baldw2ec's Trail

Mrs. Quimby discussed students always having trouble coming up with topics when they write. While I'm in writing workshop in the classroom, numerous students have asked me to help them come up with a topic to write about. Nancie Atwell suggests doing a mini lesson on topic generation by using the "50 territories". Or check out another lesson plan for helping students think of writing topics at the following link: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=314

This lesson plan looks at the structures of alphabet books to help students be successful in writing. Calkins encourages the use of quality literature to inspire and motivate students to write.

Even though this lesson plan is very specific about the format of writing, students still have some choice in the project. They can pick what type of structure they would like to recreate in their own ABC book. Graves, along with Calkins, encourages the use of choice in the writing workshop.

This could definitely by an assignment inf a multigenre project. If doing a report on the whales, a student could create an alphabet book on the basics of whales.

Spandel encourages using a certain "language" when talking about the writing process. By modeling and explaining these steps, students and teachers will have a common language while in writing workshop. All of the stages are modeled and referenced to in this lesson, including prewriting, first draft, editing, revising, and publishing.

These lesson plans provide teachers with easily accessible resources to use with the lesson. Even if this rubric did not include everything you wanted, it can still be tweaked to fit your class and your lesson!

Conferencing is held throughout the lesson to help students in their writing process. Atwell agrees, so that students are discussing during the process, not after it's already completed. This would also be helpful to use with struggling writers, to keep track of their progress and to help with any difficulties encountered in the process.

Although given some choices, students are not really given enough in comparison to writer's workshop. Students are being assigned a letter. It seems like that at this age group, students should be able to figure out their own choices and topics.

While attending the Student Michigan Education Association Conference, I went to a session about inquiry, and it used a KWL chart. This type of chart allows students to think ahead before they look into something that is unknown. It also helps them to feel a sense of achievement when they can fill in everything they have learned. This is also helpful to struggling writers, so that they can look back to the chart if they need more ideas. During the session, the presenter emphasized that teachers need to remember to do the "L" part, because often times teachers do not complete the chart.

Again, this lesson is going over the writing process and its importance to writing.

I think the teacher should have included modeling in this step. Writing workshop constantly incorporates the teacher modeling techniques and strategies. I think it would be helpful to model how to describe a character, especially for those struggling writers.

Graves is a supporter of allowing students to write for a reason. Writing a letter is something students will have to learn how to do, but instead of just writing a letter to mom, this lesson plan adds even more by allowing the writer to pretend to be a character.

I like that the teacher included the students while deciding the standards on the rubric, allowing them to regulate what is an A or what is a B. Usually students are more critical of themselves, so they may even give themselves higher standards.

I think the teacher should have allowed for peer conferencing, not just peer editing. As suggested by Atwell, peer conferences are about content, not about editing. Also, the writer tells the listener what he/she needs from the conference.

These questions are pretty basic. I wonder if the teacher could have just asked the students to listen for descriptive character traits, and there can be a class discussion after the whole book is read.

Sharing is always encouraged in the writing workshop. For struggling writers, when they complete a piece and are able to share it with their peers, it gives them a sense of excitement and pride. They are able to feel like they finally succeed in something that was always difficult for them.

I'm disappointed that conferencing was not added to this lesson. An essential component to the writing workshop is conferencing. It can also be used to help the struggling writer, as mentioned before.

Something that may be added/changed in this lesson is allowing students to chose their own character to write a letter to the author in role. Allowing the struggling writer to choose their own topic would ensure their interest in the project.