First 10 days of Writing Workshop
Day 1: Decorating notebook on first days of school and put in tabs
Note: The day before this lesson you might ask students to bring photos and personal mementos that they don’t mind cutting or altering
Connect: This year we are going to become writers. Every day we will have a time set aside to record our thoughts and memories in our writer’s notebooks. Today we are going to make these notebooks truly our own.
Teach: Take a look at my writer’s notebook. Do you see how I have decorated the cover with personal photos, stickers, pictures I drew, and quotes? These are all things that are important to me and that will help inspire me as I write. Also, do you notice that I have three sections to my notebook? One is for ideas, where I jot down short phrases that help me remember stories I want to write later. The biggest section is where I do my writing. The third section is my “notes” section – this is for any notes we make during our mini-lessons.
(The notes section is used whenever you have a teaching tool you’d like them to glue into this section of the notebook. Lesson 9 of this series is an example. Other examples include lists of persuasive phrases, strong verbs, descriptive language, etc. It’s easiest if these notes are given to students to glue into the notebooks before the writing workshop mini-lesson, perhaps as morning work. That allows the mini-lesson to be more focused.)
Active Engagement: I’d like everyone to take three of these tabs and write “Ideas”, “Writing”, and “Notes” on each. Then place them in your notebook the way I’ve done with mine.
Give students time to do this. Help them section off their notebook leaving the largest section for actual writing.
Turn to your neighbor and talk about what you might use to decorate the cover of your writer’s notebook. Talk about what you might use that you already have and what you might create.
Give students 2-4 minutes to discuss. Depending on the class, you might want to assign talk partners at the beginning of the workshop and allow students to keep these partners for an extended time. This helps keep the active engagement time focused and students on task.
Link: Today when you go off to your seats, you will decorate your writer’s notebook. Use this as a time to talk about your photos, drawings, quotes and other mementos with your friends nearby. Each of these might become fodder for future writings, so pay attention to the stories you tell your friends.
Day 2 - What is the notebook?
Connect: We all decorated our notebook yesterday and today we are ready to start learning about what the notebook is.
Teach: Last year I asked my students what the notebook was to them and these were the things they said. Look at the anchor chart that we created and added to. (This will need to be written before the mini-lesson)
The notebook is a place for you to write your thoughts.
The notebook is a place for you to share your stories.
The notebook is where I learn new crafts and techniques.
The notebook is where I take risks. Sometimes they work and my writing is great. Sometimes I have to go back and think about it again.
The notebook is sometimes private but other times free for my classmates to read.
The notebook is mine. I take care of it and don’t ever rip out pages from it.
The notebook is special.
All of these thoughts were shared and believed by my class last year. The notebook had a different meaning for each person. All of these are so true. The notebook is all of these characteristics. I want you to think about “Things That Writers Do”. We are going to start a chart that we will add to during the year. The title of our chart is “What do writers do?” I want everyone to tell me some things that writers do and I will write them on our chart.
Create chart together. Talk through each point that a child makes. Some examples might be: Writer’s write down their feelings. Writer’s record their memories. Writer’s pay attention to what happens around them.
Active Engagement: I want everyone to open their notebook and look at all the blank pages. I want you to touch each page. I want you to think about what the notebook was to my students last year and what writers do.
Give them time to think as you model doing this with your own notebook.
Those empty pages are going to be filled in with your words and your stories. The things that writers do, we are all going to start doing. You are going to hear mecall you Writers a lot this year, because that is what we all are. I want you to turn to your partner and repeat after me. “I am a writer.” Ok….some of you didn’t think I was serious or you were kind of quiet. I want you to say it again with a little more excitement. “I am a writer.” Great!
Link: When you go off to write today. You can write about anything you want to as long as it is something that is true and that really happened to you. I want you to take this sticker and put it in your notebook on the inside cover. It says “I am a writer”. We are all going to get these to remind us of who we are during writing workshop. We are writers and we need to live like one.
Day 3 - Rules of Writing Workshop
Connect: Yesterday we talked about the notebook and about what writers do. Today we are going to learn the rules for Writing Workshop.
Teach: I want you to think about a game that has rules. (Soccer, basketball, monopoly) Turn and tell your partner one rule in that particular game and tell them why they have the rule in place. (Have some share what they said) So, rules exist to give us guidelines. What would happen if we didn’t have that rule in soccer? It wouldn’t make sense right? It would be harder to play the game. In writing workshop we have to have rules because we want to be better writers. We are going to make a chart today of the rules for writing workshop.
Rules for Writing Workshop:
We write the whole entire time because we have a lot to say.
The mini lesson is where I learn, listen and share my ideas with my classmates.
During Share time I am respectful of the work that my friends have written.
I encourage my classmates.
My notebook is a special place where pages are not ripped out.
I take risks in my writing because playing it safe won’t help me grow.
These rules are ones that we need to try to live by. They are going to help us.
Active Engagement: I want everyone to initial our chart that we created. I am putting my initial on here because I understand the rules for Writing workshop and know that I have to follow these daily.
Link: Today when you write feel free to write about anything that has happened to you. You can continue with the story you started yesterday.
Day 4 – Collecting Ideas
Note: to prepare for today’s lesson, find a large jar and fill it with 10-20 small strips of paper. Each paper should have a category from which students can jot down memories. A few to get you started:
- Memories with my grandmother
- Places I’ve been on vacation
- Times I felt sad
- Strange things I’ve seen
- Favorite pet stories
Connect: Yesterday we talked about the rules of workshop. Today we are going to work on getting some writing ideas in our notebook. As writers sometimes we have to take a day to come up with topics. Writers sometimes have writer’s block and say “I don’t know what to write about.” Has anyone ever said this? I have!
Teach: Today I am going to teach you one way of coming up with ideas for your notebook.
Show students a large jar.
This jar is a special jar with lots of seed ideas that will jog my memory about certain things that I can write about. We are going to pass the jar around and pull out a piece of paper. We will read it aloud and then write down all the stories that come to our mind in our ideas section. You might have 2 for one idea or 6. (Teacher should have notebook out ready to model in hers as well)
Pull out paper –My paper says memories with my grandmother. Wow! That is a big seed idea…I have lots of those.
Talk out loud as you write them down in your notebook.Model writing a phrase or short sentence rather than the entire story, which students may want to do initially. Write 5-6 memories.
Now that you have heard mine, I want you to try and write some memories about your grandmother.
Give students a few minutes to jot down memories. Then pass the jar to someone else. Have them continue to do this with 4-5 more people.
Wow I can tell you got a lot of ideas today. The seed jar is going to stay in our room. We are going to pull it out from time to time when we think we are having writer’s block.
Active Engagement: I want you to turn and tell your partner which idea you think you might work on today. If it is piece that you started yesterday that is ok. If it a new piece then great as well.
After they share, have a few tell you what they are going to write. It is always good to get them excited about what they are writing before they leave the carpet.
Link: What great story ideas you guys have written in your notebook. I can’t wait to read all about what happens. Send students off to write
Day 5 - Listening and Responding to Each Other
Connect:One way writers make their writing better is to get together with other writers so they can share ideas and give feedback. To share with each other, we have to be really good listeners. Today we’ll learn what it means to be a good listener and what a good listener might say to help another person with his or her story.
Teach: Today we are going to talk about what makes a good listener and a good partner. There are going to be times in Workshop when you read your writing to your partner. We need to talk about the role that both people play during that time. If I am the one reading my story what should my partner be doing?
Wait for responses. Some ideas include:
- Look at me as I read my writing, listen carefully
- Think about the goodthings that I have done with my writing
- Think about one thing that they thought I could have changed
- They are my helper and listener.
- They ask questions if they don’t understand something.
Good listeners face each other and look at each other.
Show students how to sit knee to knee and eye to eye
Active Engagement: Today I want you to look at one of your seed ideas that you have. I want you choose one of the stories and be ready to share it with your partner.
Give them a few seconds to find a story.
Students practice taking turns telling a story to the person next to them. Move from pair to pair, making sure students are practicing good listening behaviors. Establish a signal that indicates the end of partner talk when students should once again face the front. Some teachers use a countdown, such as “three, two, one…” Then have them switch and let the other person share their story.
Link:When you go off to write today, I want you to think about how you told your partner the story of your seed idea. Think about all the details you used when talking to your partner. Feel free to continue to work on another story or start a new one.
Sample “Good Listener” chart:
Good Listeners…
Do / Say- Face each other.
- Nod their heads.
- Think about
what the person
is saying.
- How did you
feel when…?
- What happened then?
- I especially liked the part when you said…
Day 6– Defining a personal narrative
Connect: Yesterday we learned about being good listeners with our partners. Today we are going to learn about what a personal narrative is. This is the first genre we are going to be working on.
Teach: Write “What is a personal narrative?” on a chart
A personal narrative tells a story or parts of a story. It is about the writer or someone the writer knows.
Personal Narratives have……
Plot
Characters
Setting
(You will continue to add to this chart as you teach them in reading and writing…..i.e.: conflict, resolution, climax, transitions, point of view, theme, etc.)
Today I am going to read a text that is a connect book for me. The book is a narrative text and reminds me of my own story.
My book isStand Tall Molly Lou Melon.I read the text and then share my story about getting pulled over at 16 because I was so short. The cop didn’t believe I was 16. I sat on a pillow and he thought I had a fake id. I had to call my mom. The police officer felt terrible and kept apologizing to my mom for his mistake. When sharing your story give great details and include what we charted as a personal narrative. You might choose a different text to share that connects with your story.
When I was sharing my story…Would you agree that it was a real story about me with characters, plot, and setting?
Active engagement: I want you to turn to your ideas section and beside one of your ideasI want you to write the setting of that story, and characters in your story. For example my seed idea is “When I got pulled over”; setting - inside car on Broad Street, characters - police officer, me and my mom.
Give them time to do this
Link: When you go off to write today think about the components we learned about in a narrative. Continue to write something new or something you have been working on.
Day 7 - Reading like a writer (Day 1)
Connect: Yesterday you were able to see a personal narrative that I wrote. Today I am going to teach you how to read like a writer.
Teach: When reading like a writer, we have to look through a different set of lens. There are many reasons to read. We read to enjoy, to find information, to get directions, to learn,etc. When we read like a writer, we look at the text differently. We look at the words and how the author writes. We look at how he/she uses punctuation. We also notice things that others might not notice like how the author begins a book or ends a book, the details they tend to use, and the language. I am going to read you a book today but I am going to read like a writer. I do this because I can learn a lot from other authors.
Read text aloud: it can be any text. As you read start noticing all of the things above that the author is doing and share them aloud with your students. If there is a line that you like, write it in your notes section titled “reading like a writer”. If you notice words or want to take notes on punctuation that you liked, record that too. Do this all in front of the students. In the interest of time you might just read a section of a text aloud and not read an entire book.
Active Engagement: Now that you saw how I read like a writer, I want you to go in your notes section and at the top of a page write “Reading like a writer”. Whenever you have notes that you want to jot down or you heard or saw something really neat that an author did, I want you to jot it down on this page. If you run out of room, you can make a new one.
Link: When you go off to write today, I want you to grab a text from this basket. (Pick ones that have great language and good details.)
As you read, I want you to put on those different lenses. Practice reading like a writer. If there is something in the text that you notice, feel free to write it down in your notebook just like I did. At the end of workshop, bring your text back to the carpet. I can’t wait to see what great writing goes on today.
Day 8: Reading like a writer (Day 2)
Connect: Yesterday we learned how to read like a writer. Today we are going to continue learning about how to read like a writer, and specifically how to “borrow” a line of text that we really like.
Teach: Remember that when you read like a writer you are looking at the text with different eyes, a different lens. You’re not just reading it to enjoy it, but you’re also studying it to see how the author was able to make you feel the way you felt when you read it. Have you ever laughed out loud when you read a book? So have I! I like to go back and reread those sections to see how the author made the scene so funny.
Select a text with beautiful, descriptive language. One example might be “Saturdays and Teacakes” by Lester Laminack. Read a section of the text aloud that contains descriptive language. Then show students chart paper where you have “lifted” the sentence/s that were especially beautiful.