Well, haven't updated for a few weeks, but have some successes to share! I finally introduced the word writing workshop to my students. We went through what a typical writing workshop day will look like:
Warm Up
Minilesson of some kind
write
share

We are doing writing workshop two days a week, sometimes three. Every Monday and Tuesday is WW day. The students have been writing in their writer's notebook their writing territories heart map ( a heart shaped paper that they wrote the things they cared about, memories, trips, people who are important to them etc..) and their "piggy bank" of writing ideas ( a piggy bank printed on a paper that they write genres they want to try and pieces they want to write and audiences they want to write to).
I made a powerpoint of how writing workshop will work- what our days will be like,what to write, where to get ideas etc... Every other Friday is going to be open mic. in which the students will be able to share pieces they have written, or book reviews that they have. If they want, I will record them and put it in a podcast on the website for them to listen to later.

I anticipated them not being sure what to write, so I in order to help them with what to write I started with writing memoirs. I read them, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. We talked about what memoirs are, and looked at some previous student's work. I then had them create a timeline of their lives to try to pick an event that is meaningful to them and that they want to always remember. I also read When I was Young in the Mountains by Patricia Polocco. As we are working on memoirs I keep trying to show them different examples of memoirs and get them to think of something to write about that is important to them. As a warm up I also had them write 25 random things, facts, goals and dreams about themselves. After all of these different ideas I gave to them- I figured they all had to have something to write about!

During writing workshop- I am letting them either work on their memoir, OR any other piece they want to write. The students LOVE this time to just write. They seem very interested in writing letters to their favorite bands, actors, people and companies asking for freebies! An awesome moment was when they asked me if I could show them the correct letter format!!! It was great to see them care about writing correctly because they are writing authentically!!!

After the first week of WW, I went through the revision and editing card strategy that we practiced with our short stories at the beginning of the year. More on that to come....

Week two is here and almost done! Time flies when you are having fun reading and writing with the kids. At the beginning of the week I read The Important Book to the students and they created an important page about themselves. We then bound it in a class book and put it in our library.
I have been having the students do what I call a Warm It Up at the beginning of class every day. I either read a picture book and they respond, show them an object or picture and they write. This week I used a ceramic doorstop that was a fish as a writing prompt. I also used a Time Picture of the week as a writing prompt. The only thing I told the students was to write about the object/ picture etc.. in any way they want. They can write a story about the prompt, create a poem or describe what they see. I then had each student share one line from their writing as we went around the room.
So far I haven't mentioned the word writing workshop to them. I am just showing them that I value reading, writing and sharing in our classroom.
The first writing assignment I am currently working on with them is writing what I call a quick publish. This is for me to see their writing skills and to gage what they are struggling with, and what I need to focus on. We read The Old Woman Who Named Things wrote and discussed what the story elements were. We discussed what writers do when they start a story ( I wanted them to realize that writers brainstorm before just writing), The students then picked a picture from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick or a person from a 1948 graduating class photo frame that I photocopied when they were hanging in our school. The students were told to create a graphic organizer and brainstorm their ideas for their short story. Next week we will work on writing the short stories and editing them with our new writing workshop editing procedures that I hope to use.

Week One: Writing Workshop

So far, I am feeling good about the first few days of school. Although I am not completely doing writing workshop, I am working them into it. I am reading and having them write and share every day. I am setting the expectations now that I value reading and writing. When they write- I do too.
Writing Notebooks: For their writing notebooks, I have them write what I call the Warm it up part ( at the beginning of class). The back half of the notebook will be used for reading response and the very last five pages will be for their writing territories that I will work with them on next week.

So far, I have read to them:
Day One: I read aloud, The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor and had them write about their ideal way to start a day, or school year. Then I had them pick a word, quote or phrase to share with the class.

Day Two: I read aloud, I'm In Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor. I had them create a celebration and explain what they would celebrate. Again, I did a quick quaker share-each person shared their celebration and one thing they would do during that celebration.

Day Three: I read aloud, The book, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox. I stopped periodically throughout the book and had the students sketch whatever they want related to the story when I tell them to. The sketches don't have to be detailed, or well done. At the end, I had the students share with someone around them their sketches and explain why they drew what they did.

I will keep this updated with how I get more involved with the writing workshop process.

How I plan to start Writing Workshop in the first few weeks:

School starts tomorrow and I have been reading so many resources to get ideas and insight as to how I think I can implement writing workshop (WW) in my classroom. The best book I have found so far that I think is great for a beginning is Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide by Fletcher and Portalupi. It breaks down Writing Workshop into manageable chunks so that a teacher can implement them.
The main components of WW are:
1. minilesson
2. Time for students to write about whatever they want ( not necessarily the mini lesson)
3. Share time. This also is a time for students to get feedback on their piece and for the author to ask for advice about a part he/she is struggling with.

How I plan to start:
I plan to have a read aloud almost every day. I am going to start with picture books, poems and other pieces I want to share.
I am also going to do what I call a Warm It Up, in which the students will respond to the text read aloud, to a picture, to music, to a blank comic etc... This is not a writing activity in which students must respond to the prompt. This is a place where students will write to possibly come up with ideas for future writing, or to play with different types of writing and ideas.
Students will then share what they have written. In the beginning, they may just be sharing in a line or word as we go around the room ( called a quaker share). I will do this and pair it with some getting to know you activities for the first week or so. I want to show student's that writing is important in my room and we are going to spend time on this.

Next topic: How I plan to have student's use their writer's notebook:

Starting Writing Workshop

I am an 8th grade Language arts teacher. I am going to start my 8th year of teaching (how time flies).My hope is that this is a place where I can write about my experiences conducting writing workshop in my classroom. I just completed the most valuable professional development I have ever taken this past summer! I was part of the National Writing Project at Kent State University. I learned so many new ideas and am going to try writing and a little reading workshop in my class this year.

I had tried writing workshop a few years ago, but it failed because I didn't have the right resources, knowledge or support to make it successful. I tried to make my classroom look like the room of a teacher who has conducted writing workshop for many years. I have learned to start small and build on what I am doing each week, month and year. It is going to take me a few years to have my class run exactly as I would like in a complete reading and writing workshop.

School starts next week, so I hope to document my experiences- the good and the bad from the trenches- here in this blog.