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.
Feeling very unprepared to teach adults reading & writing for the first time, I was encouraged to read that the teacher in this article also struggled & was new to Writer's Workshop. She wasn't an expert either. Rather than "focusing on what she wanted to teach, she tried to discover what the students needed to learn." I like that & I'm using that advice to help find our focus. Since I've chosen editing as my goal for improvement with my final project, I really paid attention to Day Six where they talk about how editing is "fixing it." I'm planning to use her Day Six example with tonight's class, including the editing poster.
ReplyDelete~Lynn
I enjoyed reading this article and will take away many of Steve Peha's ideas when working with my students. It was good to be reminded that my main priority is to listen, not to talk. The chart of mini-conferencing questions will be helpful for me too. Teaching this way does not come naturally to me, and I was glad to see that it is challenging for many teachers. The examples of teaching in Julie's second grade were insightful. I hadn't even thought of having mini lessons on procedures before reading the section on Julie. I am glad to have the charts to use for review too. Overall, this is a very helpful article.
ReplyDeleteOOPS! That was posted by Mari.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I thought this article was very informative and served as a good review of what we have learned in this class. I particularly liked the organizers located at the end of the article which could serve as quick and handy references for anyone attempting Writer’s Workshop.
ReplyDeleteIn my current teaching assignment, I may never be able to conduct a complete Writer’s Workshop on a regular basis, but I am intentionally trying to incorporate elements of it into my classes. This article reminds me of the importance of modeling and sharing. Both of these strategies are very helpful to ESL students in understanding directions and developing listening and speaking skills. I would also like to try the Draw-Label-Caption strategy with some of my students. I think labeling the sketches would help increase vocabulary and facilitate sentence writing.
-Patsy
I also feld that the article was informative and a good review. But on top of that I liked how they gave us the resources and examples to use in the classroom. I do a form of writers workshop but with a little less freedom and this was helpful to me because I feel I can incorporate the information in my classroom. It was also nice because it is in my binder and I can refer to it. I liked how the article was organized also. It was neat to see the teachers progression over some time and how it worked.
ReplyDeleteI know that this may seem basic, but it helped me right from the beginning of the article. I never realized how much help I needed in "teaching writing" until I took this class. On page 4,it said, The secret to giving effective mini-lessons is asking yourself this question: “What single problem am I trying to help these writers solve?” The best way to do this is simply to take note of the specific problems your students are having, and to ask them from time to time what they would like help with. A good rule of thumb for deciding on when to give a particular lesson is this: if more than a third of your class really needs to know about something in order to make progress, it’s time for a mini-lesson.
ReplyDeleteThis was very helpful as was the entire article for me because I really struggle (particularly this year) with where to begin my students and using mentor texts to guide my mini-lessons is my goal for this semester. I appreciated this reminder of "how to" mini-lessons to refresh my mind and to spark my own interest.
~Melissa
I found the article to be good review. I had actually seen it before. Since my goal is to do a better job at sharing, I found the tips especially helpful right now.
ReplyDeleteThe one comment that I really missed when I read this a few years ago was in the "Tips for Doing Writer's Workshop with Middle School and High School Students." The third bullet is that when you have to choose between reading and writing, choose writing... it makes sense, but I hadn't ever really thought about writing that way.
Oops, the above was mine. Kathy B.
ReplyDeleteChoice one: Conferences,
ReplyDeleteOr write while your students write.
Be a good teacher.
Don’t forget sharing
It can be more valuable
Than mini-lessons.
Sharing different
In a middle school setting
Nobody wants to.
I found the article to be helpful and informative to the writer’s workshop process. A comment that really stuck out to me was when they said if you are short of time, specifically referring to the middle and high school level, that if we have to pick between reading and writing we should choose writing. I’ve never really looked at this way, but I do see their point. I also liked the ideas in day four about sharing. Especially since that is my topic for my final. I can use some of the ideas mentioned.
ReplyDeleteKim
I enjoyed the second part of the article (the conversations) the most while reading. I felt like there was a "I've tried this, this, and this and as a result this happened." It provided good ideas to try and use in a way that was easy to understand. Practical is what I'm thinking while reading the second part. I like the first part because it provided a starting point for mini-lessons which is where I sometimes struggle when teaching writing. It provided strong advice of things to look for and to do and not do with writing workshop.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about the "taking the photo" idea that she used with her kids to elicit details, I tried it with my tutoree--worked like a charm! =)
-Heather
I've read and re-read the article so many times over the past few weeks, I forgot I hadn't blogged about it yet! I appreciated the structure of elements, including time approximations, which provide a format within which to plan. The elaborated organizers at the very end help provide "meat" for that initial "skeleton" structure.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to try the Draw-Label-Caption strategy tomorrow morning and will report in class tomorrow evening how it went!
I confess to being perpetually nervous with the prospect of such responsive teaching. I feel MUCH pressure to plan WAY in advance, and to leave the writing component of class up-in-the-air until needs become apparent leaves me feeling vulnerable.
~Cathy S.
I really enjoyed the conversations between Steve and Julie. It made the reading very easy and very accessible too. It's reassuring to hear that other teachers struggle with the unpredictable nature of writer's workshop and it's nice to get some ideas for building in structure where you can (including safety nets). As hard as it is to plan for, it's nice to hear that so much of the writer's workshop style revolves around capitalizing on "teachable moments" and I like that Steve also did that in his conversations with teachers, like Julie, as they shared the actual experiences that had occurred in their classes.
ReplyDelete~Katie
Tips for upper grades
ReplyDeleteVery helpful and profound
Yes! I can teach that.
New genre: caption
My kids might really enjoy.
Love new strategies.
Real live teaching as
An example of workshop
Makes it feasible.
How it works lesson
Extremely nice to read through
Next year, start right on.
I personally felt that this was an easier read. The style of conversation made a lot of sense to me (as someone of a semi-chatty nature). I enjoyed reading the pros and cons of Writers Workshop and the reputation and response that it gets from principals and other teachers. I love all of the ideas for charting progress and where students are in the writing process. I am excited to use these asap! I also really enjoyed the *new* and *positive* way to look at and approach testing! I would love for my whole school to read this article!!
ReplyDeleteTonya Roshi
Tonya,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I was thinking "My whole school should read this!" Funny that we teach at the same school and notice that many of the elements of a writer's workshop are missing in the classroom.
"Welcome to Writer's Workshop" contained many strategies that could be applicable to my classroom. I liked how they offered an example of what Julie's first days of school looked like and how writing workshop started on day 3. Using basic visual aids such as the "T-Chart" and teaching the Draw-Label-Caption method seemd applicable to any classroom, no matter what age. I loved how they referenced the teachable moment and how Writer's workshop really lends itself to that. Lessons can be carried over from the day before or can be started earlier if there is a need for a particular lesson. The organizer at the end of the reading gave a nice brief synopsis on the topics addressed throughout the piece.
At first, I thought it was going to be long and take me forever to read, but the authors wrote nicely.
I liked the article!
-Amee :)