Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing

Herb Budden, ITW Writing Project

To understand Writer’s Workshop

To enable you to begin to design WW approaches for your classroom

Norms for the day…

What do you need in order to get things done?

Text Protocol—the 4 “A’s” What Assumptions does the author

of this text hold?

What do you Agree with in the text?

What do you want to Argue with in the text?

What parts of the text do you want

to Aspire to?

FAQs about writing instruction: What about 4 square? Writing process? What method should be

used? Should 6 Traits be taught all together or

individually? How do they fit with the process?

How can I motivate kids to write? How can I follow up on 6 traits when they’re

mastered? What about revision vs. editing? What about writing on demand? How do we make sense of all this and the

demands of our curriculum? (grades in sp, etc)

Improving Writing in School:

Typical Components of WW, regardless of grade level: 1. Minilessons 5-15 2. Status of the Class 2-3 3. Writing / Conferring Time

20-40 4. Sharing / Author’s Chair

5-10

1. Minilesson: a short piece of direct instruction. (5-15 min) Procedures. A lesson on what needs to

be done to participate in the workshop, like how to store and organize papers, how to request a conference, etc.

Strategies Writers Use –”Craft”. Things like “how do I pick a topic?” or “how do I write a good lead?” Best focused on the writing process.

Qualities of Good Writing “Craft and Conventions”. These lessons let students see how to judge writing. 6 Trait time!

PS—YOU DON’T NEED A MINI EVERY TIME!

Minis work best when:

They are suggested by students

They are taught in the context of authentic student writing

The teacher models for students as the lesson is delivered

2. Status of the Class: a quick way of finding out what students will be working on. (2-3 min) Out loud: students tell what they’ll

be working on…writing process stage is most helpful

Visually: Students indicate on chart what they’re working on

Recorded on paper: a sheet is circulated or teacher records

Status of the Class works best when: if you do it out loud everyone can hear everyone

else students choose their own

topics, forms, and genres and manage their own way through the writing process

3. Writing Time… the centerpiece of the workshop; the teacher: (20-40 min)

Models…work on your own writing; an extremely valuable thing to do!

Confers with students…this is the most valuable teaching time

Conducts small-group conferences

Writing Time works best when: Students have internalized

effective classroom procedures Students write frequently and for

longer periods of time on a regular schedule

You write with your students for at least a few minutes during most WW.

Conferring…working individually with students..keys are good management (during writing time) Management: Students need to be able

to know when the teacher is available for conference; how to request a conference in an appropriate way; how to be specific about what they want help with; have all materials ready

Execution: Conferences are brief! Model conferences; ask questions before making recommendations; work on one thing at a time; make sure the student knows what to do when leaving a conference

Conferring works best when: Students know how to do it You stay focused on one thing at a

time Conferences are less than 5

minutes You check back with students from

time to time to see if they’re following up on what you conferred about

More advice on conferring: Don’t correct… Inspect the writing closely Detect those parts that work and those

that don’t Reflect on why some things work and

some don’t Connect reactions to author’s intent Respect the writer’s reactions Perfect the communication between

author and audience Expect to repeat the process

4. Sharing/Author’s Chair: a chance to address a real audience for feedback (5-10 min)

Whole Class: gives authors good feedback, but takes a lot of time. Great tool for building community

Small Group: Time efficient, but harder to manage. Monitor each group’s members for participation

Partner: Most time efficient, but feedback may be less helpful

Sharing works best when:

It is voluntary The author asks the audience to listen for

or help with something specific Kids with long pieces read only a short

section Students make constructive comments

using common language from 6 Traits Everyone knows that all comments, even

the teacher’s, are suggestions only Students ask mostly questions instead of

making comments

General TIPS: Concentrate on classroom management by focusing on

procedural minilessons at the beginning of the year If you have less than 40 minutes, drop the minilesson and

sharing. Do a quick SOC and then go right to writing time.

Teach students to run their own WW so you don’t have to Keep a list of things from your reading program that

students like, and use it as basis for minilessons Encourage shy kids to share by asking if you can share

for them Keep an in-class library of published student work for

students to read Have fun every day

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR WW Remember that WW is flexible! The essence of WW is not what you

teach, but how you teach it. If most of your writing time includes kids writing on their own topics, if you participate as a fellow writer, if everyone shares writing regularly, and if you follow the kids and teach to their needs instead of a pre-planned curriculum, you’re doing WW

Four Approaches to WW:

“Traditional”-- includes mini, status, writing/conferring, sharing in that order…

Most people start this way—is most similar to traditional teaching…use to exert control, to set the stage for lesson content or an important goal, or to start everyone off on a specific type of project. Some people use this format every day.

“Share First”– Sharing, Mini, Status, Writing Time…

Kids love sharing first; teacher gets a chance to collect thoughts…as kids share, listen for specific things to work on…then ask kids if they’d like a lesson on it.

“No Lesson”-- includes only status of class, writing time, and sharing.

Good approach when short on time or don’t have a lesson you want to give. It’s good to do this regularly because it lets kids know they have to get right down to business. Good to use later in the year when everyone knows the procedures.

“Dynamic” – you do any of the components in any order only when you judge them important…

Good to change the tempo of the class, switching can help settle kids down, allows the most flexibility

LOGISTICS– Keeping Writing Organized

Organizing student writing Gr K-2:Use wide-ruled notebook of some

sort for pre-writing and drafting plus a simple tw0-pocket folder. On one side of the folder, students keep writing ideas and teacher handouts. On the other, they keep on-going work. The teacher keeps a third set of files for each student to store published work.

Organizing student writing Gr 3-up: Many teachers use a Writer’s

Notebook-Draft Folder-Showcase Folder system

Some teachers use a 3-ring binder with divider sections named for each stage of the writing process. As students move a piece through the process, they store their work in the appropriate section

Desks and seating: Many teachers prefer a semi-circular

arrangement where all students have an unobstructed view of the sharing and teaching positons. Rows & columns are not good!

Many teachers have writing resources and conferring ‘stations’ or designated areas in the room.

Scaffolding the WWGenerating Story Ideas by writing

/drawing to a promptThinking about writer’s craftNatalie Goldberg’s Writers

Marathon: A Variation

Let’s list places that are special to us…

Remember—special places can be as tiny as a favorite chair or corner in a room… they don’t have to be big, splashy public places!

What do we notice about each person’s place to love in the book?

Why is that?

What makes a place special to someone?

Describe YOUR special places, using text, art, or both. You can dictate, create poems, draw

pictures…whatever works.

See p. 195 in Seeing with New Eyes

Sharing stories with pictures: How do we know what this story is about?

We read wordless stories by: Examining the pictures carefully Making up the words in our heads

to fill in the story

How might this activity help our students to think about the CRAFT of writing?

What role does metacognition play in learning?

How should I begin my story…?

CRAFT Modeling:

A possible beginning (lead):

“Want to play golf with the president?” I heard my brother say on the other end of the line.

Another possible beginning:

The president. Meet the president. Could it be?

Another possible lead:

The long entrance through the estate’s tree-lined loomed ahead of me through the iron gates. Big black SUV’s were parked just beyond. An unsmiling man in a dark suit, sunglasses and radio headset approached my car. The day was warm, and my palms were sweating. See Jackson/Pillow The Reading-Writing Workshop: Getting Started, p. 109

YOUR OWN WRITING IS IMPORTANT!

W H Y? SERVES AS A MODEL ALLOWS YOU TO EXPERIENCE THE

WRITING PROCESS FIRST HAND, NOT JUST AS A TEACHER

WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT??

Keep your own portfolio!

MY YEAR-- some good prompts:Predict what the year will be like…Reflect on a favorite book, film, play, piece

of art, or something you’ve learned from teaching, a student, a favorite moment, something you’d do differently, the joy (or agony) of a field trip, a personal goal, a person (or film or book) that influenced you. Keep your work from classroom modeling.

See pp 159-161 in Seeing With New Eyes

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO BEGIN A WW IN YOUR CLASSROOM?