Mini-Lessons

Mini-lessons are an important component of Writer’s Workshop. A mini-lesson is usually a 10 minute whole class activity. Mini-lessons can involve doing guided writing from a story or showing how to revise and expand different stories. Writing Workshop mini-lessons involve a lot of modeling and the use of graphic organizers. The students are expected to use what they learned in the mini-lessons in their own writing.

 

 

Writer’s Notebooks

Personalizing Writer's Notebooks

At the beginning of the year, each student gets a chance to personalize his or her blank composition book. The students can use pictures from home and magazines to personalize their notebooks in order to make them their own.

Before

After

 

Using Writer's Notebooks

The students use their Writer's Notebook as a place to grow ideas and develop their writing. All writing projects start as a "seed" in the Writer's Notebook. Students use the skills they learn during Writing Workshop mini-lessons to improve their writing and create new stories.

 

The Writing Process

Writer's Notebooks: All ideas begin as "seeds" in the Writer's Notebook.

Discovery Draft: After the students develop their ideas in their Writer's Notebooks, they can begin the Discovery Draft. The students use Discovery Draft paper and write freely. They ignore the structure and mechanics for the time being.


Revise: The students use a highlighter to make several changes to their Discovery Draft.

Edit: The students use a red pencil to correct grammar and spelling. The students use a dictionary to correct misspelled words.

Conference: After the students have finished editing their writing, they conference with me about their writing. They reread their writing and I help them make any changes.

Final Copy/Publish: The students publish their writing after they have received a conference. Their published writing piece goes in their Writing Portfolio.

 

 

Author’s Chair

The Author's Chair usually takes about ten minutes. It involves having the students share their writing with the rest of the class. The students may want to share a work in progress and get different suggestions about their work. Students will also have the opportunity to share a finished writing piece. The rest of the class is encouraged to share things they like about the story, ask questions, and give suggestions.

 

Why have Writer's Workshop in the classroom?