Dear Colleague,
I just returned from conducting inservices at two wonderful elementary schools in Houston where I was reminded of the number one question asked about Writer's Workshop. "Where do I find the time?"
This much-anticipated question is difficult to answer. There are simply not enough hours in a school day to accomplish all that we need to do. Nevertheless, we know that in order for a writing program to be successful, students must have an established, daily, predictable writing time. And within that writing time, it is essential to provide time for mini-lessons, conferencing and sharing. That, and yes, it's essential that you find a time to write WITH your students.
Every classroom has its own unique time-management issues, so one answer to this question will not fit all. However, I can offer a number of possible changes (some tweaks, other transformations) that will hopefully reveal the extra time you need to get your Writer's Workshop humming along beautifully.
P.S. Don't forget to visit my blog and tell us how your month of committed writing with your students is going. Have you experienced a change in your writer's workshop? How have your students reacted? Please share! Or pop on and share something you wrote during Quiet Ten. |
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Examining Time
- Although a forty-five minute workshop time is ideal, it's not always possible. Know that frequency and regularity is most important. It's better to give your students 20 minutes of writing time five days a week than 45 minutes two days a week.
- Consider integrating your reading and writing curriculum. Remember: every reading comprehension lesson is a writing lesson, and every writing lesson is a reading comprehension lesson. For example, asking students to infer the emotions of a character based on his actions also demonstrates the writing skill "show don't tell."
- Mini-lessons should be mini! (This goes for the morning message as well.) If you are presenting for a longer time than students are writing, your Writer's Workshop is out of balance. Remember, Mini-lessons are for inquiry . . . for planting seeds, not for harvesting an entire crop of information about writing.
- Author's Chair need not come immediately after writing time. You might offer Author's Chair first thing in the morning, after lunch or recess, or at the end of the day.
- Invite only three students a day to share during Author's Chair. Up to three students receive a listening audience and insightful responses. Both the listening and the quality of responses diminish after three students have had a turn.
- Keep your writing conferences brief. Do not try to cover all aspects of writing, but reinforce the skill you discussed during your mini-lesson. Remember, it's our job to teach a young writer, not to correct papers in the student's presence.
- Incorporate grammar lessons into your Writer's Workshop. (No one ever learned to write by filling out workbook pages.) Assign spelling practice as homework.
- Examine duplication. Do your students need to write in journals every day if they're participating in Writer's Workshop?
- Follow the same routine every day to help students become independent rather than dependent writers. The more independent they are, the less time you need for transitions.
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Writing Tip I have sticky notes in hand during Author's Chair, and when a student asks a particularly astute question, perhaps a clarifying question or a question about process, I write it down on a sticky note and hand it to the author. This accomplishes two goals. It tells the writer that she or he just heard a question worth paying attention to, and it reinforces the student who asked the perceptive question. Don't write down every question that is asked-only those that have a very specific and positive influence on the piece. As you remember from Mr. Skinner, intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful. (B.F. Skinner, 1964) |
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I would love to come to your school! Please view my website to see if a teacher inservice or residency might fit your staff development needs.
I'm available for author visits too. |
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No More "I'm Done!" focuses on nurturing independent primary writers. In addition to suggesting a classroom set-up and routines that support independence, a year of developmentally appropriate minilessons is provided.
Preview the text online here.
To listen to a podcast about the book go here. |
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for primary teachers
