The Writing Process

It's been a rough first week back to school for me, and I'm glad to get back to blogging about Writer's Workshop!

Hopefully, if you're just getting back into the swing of things in your classrooms, too, you've been able to start implementing some aspects of Writer's Workshop into your schedule.  If not, it's never too late to start!  (click here for my post about what Writer's Workshop is)

So, as I begin my year with my students, it's important that I start them out with understanding what the Writing Process is. When students work through a process, whether it's in writing or reading or math, they work using a concrete model to reach a goal.  In writing, the goal is to have something that is ready for someone else to read.  In 5th grade, I use these steps:

1. Prewriting (brainstorm ideas)
2. Drafting (get your ideas on paper)
3. Revising (change the way you wrote something)
4. Editing (fix things that need fixed)
5. Publishing (ready for the readers' eyes)

When I taught primary grades, I usually combined the revising and editing stages as there is less of a focus on revising.

I wanted a creative way to introduce the writing process to my students that would help them understand what happened in each stage. So, what better way to create, change, fix, and finalize something than playing with play dough!

1. Prewriting

I gave my students a ball of play dough.  I found cheap containers of play dough at my local dollar store. You could also make the dough, but I didn't want to take the time when I knew I could get it for fairly cheap.  I told my students that we were going to have a contest to see who could create the best animal with their play dough.  I gave them time to experiment with ideas first, which represents the PREWRITING stage of the writing process.  They sure got creative!

What should I make? Lions, tigers, bears... so many options!

2. Drafting
Once they had their fun with experimenting with their play dough, they began thinking through what animals they actually wanted to create for our little competition.  They began putting pieces and parts together to see what they could create.  Their initial ideas didn't always turn out like they imagined, which goes perfectly with the DRAFTING stage of the writing process.

It's a start!

3. As they began to make changes to their animals, I emphasized that this represented the REVISING stage; the stage where they might move things around (just like they might move an arm or leg on their animal to balance it out a little better). They also might take something off their animal and change the way the piece looked, similar to using different words to state their ideas better.

This doesn't look like I thought it would!

4. As their animals were coming along, they began to see the need to fix things, such as a leg that was too thick, or an body that wasn't proportional to the head. In the picture below, a student realized that the animal head was actually too heavy as it fell off the animal!  We talked about how this models our need for EDITING when we need to fix things in our writing that aren't correct (spelling, punctuation, grammar/mechanics issues).

Oh, no! The head won't stay on!

5. Finally, it was time to get it ready for the judges. There was a fine line up of play dough animals, from dinosaurs and snakes to dolphins and cats.  But the judges could only choose 1.  This showed us how important it is to make sure our writing is ready for the reader. If our work doesn't get our thoughts and ideas across well, then it's not as effective as it could be.

So, the winner was...

The Dolphin!

This activity helped my students understand the stages of the writing process.  As students began writing their various stories, letters, poems and reports, they were able to track their own progress through the process.  That way, they can stick to a plan for their writing, making the goal of publishing a tangible one for them!

I'd love to hear how you introduce your students to the writing process!  I know there are tons of creative ideas out there!

Thanks for reading!
Martha

5 Quick Tips for the Writing Mini Lesson

Happy Wednesday! I am in the middle of getting my classroom ready for my 5th graders this year, and am so excited to start Writer's Workshop this year!  

So, this morning I thought some quick tips for conducting a writing mini lesson might be a help for me to think about and for you as you're planning, too!

(These Quick Tips come from my Quick Guide to Implementing Writer's Workshop in the Elementary Classroom, which can be found here.)

The Mini Lesson

I think of the Mini Lesson as the “Heart and Soul” of Writer’s Workshop.  This is where the teacher imparts his/her knowledge about writing to the students. It’s in a very small chunk of time, so the mini lesson has to be specific, succinct, and immediately applicable. 

Here’s some tips:

1. The Mini Lesson should not be introducing a writing prompt for everyone to complete. 

There should be choice in the writing topics for students, which allows them to own their writing.  Yes, a teacher has specific writing genres to cover. 

2. Mini Lessons focus on one specific skill.

3. Mini Lessons many times depend on student needs.

What your students do in Writer’s Workshop drives your topics for your mini lessons.  Having a line up of Mini Lessons always helps for those times!  (I’m busy creating an Anthology of Mini Lessons just for those moments!)

4. Mini Lessons can be related to others.

They can be sequels to each other. Many times, I begin by reviewing what we talked about the day before and build on those ideas. 

5. Mini Lessons must have teacher modeling involved.

I know… that’s what many of us DON’T like doing. But it’s essential. Sometimes I’m teaching the new skill/concept AS I’M WRITING.

I love keeping these tips in mind as I'm planning out my mini lessons.  The key is SHORT, INTENTIONAL, and SPECIFIC TO STUDENT NEEDS.  I have more details about each of these tips, as well as a long list of mini lesson ideas in my Quick Guide to Implementing Writer's Workshop in the Elementary Classroom.  Grab your copy today!  There's a free mini lesson included in the guide, too!

A Quick Guide to Implementing Writer's Workshop



Happy Teaching!
Martha from "The Owl Spot"

How Do I Get My Students to Start Writing?

If you've ever asked this question to yourself or to someone else, don't worry: you're not alone! I think we all struggle with this. Here are a couple of ways that I've used that has been helpful to get my students writing during Writer's Workshop!

1. Heart Mapping

Georgia Heard in "Awakening the Heart" begins her book by talking about Heart Mapping.  I love this concept.  It gets students thinking about what things are close to their hearts that they can writing about.

 

Heard uses this method when teaching students to write poetry, but I've expanded it to all forms of writing.  Students want to write about what matters to them, and that's what this exercise gets them thinking about!

Here's how it's done:
*  Have students draw a large heart on one of the first couple pages of their writing journals.  In the picture above, we actually cut these out and attached them to the inside front cover of their writing journals. I wanted students to be able to find these quickly to get ideas.

* Inside their hearts, have them write the names of things that are important to them.  For instance, it might be the names of family members, pets, places they've visited, anything that is a favorite... I think you get the idea.  I always do one on chart paper as they are working on theirs.

* Asking students questions about things they like (what's your favorite dessert, what's your favorite sport... etc.) helps them think through the things that are close to their hearts.

* They can draw a picture or symbol to go with some or all of their ideas.

* After they "fill up their hearts," they can section the items off by drawing lines (if they want to).  I tell that that they are making it look kind of like a stained glass window. It's important to keep in mind that they do not have to fill in every spot in their heart maps. Many times throughout the year, students will think of something they can add to their map. And you'll also have experiences in class (field trips, experiments, school activities) that they may want to add, too!

* Once they have finished, they have this beautiful reminder in their writing journals of things they can write about if they need some ideas.

(I do not have any affiliate links or kick-backs for mentioning Georgia Heard's book - I just love it!)

2.  Read picture books that spark writing ideas!

You can get so many writing ideas from reading picture books.  For example...

* "All the Places to Love" by Patricia MacLachlan is a perfect read to get students thinking about a place they love to visit. The descriptive words are a great model for writing about their own favorite spot.

* "Thundercake" by Patricia Polacco can remind students of things they are/were afraid of and how they overcame their fears.

* "Saturdays and Teacakes" by Lester Laminak is great for writing about special memories with special friends/family members.

* "The Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant is a for writing about a time students went on a trip or vacation.

* "Diary of a Worm" by Doreen Cronin (or any of her Diary books) is a great format to get kids thinking from another animal's perspective.

There are so many amazing picture books oozing with writing ideas.  You have to think like a writer when you read them.


3. Pictures

You know the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words."  Well, get your student to begin writing those words down!  I've made it a routine in my classroom to start our day with an ELA skill building activity, and one of those is a Picture Writing Prompt. These are a favorite with my students, and many times, they will continue their story later on. Check out the links below for the FULL YEAR of ELA Skills activities. 

Here's something for you to try (or to have your students try).  I'm sure there will be lots of amazing ideas from this picture!

ELA Bell Ringers for Upper Elementary Grades printable

ELA Bell Ringers for Upper Elementary Grades digital

ELA Morning Work for Primary Grades digital

I'd love to read your stories and/or poems!  Even better, I'd love to read what your students have to write! Share in the comments :-)


Happy Writing!
Martha from "The Owl Spot"
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Setting the Stage for Writer's Workshop

Welcome to "The Owl Spot" as we set the stage for writer's workshop.  This is my 2nd installment of my Writer's Workshop Wednesday posts, and it's one of my favorites!  

As teachers, we (usually) enjoy decorating and organizing our rooms for a new school year.  Sometimes it gets overwhelming with all of the photos circulating on Pinterest and Facebook.  I like to make a checklist, though, to help me stay focused (grab the checklist at the end of this post for free!).

One area on my checklist is to set up my content related areas, one of them being my Writing Center.  In this center, I have an interactive bulletin board for students to track their writing process and a shelf with writing tools for my students to use (different kinds of paper, checklists, dictionaries, editing pens, etc.).

For today, I wanted to focus on the Interactive Writing Process Board (or display). 

One set of mini lessons I teach after I go over procedures for Writer's Workshop is what the Writing Process is.  It's important that students know what happens in each stage, as well as where they are in the process as they are writing.  

Creating an interactive board doesn't have to be as hard as it sounds.  You just need a way for students to visually track their own process.  It also makes it easy for you to catch a "status of the class" just by looking at your board/display.  

You want to make sure you have these items on your board/display:

* Stages of the writing process

* Short explanation of what happens in each stage - this can be either on the board/display or somewhere nearby.

* Movable pieces with student names on them.  These should attach to the different writing process stages. There's so many different ways you can do this!

1. Clip chart - students move their clothespins to the stage they are currently working on with their writing. Super easy!

2. Magnets - keep your writing process stages on a magnetic surface. Use dollar store/die cuts, etc. with student names on them for your movable pieces.  Just add a magnet to the back!

3. If using a true bulletin board, you can use any movable pieces. Students attach them to the stage with push pins!

Here's some picture ideas...

These are the pieces to a writing process board. 

The posters explain each stage, while the students use the clip chart to show where they are in the process. Super easy to set up, even if you don't have much board/wall space.

Here's one that I used a magnetic surface:

Since my theme was Sea Turtles that year, my students had magnetic name pieces (sea turtle eggs) that traveled to each of the stages of the writing process. This year I had to display my explanation posters in a different area.

Here's another one...

This one goes with my current Alice in Wonderland theme. Students have their writing process posters above the "Tea Party."  On the first day of school, students design their own teacups to use as their movable piece. Because this is on the wall, they use sticky tack to move their pieces on the corresponding teacup.

I've seen so many creative ways to do this! One teacher used a dog theme, and printed out dog bowls, one for each stage. Students had bones with their names on them to move to the different bowl.  Another favorite was a race track. The Writing Process stages were around the track, and students moved their race cars around!

Have fun making your classroom setup meaningful to what you are going to teach your students! 

I'd love to hear how you display your writing process so your students can track their writing!

Link: Free Checklist for Setting Up Your Classroom

Link: Writing Process Poster Set

Thanks for reading!
Martha from "The Owl Spot"