After reading the first two chapters of "The Guide to Writing Workshop," what ideas stood out to you? What ideas will impact your planning for the fall?
6 comments:
Bri
said...
I'm excited that my students will have a consistent writing program everyday. Is the district budgeting for this time and removing other things from our LA curriculum? I really love the minilesson format and look forward to trying the favorite person and places lessons in the beginning of the year. Will we have more time during inservices in the beginning of the year to work on our notebooks? Reading Caulkins is reenergizing me and reminding me of how to teach good writing.
1. Will we be teaching the curriculum sequentially like Caulkins states?
2. Since kids are encouraged to write about what interests them, how will we teach the modes of writing and responding to a prompt for district and state assessments?
I am very impressed by the emphasis on encouraging the development of English language learners as writers. Caulkins is wise to address the unique needs of ELL's from the outset of the series. While reading this book I am also watching the DVD: "Up Close: Teaching English Language Learners in Writing Workshops." The DVD goes along with the rest of the "firsthand/Heinemann" series. It presents specific strategies for helping our ELL's learn to express themselves in print as well as speech. It is a wonderful resource (available at our ST library) that I highly recommend.
Lucy Calkins presents a wonderful framework for Writing Workshop. What a passionate approach. I can see that my personal writing will be important to use for modeling.
I am interested in hearing from teachers that piloted the writing workshop model 2008-09. How did you incorporate the daily 40 minute writing session? Lucy Calkins stresses that writing have meaning and an audience. Are the daily writing sessions student or teacher directed or a combination of both? Student writers work to develop stamina by writing extended periods. Do you assign writing homework as an independent assignment or connected to a subject? I look forward to hearing responses to my questions.
Hi Ed! I hope that this can clarify your questions...
The Units of Study have units focused on writing in different genres. Within the unit, each day there are teaching points. The teaching point is providing the students with strategies and techniques for writing within the genre. After the mini-lesson, when the students go to write, they are writing student generated topics within the genre of study. Your mini-lesson may be something that the students are going to try in the independent writing or a strategy that they may use as writers in the future. So, yes, the writing is based on student choice, but within the genre of study.
In terms of homework, there is a fabulous CD that provides daily homework assignments connected to the teaching points. It is in the folder, “Resources for Teaching Writing”. The homework asks the students to delve more into the strategy or technique addressed in the teaching point.
Hi Bri, I noticed that you had a couple curriculum-type questions so I thought I'd jump in!
1. Yes, we will be teaching a sequential curriculum. It was developed by the phase I teachers (including classroom teachers, reading specialists, Tricia, and me). We used our knowledge of the PA standards/requirements for the modes, references such as the Units of Study, and an understanding of what GVSD kids will need during this first year of our implementation. Your binder from the May workshop contained the first unit of study, and you'll get more information in August and throughout the year about what comes next.
2. Now that we're instructing writing differently, the district assessments will change to match. Although we have control over our district assessments, the phase I teachers were realistic about the requirements of responding to a prompt on the PSSA- they'll tell you more about how we get kids ready for that specific "genre" of writing! More to come...
6 comments:
I'm excited that my students will have a consistent writing program everyday. Is the district budgeting for this time and removing other things from our LA curriculum? I really love the minilesson format and look forward to trying the favorite person and places lessons in the beginning of the year. Will we have more time during inservices in the beginning of the year to work on our notebooks? Reading Caulkins is reenergizing me and reminding me of how to teach good writing.
Two questions:
1. Will we be teaching the curriculum sequentially like Caulkins states?
2. Since kids are encouraged to write about what interests them, how will we teach the modes of writing and responding to a prompt for district and state assessments?
I am very impressed by the emphasis on encouraging the development of English language learners as writers. Caulkins is wise to address the unique needs of ELL's from the outset of the series. While reading this book I am also watching the DVD: "Up Close: Teaching English Language Learners in Writing Workshops." The DVD goes along with the rest of the "firsthand/Heinemann" series. It presents specific strategies for helping our ELL's learn to express themselves in print as well as speech. It is a wonderful resource (available at our ST library) that I highly recommend.
Lucy Calkins presents a wonderful framework for Writing Workshop. What a passionate approach. I can see that my personal writing will be important to use for modeling.
I am interested in hearing from teachers that piloted the writing workshop model 2008-09. How did you incorporate the daily 40 minute writing session? Lucy Calkins stresses that writing have meaning and an audience. Are the daily writing sessions student or teacher directed or a combination of both? Student writers work to develop stamina by writing extended periods. Do you assign writing homework as an independent assignment or connected to a subject? I look forward to hearing responses to my questions.
Thanks,
Ed
Hi Ed! I hope that this can clarify your questions...
The Units of Study have units focused on writing in different genres. Within the unit, each day there are teaching points. The teaching point is providing the students with strategies and techniques for writing within the genre. After the mini-lesson, when the students go to write, they are writing student generated topics within the genre of study. Your mini-lesson may be something that the students are going to try in the independent writing or a strategy that they may use as writers in the future. So, yes, the writing is based on student choice, but within the genre of study.
In terms of homework, there is a fabulous CD that provides daily homework assignments connected to the teaching points. It is in the folder, “Resources for Teaching Writing”. The homework asks the students to delve more into the strategy or technique addressed in the teaching point.
Please respond if I need to clarify. Thanks!
Hi Bri,
I noticed that you had a couple curriculum-type questions so I thought I'd jump in!
1. Yes, we will be teaching a sequential curriculum. It was developed by the phase I teachers (including classroom teachers, reading specialists, Tricia, and me). We used our knowledge of the PA standards/requirements for the modes, references such as the Units of Study, and an understanding of what GVSD kids will need during this first year of our implementation. Your binder from the May workshop contained the first unit of study, and you'll get more information in August and throughout the year about what comes next.
2. Now that we're instructing writing differently, the district assessments will change to match. Although we have control over our district assessments, the phase I teachers were realistic about the requirements of responding to a prompt on the PSSA- they'll tell you more about how we get kids ready for that specific "genre" of writing! More to come...
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