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.