My Writer's Workshop Block: Tips and Tricks

Have you wanted to start Writer's Workshop but don't know where to start? Well, hopefully in this post you get some new ideas and see my tips and tricks. Writing is my favorite subject to teach my first graders, so you're in luck! Just keep reading...here goes! 

Writer's Workshop is a part of the Balanced Literacy framework. It includes: Reader's Workshop, Writer's Workshop, Guided Reading, Word Work and Literacy Centers. 

If you want to do Writer's Workshop the correct way, you need to think about having a 60 minute block daily. Writing time needs to be consistent and sacred...that means it needs to happen every day! 

Here's what my block looks like broken down into 3 parts:
 I Do, We Do, and You Do.

I Do (mini-lesson) 5-10 minutes
We Do (turn and talk-interactive writing) 5-10 minutes
You Do (independent writing, conferencing) 30-45 minutes
Author's Chair- 5 min.

You're probably thinking...how can I get all of this in for 60 minutes? Well, you can alternate the I Do and We Do...that's what I do with my class. I teach one skill ALL WEEK LONG. The first day is a mentor text, the second day is vocabulary cards and anchor charts, the third day is interactive writing, the fourth day is review turn and tell and the fifth day is review with interactive notebook...you can do this in any order that you want! It's so flexible and that's why I love it so much! 

Here's some lesson plans that I've made for my Writer's Workshop mini-lessons. This is the "I Do" part of my block.  I love to read as many mentor texts as I can.

Lesson Plans with Mentor Texts, Anchor Charts and Vocabulary Cards

One of my favorite anchor charts to start writer's workshop is this one: Don't Know Where to Start? Just Write From Your Heart!

                    

The first week of school we brainstorm things that we can write about and my students cut out the anchor chart and glue into their schema notebook (reader's and writer's notebook). One side is the teacher side for anchor charts and the other side is for them. Here is an example of the "We Do" part of the block:

Schema Notebook is for anchor charts and interactive activities

I also use vocabulary cards. These are posters that I laminate and put on my pocket chart. After I teach the skill, then I put them on the bulletin board in my writing center.

I have vocabulary cards for parts of speech, grammar and the process writing. These are helpful for the students to see them in the writing center after the skills are taught. I also use them with my poetry center as well. Here is a picture of my poetry center with the vocab cards around the poem. If you're interested in my writer's workshop vocabulary cards, click here

Another example during the "We Do" portion of the mini-lesson, I call on students to come up to the pocket chart to read sentences, while the rest of the class has their interactive notebook page in their lap with their clipboard and pencil. They are copying what the student is writing or reading from the anchor chart or pocket chart. 

Student moving cards around to expand a sentence. 

Interactive Notebook Activity 

During the "You Do" portion of writer's workshop, is where the process writing takes place. My students use a poster with Popsicle sticks that they move down to show which step they are on. This helps them and me keep track of their progress.  Here is my poster. The kids LOVE it! When I pull this poster out, they all clap and cheer for writing!!! You have to tell your students that they are authors now and it may take them several weeks to publish their book because they have to go through all of these steps. You also need to refer to real authors and their process of getting a book published. Then they will understand. 

The students take part in the writing process using these steps: Brainstorming, First Draft, Student Conference, Proofreading, Teacher Conference, Editing and Revision, Final Draft, and Publishing. My students know that they can raise their hand at any time for me to spell a word in their dictionary. We make these dictionaries at the beginning of the year. If you are interested in checking out my dictionaries for writer's workshop, click here They keep their dictionaries in their writer's workshop folder. 

My students have a genre chart that gets put into their writer's workshop folder. This is where we color in the genres that my students can write. And...they cannot write the same genre twice. They have to write as many as they can! Here is the template that I made: 

We organize our folders with one side being a work in progress and the other side the finished product. You could also use colored stickers on each pocket: red for finished pieces, and green for works in progress. All the templates that the students do for each step, I stamp with the date and staple together. 

My students also know where they can get all of their papers for each step. I organize them inside a Banker's Box that I bought at Office Depot. This is one of the best purchases that I've ever done! 

My students also take part in teacher and student conferences. They know to sit at my small conferencing table and whisper during their conference so to not disturb the other students who are writing. 
At the beginning of the year you must MODEL, MODEL, and MODEL how to do a student conference successfully, because this will set the stage for the whole year. This is where they read their stories to each other and circle 8 misspelled words and check off their student conference checklist. 

Students taking part in a student conference

My students also sit at my horse shoe table to do a teacher conference. They sit and wait quietly until I can talk with them about their story. No matter what step they are on, they can always raise their hand to conference with me. It doesn't have to be teacher conference. When they do meet for teacher conference, they read their story to me and then we fill out the teacher conference template together. I give them suggestions, compliments and we talk about whats going to happen next in their process. 

                          

During final draft, the students are illustrating, writing, outlining, and perfecting their story getting ready to publish. I have different templates with pretty borders for them to choose from.  This is their favorite part of writer's workshop! They write one sentence on each page, but depending on how long their story is, they can write more than one. Aren't they beautiful??? 

After illustrating their cover page, title page, dedication page and author's bio, then we get to staple it altogether! 

Published Book...Ready to Read to the Class!

When they sit in the author's chair, then we all sit on the carpet and listen. We give compliments and suggestions to the author.
This is so exciting for the students and they look forward to reading to the class! 

Then they take the story home in a clear plastic folder with their first draft for the parents to see. I attach a letter on the front of their first draft that explains the whole writing process. The students sign their name at the bottom.

When the story comes back to school the next day, then we display them on our publishing wall! The students each have their own pocket that stays on the wall and when the new book goes up, the old one comes down to take home for good. Here is my publishing wall: 

If you are interested in checking out my writer's workshop resources, click here It includes my lesson plans for the whole year, anchor charts, mentor texts, vocabulary cards, interactive notebooks, photos, and writing templates. This resource can be adapted for grades K-3. I hope you got some great ideas about how to start Writer's Workshop in your classroom!
Happy Teaching! 

Love, Kara :)