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Steve Peha: In August of 2002, I got a
chance to work with Julie once again during our
annual summer professional development institute
in Independence, MO. One afternoon, over lemonade
at Tippin's restaurant, we talked about writing
projects. Julie wanted to continue her writings
and asked if I had any good topic suggestions. All
through the year, teachers had been asking me for
day-by-day Writer's Workshop lesson plans. Of
course, I didn't have anything like that; you
can't make daily lesson plans for Writer's
Workshop because the whole point of doing it in
the first place is to follow the kids their
needs determine the daily scope and sequence, not a
plan book, a curriculum guide, or a publisher's
program. What many teachers seemed to want was
some kind of guide that would tell them what to do
on a daily basis. But that just isn't an effective
way to learn how to teach and we didn't want to
create something so prescriptive that it would
probably make teachers even more dependent on
canned curriculum than they already are. Instead,
we decided to create something descriptive: a
day-by-day record of Julie's actual teaching
during her first time through the writing process
in Writer's Workshop at the beginning of the
school year.
One Bite at a Time
Julie Bumgardner: Starting Writer's
Workshop this year was a daunting task for me. I
was excited because I believed it was what I'd
been looking for and I felt it would work. But I
was scared because I was relying on something I'd
never done before and I didn't quite know how to
make it happen in my classroom. I was, however,
determined to try one "bite" at a time!
Steve: I remember talking to you, Julie,
about your feelings regarding Writer's Workshop.
What struck me was your commitment to the kids. I
remember you telling me that what you'd been doing
for the first few years of your teaching just
never felt right and that you knew there had to be
something better. Even though you were scared, you
kept trying things until finally Writer's Workshop
seemed to make sense. Then you put all your energy
behind it.
To me, this is what it means to be a great
teacher. Most of the time, especially when we're
just starting out, we don't really know what to
do. We try many things, most of which don't work.
The trick is not to give up, to always keep
looking for something that makes sense for us and
for our kids. And then, when we find it, we just
have to move forward even when we're unsure of
ourselves.
Setting Up
Julie: Getting the students organized helps
me with management. On our beginning-of-the-year
supply list, we asked for specific colored folders
among other things. Each student gets a red
notebook and a folder for Writers Workshop. I
print out a sheet of address labels with the words
"Writing Notebook" and "Writing Folder" so each
student's things are labeled.
Steve: Many of the teachers I work with
have found it ideal to give the kids two places to
put their writing work: a spiral notebook of some
kind, usually for drafting, and either a folder
for primary kids, or a three-ring binder for older
kids, that they can use to keep loose papers.
Julie: On one of the walls in my classroom,
I made and started using writing process posters.
They begin as blank laminated charts, each titled
with one of the six steps of the writing process
prewriting, drafting, revising, sharing, editing,
and publishing. We fill them in together with our
procedures and strategies as we get to each stage.
Steve: This is my favorite approach to
getting the year started. Building the procedures
around the writing process seems to work best for
me, and filling out the posters with the kids as
we go along seems to help them internalize things
more effectively.
Julie: Because I'm so procedure-oriented, I
usually don't start Writer's Workshop until the
third day of school. The first two days are filled
with getting to know each other, seeing where kids
stand academically, classroom rules, etc. I also
like to take them through the entire writing
process with our first piece, and I don't feel
ready to begin a chunk that big the first couple
of days when some are still testing me and my
authority is being established.
Steve: Though I don't know too many
Writer's Workshop teachers that start their year
off exactly this way, I can see that it has some
advantages. All the kids are together so it's a
little easier to keep track of things. Everyone
gets to see the whole process early in the year so
they know what to expect later on. And you get to
focus on procedures. I can also see how this tight
structure might be helpful in the primary grades
where a teacher might face a very large range of
abilities and attention spans.
Julie: Ideally, I would like to teach and
do one step of the writing process each day. In
fact, I always plan each year that way. But
because my Writer's Workshop time this year is a
little shorter than I'd like it to be, and first-time
procedures take extra time, I don't usually end up with a six
day start. The following was how it worked out
this year.
Steve: When I asked you to record how you
start Writer's Workshop, we joked that you'd
have to make two sets of plans: what was supposed
to happen and what actually happened. I think you
did a pretty good job here of staying with your
original plan. It doesn't always go that way, and
one of the things I like about workshop-style
teaching is how flexible it is with regard to
planning. If something takes a day or two longer
than it should have, there's really no problem.
Day One
Julie: We start with a "How it works"
mini-lesson. I begin by telling the class that we
will be doing Writer's Workshop this year. If they
have done it before, I tell them that some of what
we do will be like what they already know, but
that we do more with it in second grade. I point
out the writing process posters and tell them that
these are the steps writers use to write, and that
through the year they will learn all the steps in
order and how to do each one. We also briefly go
over our "writing time" rules.
I start with the Topic T-Chart strategy: things we
like and things we dislike. Most of my kids
remembered that they did it last year in first
grade. We discuss what the word "topic" means: "A
topic is what a piece is mainly about, it's the
main thing you're going to talk about in your
story."
Steve: I like that you took some time here
to go over what a topic was. Many kids don't know
what a topic is and that can lead to a lot of
confusion especially with the difference between
"topic" and "main idea." I like how you said that
a topic is "what a piece is mainly about." Later,
when you introduce main idea, your kids will
easily be able to tell the difference when you
explain to them that the main idea is "the one
most important thing you want your audience to
know" about your topic. Understanding how topic
and main idea relate to each other is so important
and I think you're setting it up well here.
Julie: I give each student a brightly
colored blank piece of paper. Modeling, with my
own paper attached to the chalkboard, I write the
date at the top and the words "Topic T-Chart" as a
title. After directing them to make the "T" by
drawing one line across and then another one down,
we discuss why this strategy might have the name
that it does.
We write "Like" on one side and "Dislike" on the
other. Briefly, I explain what a list is and what
it isn't. I compare it to a grocery list, telling
them we will be listing things we like and dislike
on this T-Chart.
We stop, put pencils down, and some close their
eyes as I guide them to think about things they
really like: things they like to do, to eat,
places they've gone, things they get excited
about, etc. I remind them of the writing time
rules and that writing often includes quiet,
undisturbed thinking.
Steve: It's great to reinforce rules and
procedures as you go along.
Julie: They write their own lists on the
"Like" side as I model by doing my own. We share a
few things we've written and then do the same for
the "Dislike" side. We close by taking out our
writing folders, putting the T-Charts inside, and
discussing that all loose writing papers and only
the loose ones will go in this folder.
Steve: A great opening day. The only
product your kids produced here was a couple of
lists but they learned so many procedures. This
will pay off for you later on when your class
becomes more independent. You were able to start
them out at a relaxed pace that was obviously
comfortable for you and for them, too. I think one
of my problems is that I go too fast at the
beginning of the year. We get a lot of writing
done and everyone has a good time, but I often
find myself reviewing things especially
procedures more often than I think I should have
to. By going slow, and concentrating on the
process and procedures, you're more likely to
produce a well-managed class later
on.
Day Two
Julie: We all take out our writing folders
and remove our Topic T-Charts from yesterday. We
review what a Topic T-Chart is and how it can help
us make lists of potential writing topics. I
explain that although they will have the chance to
write about many of these topics during the year,
today they will chose just one to start with.
I give them time to look at their lists and come
to a decision. When most of the class gives me a
thumbs up, telling me they know which one they
want to choose, I ask them to circle the topic on
their list. I'm still modeling on my own paper. I
try to make sure that I model everything I want
them to do. This is probably the best way to make
sure they follow directions and don't get lost.
Steve: I couldn't agree with you more. In
fact, I've often wondered if I could run a
Writer's Workshop almost solely on modeling at
least for a few days. I have found that modeling
is the most effective way of communicating what I
want kids to do. It's better than direct
instruction because not every kid is going to
interpret my directions in the same way. But when
they can see me doing it right in front of them,
they know exactly what I'm looking for. Modeling
also builds community. I'm a writer just
like them. It's the perfect ice breaker.
Sometimes, I'll open a Writer's Workshop class
with me modeling. I'll write a few sentences about
something that may have just happened to me and
I'll ask them what they think. They love helping
me with my own writing and I find that this kind
of simple interaction lays the groundwork for
sharing, conferencing, and revision.
Julie: I now bring the pre-writing poster to
the front of the room and we discuss what
pre-writing means. We break it down to "pre" and
"writing" and from there we come up with idea that
pre-writing is all the things we do "before
writing." I write this on the chart. Then we write
"Topic T-Chart" as the first pre-writing strategy
that we have learned.
Steve: It's so good for the kids to see
their learning go right up on a chart in the room.
A good classroom should be covered with charts
like this. Anyone entering the room should be able
to tell what the kids are learning, what the
classroom procedures are, and what kinds of
criteria everyone is using to assess performance.
I have also discovered one other advantage of this
approach: it helps me remember what I've taught.
I'm not the most organized person and I really
don't like to keep a plan book because I know I'm
always going to follow the kids regardless of what
I have planned. So, putting up on a chart the
things we've learned, as we learn them, is really
the best way for me to keep track of what we're
doing. It's
also useful for a sub or other guest teacher.
Julie: I have the class take out their
writing notebook and turn to the first blank page.
On chart paper, I draw where the spiral edge,
holes, and margin will be if they have it turned
the right way on their desk (many kids still have
trouble with this at the beginning of the year).
Then I show them where I want them to draw a line
across the page as we prepare for our next
pre-writing strategy.
Now I introduce the Draw-Label-Caption strategy.
In this strategy, kids draw a picture representing
their topic, label different parts of the picture,
and write a short caption underneath. We start by
talking about how a D-L-C lets us focus on our
idea like a camera: it shows us some important
thing that we will concentrate on in our story. At
this point, we talk about what belongs in the
picture: it has to be something they really did,
something they can really remember, and they have
to be in the picture because this is a story about
them. Then, we do a quick pencil sketch rough
shapes and lines only, no shading or coloring,
stick people are just fine. And that's all we end
up having time for.
Steve: I know that time is a little tighter
this year than you would like and that you're not
able to get quite as much done in each class
period as you might under normal circumstances.
The truth is that we really need 50-60 minutes
each day in a workshop-style subject. But when we
can't get that kind of time, we can still be
successful by doing exactly what you're doing
here: chunking things up into smaller pieces but
still moving along thoughtfully making sure that
every succeeding step follows logically from the
one before.
Day Three
Julie: Everyone takes out their writing
notebooks and turns to their Draw-Label-Caption
from the day before. We review what we've done and
why. I often find that I open Writer's Workshop
by going over what we did yesterday and
why we did it. This seems to be especially helpful
both to me and the kids at the beginning of
the year.
Steve: Shelley Harwayne, former principal
at PS 290 in New York and now a superintendent,
tells a funny story in one of her books about
having Lucy Calkins observe her one day during
Writer's Workshop. Apparently, Lucy told Shelley
that she loved her mini-lesson. The problem was
that Shelley didn't think she'd taught one that
day. Turns out that all Shelley asked her kids to
do was re-read what they'd written the previous
day before starting into writing time. From
Shelley's point of view this was hardly a lesson.
And yet, to Lucy Calkins, one of the inventors of
Writer's Workshop, it was exactly the kind of
thing she liked to see a true "mini" lesson
a lesson in re-reading, a simple
strategy many young writers often neglect. For me,
the mini-lesson in this little story is that it's
often a good idea to have the kids briefly review
the previous day's effort. Of course, what I like
best about this kind of lesson is that it takes
very little time and almost no preparation on my
part other than reminding myself to do it.
Julie: Labeling is quick and easy. I tell
them they will be "sound spelling" and we go over
the "Say it slowly" poster. This is a great
strategy for sounding out words that I have used
for a couple of years now. It's really just a
short poem that describes a process for
identifying letter sounds and writing them down:
"Say it slowly. Hold the sound. Find the letter.
Write it down." Even kids with very little
experience can begin to get parts of words down
almost immediately. It's important to me to make
sure every child can do some actual writing right
away in Writer's Workshop. This sounding out
strategy has been a big help in getting kids
started. It also works well with our district
phonemic awareness program.
Steve: I like "Say it slowly" too. In fact,
I use it every day at the primary grades as part
of Daily Shared Writing. It's a perfect compliment
to most phonics/phonemic awareness programs
because it provides an authentic application of
the sound-symbol knowledge kids are acquiring.
It's the perfect connection between reading and
writing at the primary grades.
Julie: I point out on my own picture how we
will label things: by drawing a line that points
to an object and writing down the sounds we hear.
After doing a few labels on my paper, they get
started. In just a few minutes, their papers are
filled with labels, too.
Steve: For me, labeling has turned out to
be the perfect transition between writing words
and writing sentences. Getting kids to write their
first words with invented spelling, of course
was always easy for me. But it might take months
before they could produce a string of words that
resembled a sentence. Now, all I have to do is
have them label, and give them a few Word
Wall words, and they can quickly make sentences
simply by taking the "function" words
off the Wall ("I", "me", "at", "am", "and", etc.)
and popping in a couple of their labels. For
example, to write the sentence, "I am playing with
my dog," kids just have to invent-spell "playing"
and "dog" (which they can do easily with the "Say
it slowly" strategy) and then they can get the
rest of the words from the Word Wall. Even in a
kindergarten classroom, I can usually get most
kids writing single sentences in a week or two.
Julie: We then discuss what a caption is,
relating it to comics and pictures in the
newspaper. I tell them it is a sentence that
describes
what they are doing in the picture, and I write a
caption for my drawing. I purposely leave out a
couple of minor details so I an easily model sharing and revising later.
My sentence says, "I am playing with my cat while
she is on the bed." We discuss how the sentence
matches the picture and do a few examples where it
doesn't. They write their own captions, under the
line, in a complete sentence.
After completing this activity, we write
Draw-Label-Caption on our pre-writing poster. I
mention that because this is a pre-writing
strategy, it will at all other times be used only
to get ideas ready for a story. This time,
however, we are going to use it to talk about all
the steps of the writing process. I touch on how
drafting is starting to really write and that
since this is going through the process, we had
drafted our sentences today. I spend a lot more
time talking about drafting later. For now, I just
want to get them all the way through the process with
a complete, published piece.
Steve: I like your emphasis early in the
year on publishing. If kids don't learn to
publish, they don't learn to write. Ideally, I
like to see kids publishing 20-30 times each year.
But in most classrooms, kids don't even publish
once a month. Starting the year off with a push
toward publishing, even if it is a bit abbreviated
as it is here, makes sense because you're giving
kids a chance to see what writing is like from
start to finish. I think, also, that the feeling
of accomplishment kids get from publishing, even
when they're just publishing a caption, is very
valuable.
Day Four
Julie: Today I introduce sharing as a way
to make our good pieces better. I read my caption
and ask if anyone has a question about my sentence
that would help them understand more about it. They
ask the two questions I thought they would ("What
were you playing with your cat?" and "What is your
cat's name?") and I show them how I add the
answers into my sentence: I use a caret to add
that I was playing "with a shoestring" and show
them how to use commas to add the name of my cat
"...my cat, Owlie, while she...". We read the
sentence the revised way to see how much better it
sounds now.
Steve: Do you realize how much great stuff
you just crammed into a five minute lesson? Not
only did you cover the sharing-questioning-adding
routine, you also worked in two editing lessons:
(1) Use a caret to insert new text, and
(2) Use a pair of commas to separate a
non-essential phrase from the rest of a sentence.
I know your kids won't remember all this, but it's
a great way to expose them to more advanced
lessons you'll be teaching more formally later on.
Julie: Next, I teach sharing procedures. I
model where we will stand in the room (I have a
tall stool in the front of the room they can stand
behind or sit on), how to hold the notebook so we
can best hear their voice (I have them hold it out
from their belly button so their mouth can be
facing the audience but they can still see their
words without covering their face), and what kind
of voice to use to reach everyone's ears in the
room.
Steve: I'm glad you took so much time here
to do this in a detailed and thorough way. Most
kids don't know how to share their writing for the
simple reason that no one ever tells them.
Julie: I teach good audience skills, too:
eyes and attention on the author, voices off, ears
and minds listening to the author to understand
and think of good questions to ask. We write these
things on the sharing poster.
I use sharing to help with revising. We touch on
what a good question is and I interject a lot with
questions for the author and comments for the
audience, trying to help guide them into good
questioning while helping the author see how he or
she might put the answers to these questions into
the piece. Today I let each author get up to two
questions and then I had them sit down to add what
they'd been asked back into their piece. We only
got halfway through the class.
Steve: That's OK. You can finish up
tomorrow. Another thing I like
about workshop-style teaching is that I can start
any workshop with any part. Tomorrow, you can
start with sharing if you like and just continue
on from where you left off. It's also neat that
every kid is going to share at least once on their
way through the writing process. I think this
helps kids get over their fear of sharing. If
everyone does it during the first week of school,
everyone is in the same boat; sharing
isn't such a big deal and no one ends up anxious
about it.
Day Five
Julie: I want everyone to get a chance to
share, so we review what we learned yesterday and
we continue in the same manner with the second
half of the class. On the revising poster, we
write "change it" as our first revising strategy.
Steve: Isn't it amazing how simple any
given day can be in Writer's Workshop? Even if all
you accomplished today was making sure everyone
shared, got questions, and added something to
their piece, you've accomplished a lot. And it
really didn't require any planning time on your
part.
Day Six
Julie: It's time to edit. I keep it very
simple this first time. We talk about how editing
is "fixing it" and write that on the poster. We
discuss what editors do and what little things
might need to be fixed once someone is done
drafting and revising. We have a short discussion
about where we need a capital letter, what the
ending marks are, etc. I keep the focus on
complete sentences and their parts. Basically, all
I talk about at this point is that the sentence
has to make sense (no words left out or in the
wrong order), capital letters where needed, lower
case letters for all the other letters, and that
it ends with an ending mark usually a period but,
when it's a question we end with a question mark,
or occasionally an exclamation mark here and
there for a very strong statement we're really
excited about. All the while, I'm writing this stuff on
our editing poster.
Each student edits their own paper as we look for
each of the criteria I have described one at a
time. They end up reading their sentence about
four times, editing for one thing each time. I
then have them do a quick peer edit where the
person next to them reads their sentence to see if
there is anything they might have missed. They
talk about it for a few minutes, change anything
that they found, and we are done for the day.
Steve: This is a perfect research-based
lesson on conventions because you're doing the
four most important things: (1) Teaching
conventions during the editing stage of the
writing process. (2) Teaching conventions
in the context of authentic student writing.
(3) Having kids address only one type of error
at a time. (4) Teaching kids how to fix
their own errors instead of relying on a teacher
to do it for them.
Day Seven
Julie: Finally, publishing! I start by talking
about what publishing is. I show them a book from
the room, a newspaper, and a note I sent home to
their parents. I talk about how everything they
just did over the last six days had to be done to
these things before they were published.
Publishing means the "final copy," and we write
that on the poster.
Steve: I take a similar approach the first
time I publish with a new class. I tell them that
the word "publish" comes from Latin and is derived
form the word "public". To publish something is to
make it ready for the public.
Julie: There are many things we have to
talk about before we can publish, things like
where they will get the paper from, that we always
skip lines, that it will be our best work and our
neatest writing, and most importantly that it is
copying exactly what they have with the changes
written in. No more changes happen, no more fixing
should be needed, they don't write a new sentence
(if one of these things is necessary, they need to
go back to revising or editing). One of the common
problems I see is kids not writing what they have
already prepared during drafting and revising, so
I really stress this one. It's so frustrating to
hear, "You mean we were supposed to write that
sentence?"
Julie: I pass out a sheet of loose leaf
notebook paper and the kids publish their
draw-label-caption, complete with labels, a
colored illustration of the same sketch, and their
completed sentence.
Steve: I'm glad you addressed the "What do
I copy?" problem. Most kids, especially little
ones, don't know that that's what they are
supposed to do. The worst part for me is when they
copy their original writing including the errors
and ignore all the edits they've put in. This is
a good reminder for all of us that we have to
teach explicitly. We absolutely have to show kids,
mostly through modeling but also through
discussion, exactly what it is we need them to do.
Day Eight
Julie: Today we review the steps of the
writing process by briefly reviewing the posters.
I want to assess how much really sunk in so we
review how to choose a topic and how to do a
D-L-C. Then I have them pick a new topic from
their T-charts, turn to the next blank page in
their writing notebook, and do their own
Draw-Label-Caption this time I'm not modeling.
Everyone gets done and I collect their notebooks
to check how they did while they go to PE.
Happily, I see most of them ended up doing a
pretty decent job!
Steve: This is a great validation of your
approach during the previous seven days. In less
than two weeks, right at the beginning of the
school year, you've taken a brand new bunch of
second graders and taught them how to write.
Congratulations on a job well done! I can tell
it's going to be a great year. |
