesson 5 in the narrative unit.

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I'm Mary-Margaret Pickman and I teach 4th grade at Moultonborough Central School. This is my second year of teaching. I am looking forward to furthering my knowledge about the writing workshop. I am looking forward to strengthening my writing time and furthering my knowledge of the curriculum. 

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I'm Mary-Margaret Pickman and I teach 4th grade at Moultonborough Central School. This is my second year of teaching. I am looking forward to furthering my knowledge about the writing workshop. I am looking forward to strengthening my writing time and furthering my knowledge of the curriculum. 

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Students sharing their first published piece. 

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Students sharing their first published piece. 

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Partner meeting with Angela about our goals, accomplishments, fails and ideas for the upcoming week

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Team Teaching Lucy Calkins with one of our special educators. Working together has improved the quality of my lessons and the students love the excitement Mrs. Rafuse brings to our writers' workshop. We are able to collaborate and differentiate learning for students' needs.

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I use these laminated posters that explain the writing process.  Each poster has an explanation of the process so kids can identify what stage of writing they are currently in.  I also use it to organize my writing conferences, by having students put a post it note on the poster that they are currently working at (Drafting, Editing, Publishing etc) this really helps when they are all at different stages in the writing process. 

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I use these laminated posters that explain the writing process.  Each poster has an explanation of the process so kids can identify what stage of writing they are currently in.  I also use it to organize my writing conferences, by having students put a post it note on the poster that they are currently working at (Drafting, Editing, Publishing etc) this really helps when they are all at different stages in the writing process. 

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This is the writing center that I have put together in the Literacy Room. I bring small groups of children in grades K-3, that need a quieter space to work, in here. It is still a work in progress. The three bottom shelves have clipboards and other writing supplies.

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As my partner and I dive head first into the challenge of teaching elaboration, informational texts- we agreed that planning was important. This sweet space is in our kitchen where students can think of their topic, picture it, conference with their cookie and milk partner, and then put it in to their booklet.

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I decided to display the students' writing notebooks this year to celebrate how their notebooks are becoming more and more like a real book as they fill with ideas. The students also waste no time searching for their notebook in a bin as they transition back to their desks from the writer's workshop location.

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This bulletin in my classroom is where students hang the work they are proud of. We started with an "I'm From..." poem (seen in the picture) then students can replace or add to the work hanging with works of their choice. Located at the top of the bulletin are some posters that support writing development - organization, ideas, voice, sentence fluency, word choice, conventions, and punctuation.

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The Writing Process
As week 1 of our course rolls into week 2 and my perfectionism kicks in at top speed, this little visual of our writing process proudly hangs.  It is here that our young writers move their clip into the stage of their personal writing.

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I'm Michelle Henley and I teach 5th grade at the Brett School in Tamworth. I implemented the Reading Workshop many years ago and would love to feel as confident with Writing Workshop as I do with Reading Workshop. Definitely looking forward to improving my conferencing skills and helping to raise the level of my students' writing.

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This mentor text was shared at The Teacher's College by Lizzie Hetzer. It is one of my new favorites! It's engaging and jam packed with craft moves that students can learn from. We have used it for focusing on powerful endings. (We also analyzed Owl Moon's ending.)

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I created this poster to hang in my writing center to help students visualize the writing process.

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I'm Edna Miller. I teach second grade at Plymouth Elementary School. I'm looking forward to further developing my skills as a writing teacher and to sharing ideas with fellow educators.

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We are almost to the third bend in unit 1. 

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We are almost to the third bend in unit 1. 

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As I was reading through Jenn Serravallo's book, Writing Strategies, I came upon this on page 95. I obviously added other pictures, but this could be done with any popular theme character too, by using clip art.