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An Overview of Writer's
Workshop
In our second grade
classroom, students participate in a daily writing workshop, following our
reading workshop. At the start of the workshop, the teacher models writing on
a large chart through a mini-lesson
that targets a specific writing skill or concept. The mini-lesson usually
lasts 10 minutes long. The mini-lesson is then followed by independent
writing time by the students. At this time, the teacher also holds writing
conferences with small group of students and/or individual
students. Independent writing time usually lasts approximately 25-30 minutes.
Afterwards, students participate in a sharing
session . During this time, a few students share a piece of writing
in the author's chair
while all others listen OR all students share their writing with a partner.
Students have been taught to carefully listen to each young author and to give
appropriate feedback. Two stars
(two things we liked about the writing) and one
wish (one way to improve either by asking a question or giving a
suggestion) are always given to a young author who shares his or her writing.
Daily Schedule for Writer's Workshop
(11:00 - 11:45)
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Teacher Mini-Lesson
(routine & procedures, writing
process, 6 traits, grammar, craft, etc.)
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10 minutes
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Independent
Writing Time/Teacher Conferences (students
write independently in writer's notebooks while teacher assists a small group
of students or conducts one-on-one student conferences)
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20-30 minutes
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Author's
Chair/Sharing Time (students
share published work or work in progress; 2 stars, 1 wish)
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5-10 minutes
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All young authors need
special writing tools to
create their wonderful masterpieces! Each student in our second grade
classroom has been given a special writer's
notebook to use during writer's workshop. The writer's notebook
consists of a 1/2 inch 3-ring binder. Inside each binder is a clear plastic
pouch which holds our writing tools needed for each stage of the writing
process - a blue pen for drafting
, a red pen for
revising , and a green
pen for editing.
In addition to the pen pouch, the writer's notebook also contains other
resources to assist students when writing stories such as a topics list to
generate writing ideas, a thesaurus, a writing dictionary, and colored pocket
folders for each stage of the writing process.
Pictures of our
writer's notebooks:
Pen pouch
Topics List
Thesaurus
Writing dictionary
Publishing page
Here are some resources to help you get a
writer's workshop started in your own classroom. I have created many of these
files myself; however, others I have collected over the years through
searching the web. If I have not given proper credit for a file, please let me
know as soon as possible and I will make the necessary changes. Thank you!
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Writer's Workshop Resource
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Download File
(Opens as a Word Document)
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This is a writing topics list that I created
to help my students brainstorm
different topics that are important to their lives!
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Topics to write about
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This is a document I created to record my
writing conference notes. There is a box for each student to ensure that I
meet with everyone during the week, along with a space to record a compliment
and teaching point.
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Conference Notes
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Here is a list of books to use to help spark
student writing. I read these books aloud during interactive read aloud time.
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Books to spark writing
(Opens as a pdf file)
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If you are a beginner at writer's workshop, this
file is for you! These notes came from the book, Primary Writer's Workshop
(not sure of the author). I took these notes immediately after reading the
book.
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Beginner's Information
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Here is a list of second grade high frequency
words. I call these words 'popcorn words' because they POP up in our reading
and writing all the time. I place a copy of these words in each writer's
notebook to assist with spelling.
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Second Grade High Frequency
Word List
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Here is a list of the steps in my writer's
workshop. Students keep this in their
writer's notebook as a reference.
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Workshop Steps
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Here is another form to document your writing
conferences.
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Conference Log
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Have you ever wondered how to
get grades when using a workshop approach? Here is a scoring rubric to use to
grade your students' published works.
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Scoring Rubric
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**UPDATED** Here
is a pacing guide that I created to outline my Writer's Workshop mini-lessons
for the year. The mini-lessons in this pacing guide go along with the Florida
Sunshine State Standards for second grade. For the upcoming school year, I've
added a year worth of mini-lessons to incorporate the 6 traits of writing. You
can see how I incorporate grammar concepts into my writing workshop
mini-lessons.
**PLEASE CHECK BACK
SOON FOR MY YEARLY PACING GUIDE FOR WRITING WORKSHOP. I'M IN THE PROCESS OF
UPDATING/CHANGING IT FROM LAST YEAR & HOPE TO HAVE IT COMPLETE BEFORE THE
START OF THE SCHOOLYEAR. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST!**
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WWPlanningOutline08
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I will continue to add to this list, so check back soon to
see what's new!
A special thank you to Mrs. Hicks for sharing her wonderful
idea of the writer's notebook. Check out her fabulous classroom website!
Mrs.
Hicks' 2nd Grade Classroom
All Graphics created by ThistleGirl Designs
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