Value of Nonfiction

• Mentor texts
• Expose students to variety of nonfiction available
• Addresses the issue of audience, purpose, and form
• Tap into natural curiosity
• Allows students to start with a keen interest or curiosity and narrow down research to an essential question
• FQR and KWL charts help them learn how to organize
• Students can move away from "writing for the teacher" and realize they have the opportunity to have a more wide-ranging audience

Poetry Characteristics

POETRY BOOKS
Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors

• Overall theme of seasons and colors
• Descriptive language
• Imagery
• Personification
• Onomatopoeia
• Structure of words accompanies the content

Mathematicals

• Rhythm
• Concrete
• Phrases rather than complete sentences

What a Day it Was at School!

• Anthology of sorts
• Humorous
• Rhymes

Worksheets and Publishing in the Writing Workshop

• Worksheets can function as starting points for work in the writing workshop and provide students with inspiration
• Evaluation is tied to publication
• Deadlines are important (different lengths of writing)
• Our students are lucky because most of their work will get published and accepted

Managing Predictable Distractions in the Writing Workshop

Focus Lesson: Listening for Inspiration

• Focus on how the character pays such close attention to the world around her. Such a behavior is a habit of good writers
• Take students on a "listening walk" and encourage them to listen carefully to the sounds around them (try to add onomatopoeia) 

3 Main Things to Think About When Planning for a Good Writer's Workshop

1. Presence
2. Space
3. Supplies

Understand that writer's workshop will feel beyond our control, but "the best writing workshop teachers have very high expectations for student behavior in their classrooms, dealing seriously and swiftly with those who try to disrupt the work of others." (Come to peace with the process!)

Writing Process: Conferring, Sharing, Assessment / Evaluation

1. Prewriting
2. Drafting
3. Revising (Adding more information, Rearranging information in a logical order, Removing, Replacing)
4. Editing (Self or Peer) for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure
5. Publishing

Allow the writing process to become semi-public (through sharing and evaluation) and reflective (through conferences and assessments).

How to Make Assessments More Kid-Friendly

• Uses the words "You" (Ex: "Your point of view is convincing...") or "I" (I spelled all grade level words correctly"

4th Grade CCGPS for Writing

5 Ways About Thinking and Learning in a Writing Workshop:

1. Environment
2. Demonstration
3. Direct Instruction
4. Inquiry
5. Potential of the World

What do the Common Core Standards Say?
What genres are required?
 - poetry
 - drama
 - nonfiction (informational)
 - narratives
 - subject-based works

Any connections from reading to writing?
 - books written in a journal format might inspire kids to write like the character of their favorite book (ex: Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
 - taking the audience and situation into consideration while writing

What types of skills must students master?
 - compare/contrast
 - appropriate use of punctuation
 - how to add in describing words
 - use of reading material to support a claim they make in their writing

Lesson Plans
 - ELACC4RL7: Have a student share a story and have another student write about it
 - ELACC4W9:  Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

Characteristics of a Memoir

- Story of a specific, important memory
- What the author feels (deeply personal)
- Describes a particular place
- Emotionally tied
- More of a memory than a sequential time frame
- Longer span of time
- Author's perspective

**Difference between memoir and personal narrative is that a memoir allows for reflection (you have thoughts and appreciation for it)

Writer's Workshop Structure and Curriculum

Independent Writing Time

• Establish rules/routines
• Have a plan as a writer~ write what they have always dreamed of
• Think of questions instead of topics
• Provide inspiration each day
• Help them understand the range of possibilities (genres, themes, student choice, etc

The Nature of Workshop Curriculum

• "They grow more when teaching supports their work, we need to think carefully about the kinds of things we will be teaching them."
• Strategy Teaching
• Technique Lessons
• "If anyone tries this, let me know"
• Conventions (grammar, punctuations)

Focus Lessons: Whole Class Teaching

• Teacher shares own learning as a writer
• Clear objective~ show and tell
• Don't expect mastery
• "Plant a new possibility in the room"
• Okay for teachers to do all the talking for these 5-10 minutes (draw them in by talking about them and their writing)
• No guided practice needed
• http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en.us
• http://www.exchange.smarttech.com/search/html

Basics of Writer's Workshop

Why do Writing Workshop?

1. It's theoretical
2. It's engaging
3. Mimics how real writers write

Writing Process vs. Writing Workshop
Workshop:
     Find good reasons to write, has a real-world outcome, creates real writers
Process:
     Emphasis on "getting things done"

Characteristics of Writer's Workshop's Process

1. Choice (direct students in their choice but give them freedom to select a topic)
2. Time (30-45 minutes sustained writing time, every writing assignment won't be a masterpiece, emphasize quality over quantity)
3. Teaching (focus lessons, small group teaching, conference with students, praise students' good work)
4. Talking (writers need to be heard and have confirmation in themselves)
5. Focused Study (genre studies, grammar, craft, point of view, publication)
6. Publication Rituals (various methods~ technology-based, make a hard-cover book, make an artifact to go along with story)
7. Structure (build a community of writers)