Writer’s Workshop:

  • 5-15 minutes: Mini-lesson
    • The mini-lesson will be based on one of the 6+1 Traits of Writing. During this time, I will focus on one of the writing traits and present it through a mini-lesson. There will be times when I may do a read-aloud type mini-lesson, a modeling mini-lesson, or a total physical response mini-lesson to support ELL’s. The traits that I will be included in my lesson’s throughout the year are: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.
  • 2-5 minutes: Where are you now?
    • In this time, I will have a formative assessment to see where students may need extra teaching. These formative assessments will either be in the form of a provided template, a mimeo/technology based reflection questionnaire, or a journal entry. During this time the song “Where are you now” by Justin Bieber will be playing. The song is the a way to make students connect to something that they know and create a comfortable environment. This portion of the workshop is a crucial aspect for me to provide necessary support for my students. It allows me to gain knowledge on where student’s may be struggling or where student’s feel confident. It guides my instruction throughout the year.
  • 20-45 minutes: Writing Time
    • I will either let students free write, write based on a prompt, or give an activity where the students practice the learned trait. I will use this time to do individual conferences with the students. During writing time, the students are able to undergo the pre-writing and the drafting portion of the writing process. The students are able to either remain working at their desks, move to the designated pre-writing and quite writing area, or move elsewhere in the room that they may feel more comfortable writing in. Since the students will be sharing and discussing their work with their peers in the next stage of the workshop, I will do my conferences with as many students as possible. The conferences will be tracked on a template (an example will is provided in the Record Keeping tab).
  • 5-15 minutes: Sharing is Caring
    • The students share what they worked on during their writing time and gain feedback from their peers on what they did well and what can be improved. During sharing is caring time, the students are in the revising portion of the writing process. Students gain their peers opinion on the meaning within their paper and the grammatical errors that they may catch. As their share and discuss the students will be filling out a worksheet that guides them as they conference with each other (an example will is provided in the Record Keeping tab). In my classroom design, you see that there is a specified area for sharing and discussing. Since the students are collaborating with each other there are tables in which they can undergo their revising.