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