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    Writing Workshop: Setting Up For Success!

    Do you do writing workshop with your students?

    My program has evolved over the last 23 years, and now it runs smoothly – although I can’t help but add new ideas each year!

    Tips for setting up writer's workshop and centers in your classroom

    Preparing students to write

    Long before I expect students to write stories, we spend a lot of time discussing stories.

    For example, every time we read a story, we …

    *name the author and illustrator

    *find words to describe the characters and talk about who they might remind us of

    *talk about the plot and if we’ve ever had similar experiences

    *talk about what the problems were, and how they were solved

    *talk about how we felt while reading: what made us feel sad, excited or worried. Which words or phrases made us feel this way?

    Sometimes we put this template under the document camera and students help me fill it out:

    Story Elements template

    Starting to write together…

    When it’s time to write, we begin with simple sentences.

    How can we use descriptive words to help our reader paint a picture in their heads?

    We use supportive templates to focus on making sentences that are longer and more interesting.

    Each sentences has blanks that prompt students to add detail.

    Supporting writing templates

    Each of the sentences form the basic structure of a story. Students have written a simple story already! They love sharing the stories with each other, and this gives them confidence that they are authors!

    Supportive writing story frame

    They can copy the story onto a new paper and illustrate. The end results are so cute!

    CLICK HERE to see more about these differentiated templates.

    Supportive writing story frame

    Supported story writing templates

    MORE WRITING TIPS

    I should add that there are a few things that make writing these stories more successful.

    Here are three big ones in my class:

    1. First, we discuss spelling. These are emergent writers for the most part, and I am mostly interested in encouraging invented spelling. So we have a lot of discussion over the question: What if I can’t spell a word?
    2. As you can see in the Strategies For Writing poster below, I give them a few options. However, most of the time I want them to “make a guess and move on”. I tell them that even grown ups don’t know how to spell EVERY word in the world, and sometimes we make a guess and move on. We can always go back and fix it later during the editing process. Some students find this idea quite shocking (and relieving).
    3. Growth mindset – discussions about making mistakes, fixing mistakes, and not giving up when it feels hard – are so helpful before writing!

    Supported story writing templates

    At the same time, we want our work to be legible to our readers. We call it “Three Star Writing” in our classroom.

    How can we make sure our writing is “3 Star Writing”? There is punctuation. There are capitals. There are describing words. The picture is neat and detailed. (See poster in the picture above.)

    Exploring story elements

    WRITING TO ENGAGE OUT AUDIENCE

    By the time we start creating our own stories, we have a very good understanding of story elements.

    Now it’s time to break it down into parts: brainstorming ideas, deciding on main characters, and outlining the plot of the story.

    We also talk about how to make our stories exciting!

    For example, the first thing we do is use the word “suddenly”.

    I tell students that this is my favorite word to  read in a story, because when I see it, I know something exciting is about to happen!

    During our writing time, students will often call out to me, saying “I just used your favorite word in my story!” and I say, “Oh good! I can’t wait to read it!”

    Exploring Story Elements

    Exploring Story Elements

    Writing and editing with studentsOnce our stories reach the drafting stage, we are ready to edit!

    For basic editing, we have writing pages with a rubric built in (see picture above).

    Or, for editing the flow of the story ensure it makes sense, we pair up and read stories to each other.

    This is a great way for students to see how their writing affects others, and what kinds of details get a good reaction.

    If there are confusing parts of the story (and there usually are!) a partner will kindly explain that they don’t quite understand one part and suggest how to clarify.

    Examples of student writing

    Examples of student writing

    Publishing our class booksPUBLISHING IDEAS

    When students feel satisfied with their story, and they’ve completed a “good copy”, I give them thicker paper to make a cover. It goes into our class library for everyone to enjoy. Another idea is to put them into clear folders, as shown below.

    duotang stories copy

    Speaking of class books, we also love to make whole-class books through the year. These are made when each student completes a page with their own idea, and it’s put all together to create a funny story.

    We use seasonal topics, but we also do funny situations that really inspire students to be creative!

    Class Books All Year

    For example, we made one where students thought of funny ways to pull out a loose tooth.

    Class Book pages How To Lose a Tooth

    Class book template

    Class Book pages How To Lose a Tooth

    For another class book,  students had to imagine what they would do if there were locked in the school over night! (By the way, Mr. Tim who is mentioned, is our school custodian!)Class Book - Overnight At School

    PROFESSIONAL PRINTING

    Once a year we write a class story and get it printed in the local print shop!

    Everyone contributes a page, and everyone gets a copy.

    Publishing class books

    These cost about $10 each, and we used our bake sale earnings. Students feel like real authors, and they are so proud to bring them home to share with family!

    We keep a few for our class library, and since I’ve been doing this for about 10 years, I have quite a collection now!

    Our Class books were published at a local print shop!

    Writing Centers Ideas

    Other ways to get students excited about writing…

    WRITE ABOUT BOOKS – We take time every day for silent reading (with soft music playing) or paired reading (I assign partners that rotate each week). Both are a great opportunity for writing! For my emergent writers, it’s a simple generic book review template. They are responsible for writing the title, author and their favorite part of the story.

    SEE THINK WONDER – Another fun idea is writing about a particular object or picture. For example, one day I brought in a huge model of a monarch butterfly. We talked about what kind of words we could use to describe it. Then we talk about what it reminds us of or makes us think about. Finally, we talk about what it makes us wonder.  Some amazing writing has come out of this simple format!

    Reading Response Templates for any book or novel

    My more advanced readers may use a more complex version of a book review (see below) or even a novel review if they are reading short novels such as The Magic Treehouse.

    Some of my students prefer opinion writing / persuasive writing activities. In the pages called “Which Would You Choose?” pictured below, student use a collection of animal cards to place on the template. They write about which animal they would choose. I’ve noticed over the years that students often interpret this as “Which animal would win if these two had a fight?” I don’t mind this interpretation as long as they can convince me!

    Reading response templates

    OPEN ENDED WRITING CENTERS

    Most of the last 23 years I have taught multi-age students in split grade classes. I’ve learned over the years that an open-ended writing activity is a teacher’s best friend. With this in mind, I have a lot of open-ended choices at the writing center through the year. For example, themed covers on blank booklets, or even shaped books, are always available so students can create their own little books. This honestly NEVER gets old – especially when I keep adding new covers.

    Writing Centers Ideas

    Adding writing prompts that are funny is always a hit with students, as is any kind of “secret code” or hidden answers writing activity. In the pictures above and below, you can see:

    *Shaped booklets with blank lined papers inside

    *Blank booklets with themed covers such as “I Like…” or “My Family”

    *Writing prompts made with funny pictures to write about

    *CVC activities and word building centers

    *Seasonal or silly class books

    *Secret Code Journal Prompts (a huge hit!)

    Writing Centers Ideas 2

    I hope you’ve grabbed a few writing ideas to try in your class! Most of these can be created in just a few minutes, and with your student’s input. Ask them what they’d like to write about and create a class story together!

    If you’d like to use any of the activities I’ve mentioned above, you can see them all in year long writing bundle, or pick and choose the activities that will work best for your students. They have all been tested for many years in my own classroom with much success.

    Click HERE to see the bundle.

    Writing Workshop Bundle contains 9 complete sets to walk you through writing workshop set up, publishing and independent writing centers.

    Would you like to try one of our class books?

    You can download the free template by clicking below. You’ll also gain access to our VIP secret resource page with a ton of similar resources. I send out a new password in each email (about 3 each month).

    Just click below to download:

    Free class book templates

    Pin this post for later!

    Super easy to follow tips for Writer's Workshop in the primary classroom, including preparing students to write, story elements, self-editing, publishing class books and independent writing centers!

    Class books are always a student favorite during reading choice time! Each student contributes a page to these themed class books and by the end of the year we have a whole basket of student created class books to enjoy.

    Save the free book template for later!

    Download this FREE class template for making a class book together! Each student writes one page to create a class book that can be added to your classroom library.

    Writing, Classroom Organization, Literacy

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