Using a Toolkit in Writer's Workshop

One of my favorite PD experiences this summer was a three-day workshop on using and building a toolkit for Writer's Workshop.  I think (or maybe it's just me) that most teachers find that the most challenging thing about Writer's Workshop (besides keeping your mini-lesson to 10 mins - ha!) is not having the right resource to help a student in the moment.  For example, you notice that after totally SLAYING your mini-lesson on the "Heart of the Story" that this one student is trying to develop their story, but they aren't using any punctuation and they keep saying "and then... and then..." (My inner middle school English teacher cringes...)  What next?

UGH... totally frustrating - Dude, WHAT IS THIS?????   But wait, you have a teacher toolkit and you know a perfect conferencing teaching point to intervene and help this writer!  Here it is...

The Demonstration Notebook - Total Game Changer

In the workshop that I attended they showed us a few videos from DIY Literacy about creating this kind of notebook.  Kate and Maggie (the hosts) are so smart.  If you are using Writer's Workshop, you must check this out.  This is GOLD.  Their video series is phenomenal and completely applicable.

The essential take away was that YOU - yes, not "Teachers Pay Teachers," can create your own notebook as part of your toolkit and make it as the year goes along - you can add to it and it does NOT need to be created before each Writing Workshop session.

Here is the process:

1. Get a blank sketchbook and decide how to divide it up - by unit, skill, etc.
2. Get AWESOME pens to write with.
3. Take notice of what students need.
4. Use a teaching point that you have already developed OR create one on the spot for a student.
5. Write out (DEMONSTRATION) what you NOTICE - the "error"
6. Show STRATEGIES to improve the writing
7. PRACTICE with the student improving the writing
8. Have the student try it on their own
9. Marvel at amazing writing in your classroom : )

Here are some of the pages I have created (in all my spare time) for our first narrative writing unit - based on some likely student needs...

Demonstration #1 - Writers can use sketches to brainstorm new ideas about a topic they have already started. 

Demonstration #2 - Writers tell stories that are clear in their memory.

 

Demonstration #3 - When writers feel "stuck" or "done," they sometimes review other stories to get going again.

I can't wait to keep filling this up!  I am thinking I might add in student examples throughout the year (too ambitious?)... I'll fill you in as this progresses!


Kellie

Alliteration with the Letter "T"

Totally, Terribly Ready?

My second year as a third grade classroom teacher starts in just over a month and I have LITERALLY a TRILLION things to do...

1. Plan
2. Start my master's
3. Drink 17 Starbucks Lattes
4. Cry
5. Drink other beverages... 
6. Pin random things about classroom management that I will never do
7. Plan
8. Pin helpful tips about the beginning of the year that I will never look at
9. Contemplate writing in Frank Underwood for POTUS in November
10. Put up a birthday bulletin board
11. Take the birthday bulletin board down because I found a better spot for it
12. Buy my 62nd set of Crayola markers 'cause duh- they're on sale
13. Make a list
14. Don't use the list
15. Panic
16. Unpack, organize and set up last minute.

O.K. ready, set, GO!

As a former middle school English teacher, I have found that I greatly miss teaching only English.  I could focus on just ONE subject (well more like 4 subjects if you break it down...).  The grading was intense  insane, but the crafting of a literary essay... still gives me goosebumps.  Character analysis, themes weaved within a text, the list goes on and on.  Enough of middle school nostalgia - I made the switch to elementary school last year, and I'm not looking back, just looking forward with glazed eyes and three cups of coffee.

This summer I have been immersed in reading and writing with our new Lucy Calkins curriculum (new to school, not to me), and it is giving me a new sense of panic purpose.  The excitement of starting students in all grades with such a great, supportive curriculum is starting to get to me!  Within my feelings of excitement, I can't help but remember what it was like to teach this curriculum to middle schoolers who had only just begun the program (meaning they were doing something else prior to Lucy Calkins and then just jumped in, feet first, writing anecdotal stories at the beginning of their high school application essays - holy mother...).  It was scary, frightening and overwhelming.  The worst part was deciding what was essential to teach in such complex, fruitful units.  I am hoping that this will NOT be the case for my third graders this year.  They have had one year of Lucy Calkins Writing - that's a plus... but the reading will be a switch.  I'm freaking out prepping the best way I can... by pinning, obviously.

This brings me to some serious T's... as this year starts, I am starting from scratch in more ways than one:

- "Twice as Nice" - this is my second year in third grade - I'm still getting the hang of a large teaching transition from middle school - no fear - I'm feeling terrified terrific!

- "Three Credits" - I am starting my master's degree this year... That's terrific?  I am hoping that I don't feel the creep of overwhelming, debilitating anxiety.  I can do this. With caffeine.

- "Two Doors Down" - I moved classrooms and am currently purging old, leftover materials... what a pain, yet cleansing - like shaving your legs?  My new room is growing on me.  I think a few more inspirational posters about kindness and (patience) for the walls will help.

-Kellie