Conferencing at Smithland

I have not been able to find the time to meet with Audrey and she left town for a family vacation this week, so I asked Katie if I could go to her kindergarten class.  I went for the first time today and it was very helpful.  I was able to conference with four different students during the 45 minutes of writing time.  It was very nice being able to work in a classroom setting.  It was also nice to be in a class that has been practicing the writing workshop process for a couple of months.  The students got right to work and were comfortable sharing their writing with me.  I was able to help some kids improve their writing, so I felt good about that.  One girl needed to add names to her writing piece and she did that after reading it to me.  I asked her who the characters were and she realized she needed to label the pictures.  One of the students realized he needed to create a title page after we looked over a poster Katie had made listing all of the things a published piece would include.  I was hoping he would add more words, but he didn't seem interested in that.  I would like to encourage him to add words to his story next week.  He has great pictures and the story makes a lot of sense.  He is capable of writing, b/c I have seen his other books.  I may ask for some advice on this one.

Article Response

Reminder: For next class, please bring any item that is special to you or is linked to a memory.  This will need to be taped into your notebook so it can be a picture of an item.

Please write a brief reflection about the article "Welcome to Writer's Workshop." Feel free to comment on other reflections.

Revising your work

Post a sentence that you have revised.  Label the before and after version.  Feel free to comment on posts!

Editing: What it is and what it isn't!

What is editing?

1. Peer editing:  Discussing writing in class
2. Looking at an author's writing as a mentor text: Actively using a mentor text
3. Students editing their own work
4. Students editing their work for changes THEY want to make
5. Helping a writer create their voice
6. This is what I understand from your paper, is it what you intended?
7. Sharing the correct way to write using peer writing

What isn't editing?

1. Handing back a paper with red marks, but no explanation.  How can we learn from our mistakes?
2. Editing worksheets
3. Teachers rewording students' work
4. Daily Morning Edits

Revision Techniques

§List possible titles for your piece of writing that communicate the theme- come up with as many as you can

§Circle all “being” verbs (am, is, are, was, were, etc.)  Can you replace any of these with a stronger verb?

§Make three different beginnings for your story- What would happen if you started with setting? Action? Dialogue?

§Take one section of your writing and change it to a different person’s point of view

§Find the adverbs in your piece.  Do they have a purpose, or can you rewrite with a stronger word?  Ex:  He walked slowly down the street.  He trudged down the street.

§Eliminate 10 unnecessary words from your piece

Reflections on Professional Books

Key Points from the professional books we read:

• Living books- writer’s notebook for lists, ideas, small stories, etc.
• Setting up a schedule and daily routine which increases student independence
• Focus on drawing and how to draw people lessons
• Focus lesson, independent writing time, sharing everyday
• Identifying purposes of writing in all of your life (not just school)
• Seeing yourself as an author
• Seamless integration of reading and writing together
• Remember as a teacher what they need and don’t need
• Remember to write with your students
• “Writers don’t write with words, they write with information”
• They don’t need prompts- they have ideas
• It’s okay to write down the first letter or two letters of a word in order to keep rolling in their writing
•  Focus on process over product
• Difficult knowing how to conference effectively – so conference with one student who can then be the peer expert which “spreads like wildfire”