Writer’s workshop is a sacred time during the school day
that is dedicated to writing. The workshop structure allows students to be
guided through the writing process but takes into account the fact that all
students work at a different pace. So all students are able to work at a pace
that they feel comfortable in. The workshop structure starts off with the
mini-lesson, where I model the teaching point, which has to do with one of the
5 stages of the writing process (brainstorming/ generating ideas, drafting,
revising, editing and publishing). During mini-lesson, students also have the
opportunity to engage in guided practice, where students try out the teaching
point on the rug as a class or small groups. Following the mini-lesson the students
go off to try out what they learned in their own writing independently.
In this
first unit the students are working on personal narratives; which is being tied
to our Social Studies unit, United States Geography. The students are writing personal narratives (true
stories about the authors life) relating to a family trip or vacation to
another state. They are so engaged in
their writing it is hard to pull them away. They have all had the opportunity
to choose a ‘just right’ writing spot around the room not near any one or
anything that may be distracting to their writing. All of the students are in
the drafting stage of the writing process, where they are writing the rough
draft of their story. We are looking forward to reading the final product and
hope you are too.
