Writer's Workshop in my Classroom (Part Two)

Back again!

Thank you so much for all the positive feedback on my last post. Sometimes it is a bit scary to open up your classroom for all to see, but I learn so much from reading and seeing what works in other classrooms. Hopefully you can find little bits and pieces that work for your class of little learners. As always, if you have more ideas that are successful in your classroom please share them in the comments - that way others can try them out as well!

To see part one, click [HERE!]

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The Process:
My writing block is my last block of the day and it is 50 minutes long. 50 minutes solely dedicated to the writing process. This past year, I used the program Being a Writer as a general guide for our block and the outline was this:
10 minutes - mentor text
10 minutes - teacher modeling & shared writing
20 minutes - shared & independent writing
10 minutes - sharing

I stick to this schedule pretty strictly so my students can get used to the routine and also build their stamina. Shared writing is on the schedule twice because at the beginning of the year, I spend more time modeling (the full 10 minutes) and then we go into shared writing for another 10 minutes before the students go back to their seats to write independently. As the year goes on, it shifts a bit and the students end up writing for a longer time independently and we do less shared writing on a daily basis.

Each day has the same set up and I generally work on the same skill all week. Some example skills that would be modeled and practiced all week would be:
-More detailed pictures
-Relating your illustrations to your writing
-Adding more to your story
-Adding dialogue

I thought the easiest way to share what a week in my classroom would look like would be to create a shortened lesson plan with each day mapped out. This weekly lesson is for the skill: adding more detail to your illustration and relating your illustration to your story. I have done this lesson around early October right before we go into personal narratives. You can click on the images below to get the lesson plan for yourself:

 

As you can see, I also added examples of what I am modeling throughout the lesson. Monday-Friday is included.

Keeping Track (Student Work):

When we are full into the writing process (drafting, editing, revising, etc) things can get messy quick with first graders. "I can't find my paper." "My paper is ripped/crumpled/ruined." You get the picture. My first year I spent way too much time looking in students desks or backpacks to find their work, that we didn't get as much writing done as I would've preferred. I am still learning and finding better ways to organize.

A teacher friend of mine was generous enough to give me a class set of these folders from Really Good Stuff that I used my second year:

They are marketed for grades 2-3 and it did take a lot of time for my first graders to get used to each section of the folder and put them in the right spots. Even then, their papers were still crumpled from trying to shove them in each pocket and I made the mistake of using the folders while we were working on more than one writing piece at a time. If I taught 2nd, I think I could make it work... but if I used these again in 1st grade I would only have one writing piece in the folder at a time and I would spend a lot more time modeling when we move a paper from the editing to the revising pocket and so on.

This past year I used a different system, but I kept these folders in my writing corner. I also used the folders with my high group who were able to work on simultaneous writing pieces at one time. By the end of the year, just over half of my class had one of these folders in their chair pockets and they loved to add to their old stories.

The method I used last year was my most effective method. It worked for me and my students and we were able to spend less time searching for our work and more time writing:

BINS!!

My exact ones are from Target (Dollar Spot of course!) and are in storage, but the neon ones above would work just fine. I only use three colors for collecting writing samples: red, yellow, and blue. I tell my students from the beginning of the year that when they pass in their paper to a bin they are telling me something. This is what they are telling me:

Red bin:

"Ms. Moran, my paper is not finished. I am still adding to my writing piece."

Yellow bin:

"Ms. Moran, I think I am done adding to my paper, but I still need to edit it."

Blue bin:

"Ms. Moran, I am totally finished with my paper. You can grade it now."

At the end of each day, I can take a quick flip through each bin and see where my students are in their writing process. When our independent writing starts, I have my star of the week pass out the papers and we begin!

The bins also let me easily flip through and find an example paper to show on the doc-camera (name covered, of course)! We can do a quick mini-lesson on adding more from a paper that was in the red bin and that student can gather some ideas. From the yellow bin, we can do a quick mini lesson on editing and revising. Or if I want to have someone practice sharing their paper and getting feedback, I will pull a paper from the blue bin!

Resources:
Some followers have asked me if there are products or programs that I use when teaching writing and at my old school I was lucky enough to have a lot of freedom to pick and choose what works best for me and my students. With that freedom, I have been able to use bits and pieces of programs like Lucy Calkins, Being a Writer, and Write from the Beginning. I have been able to take the bits and pieces I like from each and do my own thing. I have made a few products that are available on TPT that pretty much get me through the whole year.

My Common Core bundle has 3 explicit units (each about a month long) that teach the three main common core writing strands: narratives, informative texts, and opinions.

My Writing Through the Seasons pack is a bundled resource I came out with only a month or two ago and it has tons of narrative, informative, and opinion seasonal writing prompts that will get you through the whole year. Each prompt also comes with graphic organizers.

I use the seasonal prompts when I am not knee-deep in one of my Common Core units and I made the prompts very kid friendly and included a bunch of crafts to create cute bulletin boards throughout the year as well!

Click on each product image above to see more details and previews.

Thank you for sticking with me through these two long posts and I hope I answered some of your questions!

Do you do anything similar for your writing block?!