Writing begins not as deskwork, but as lifework.
Lucy Calkins
 This is the book I read for my book club. A very good resource. 
This is a great adaptation of Lucy Calkin's writers workshop that targets young children's needs. I will use this in my room next year.
I liked this example of a Writer's Workshop schedule.  |
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I liked this map of writers' workshop for the year.  A class pet! A different student takes home every night. They write what they did with the class pet! Cute!  |
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An example of a writer's notebook. Students jot down "small moments," such as a memory, a question, something they've noticed, a dream, a book, a letter, a story. They take home with them and bring back. We celebrate whatever students write in these, even if it's just one word.
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I liked this for their writing folder.
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I really liked this schedule for conferencing. Very simple!
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Great anchor chart to use at the beginning of the year!
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When you're Mental Movie gets Blurry Chart - Lucy Calkins Reader's Workshop
Lucy Calkins talke about small moments throughout her book. This rubric could be helpful when assessing.
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Lucy Calkins talke about small moments throughout her book. This rubric could be helpful when assessing.
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According to Calkins, begin with something small.....Take a seed(idea) and grow it into a speech, story, or book. Kids jot these things in their journals (seed beds). This is called rehearsal. It can be memories, favorite words, something they notice or wonder about.
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I love this idea! Students can pick other interesting words to use, take words back to their seats.
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Checklist that could be used in their folder.  |
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Writer's Workshop Anchor Chart
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Small anchor chart that could be used in their folder.
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How many times do we hear, "I'm done! What do I do?" Great anchor chart!
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Good idea to help kids remember descriptive words for characters that they can use in their writing and conversations.
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Can use this also in their folder. They can make it personal by adding their own words.
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I like this anchor chart for older kids. Many kids often don't know what to say or do during a peer conference.
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Explore the Common Core by Lucy Calkins. I would like to take a look at this book!
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The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins
Tina, Crystal, and I read The Art of Teaching Writing by
Lucy Calkins Section 1 on the Essentials of Writing. This section discussed how to get the students excited about
writing and how "writing is not deskwork but lifework." Calkins talked about how writing
matters when it is personal and interpersonal. We like how she compared writing as taking a seed (idea),
grow it into a story, speech, or book.
Students should jot down things they notice, what they wonder, memories,
and even if it's just one word. We all three liked the example of Isoke, a teacher Calkins refers to. She
had a writer's notebook she shared with her students that she carried with her
and cherished. She brought this
enthusiasm into the classroom. She
would jot down a memory, or something she notices, or wonders. Calkins refers
to this as the "Rehearsal." She had her students do the same and she
started a "ritual" for students to take their notebooks home every
day and do the same and bring back to school in the mornings. Calkins says the goal of the first few days of introducing
writer's workshop is to fill the students with a sense of "I've got so
much to say" "My life is full of possible stories." We also discussed how she talked about
revision as not repairing a draft but using the writing you've already done to
see more, think more, and learn more.
This book I feel will be very beneficial since Tina and I will be
teaching writer's workshop this fall for K-2. I am excited about teaching writing a different way. I have been guilty of making writing
"deskwork" and giving my students a sheet of paper and a topic. I think this way of teaching writing
also creates a sense of community in your classroom because you are getting to
know your students and they are getting to know you as well. Calkins also stresses the importance of
sharing. Many times we write and
then don't allow time to share. We
send papers home and the student's writing never gets shared. This basically tells the child that
their writing is not important.
Our book club this week read pages 59-287 from Lucy
Calkins. The first part dealt with
the foundations of literacy (writing in the home, nursery school and kindergarten). She emphasized that oral language
“takes place on a non-sequence, whole-task basis.” We wouldn’t
dissect oral language into component parts and we shouldn’t drill young children on all the sounds of
the alphabet before inviting them to write. We should treat early writing with
respect just like we would a baby’s first words. She says when launching a
writing workshop in the primary-level classroom teachers to accept whatever
they may put down.. Children don’t need to be afraid they will “fail” but need
to be accepted and praised for what they can do. Tina, Chrystal, and I liked how she addressed the students
as “writers” Calkins also stresses
that children’s drawing is rehearsal for them. It plays an important role in that it provides a supportive
scaffolding within which can help children write. They can return to their drawing and most of the child’s
meaning is carried by the picture.
Calkins later discourages drawing, as a way of rehearsing for writing
because she says that no solution works for every child and not solution should
works forever. She says we should
watch for signs indicating that a child no longer needs to weave drawing and
writing together. She states that
drawing is a predominant form of rehearsal for many 1st graders, but talking is
the most effective form of rehearsal for 2nd grade. We all three liked the idea of notebooks in primary
grades. They have it with them
throughout the day and go home with them at night. It is a place for gathering bits and pieces of their lives. She also states that peer conferences
may not get better writing, but longer texts.
Calkins went on the discuss Writer’s Workshop in the upper elementary
grades. We discussed how a lot of
students are no longer comfortable to really get in to their writing due to
peer pressure and bullying. We all
agreed that students at this age need us to care about them and what is going
on in their lives outside of the classroom. Building a community is especially important at this level
of Writer’s Workshop. When
building the community we must demonstrate our love for reading and writing.
This is the age to make the reading/ writing connection. Students at this age
still apply some of our values to their lives. We agreed with Calkins when she said that launching Writer’s
Workshop with students in secondary grades is difficult. The teacher in Secondary Writing
Workshops must build one on one relationships, seize the moment and teach on
your toes, encourage students to voice themselves through writing, and see the
energy in the classroom and go with it.
Tina, Crystal and I agreed that in order for Writer’s Workshop to work
it must be predictable. Teachers
must be organized, and set-aside particular times every day. “It is almost impossible to have a
successful writing workshop if students write only one or two times per
week. We like the components of
Writer’s Workshop. We discussed
the mini lesson, work time, conferencing, share sessions and publication. The mini lesson is just what it
says. This is the time that is set
aside to “teach” all the students something. We shouldn’t expect for every
student, however, to use what was taught that in his or her papers. There is not a set curriculum on what
to teach in the mini lessons. Teachers
must decide what to teach based on the needs of the students that she is
teaching. A problem that teachers
face with mini lessons is that teachers often struggle with reverting to the
“old” way of teaching at this time.
We all agreed that we must remember who ever is doing the most talking
is doing the most learning.
THE ART OF TEACHING WRITING
We had a lot of
favorite things about the book to discuss when we met. One of the sections we all agreed upon
was the section on mini-lessons of revisions. I told the girls that I especially enjoyed the phrase by
William Faulkner, “Writing a first draft is like trying to build a house in a
strong wind” (Calkins, page 209).
The sense of urgency he discusses is what it is like when students are
writing their first draft. They
need to get the ideas all down on paper quickly before they forget what their
ideas were in the first place. I
will list a few of the recommended strategies for topics of mini-lessons here:
· Write about a subject in a different
genre
· Rework a confused section- the
ending, the title, etc
· Take a long draft and make it
shorter
· Take a short entry of a draft and
expand it
· Imagine a purpose and an audience
for it
· Reread the draft evaluating what
works and what does not
· Read the entries/draft and think,
”Where’s the mystery here?”
· Put the draft aside and return to it
another day
· Take a jumbled piece and rewrite it
in sections or chapters
These are just a few of the strategies that we found would
be most helpful to our age group of students. (Calkins, pages 209-210)
In the chapters on
‘conferring’, one phrase stood out to me that I shared with my group. “Creation and criticism- these are
central to our work with clay and blocks, and they are also central to our work
with words.” (Calkins, page 222)
In these chapters of the book, Calkins was discussing how important it
is to question themselves about their writing. As readers, we should ask a question or two about our
drafts. No matter the age, questions like these can be used over and over.
· What have I said so far?
· How do I like it? What is not so
good that I can fix?
· How does it sound? How does it look?
· How else could I have done this?
· What am I going to do next?
These are some questions that can be discussed during
teacher-student or peer conferences to get a student to learn to interact with
their own writing. The goal for
the teacher, over time, is to be unnecessary or unneeded. We want students to
be successful at self-questioning.
I enjoyed the
different stories and anecdotes in this book. There was a particular story about a little boy named Noah
on pages 262-263 that was meaningful to me so I shared it with my book club
group. The story was in the
chapter on publications. Calkins
was sharing how the 5 year old had written a 10-page book, with words and a
picture on each page. After
reading his book to the class, his teacher asked him what he had written on the
back of the book. He told her that
it was “nuthin”, just “sumfin” for the library. He had put symbols for the section of the library that it
would go into for the librarian.
This is humorous, yet significant, because he already sees himself as an
author. As Calkins says, “His
teacher has not only helped him develop skills, she has also helped him develop
a self-concept as an author.” (Calkins, page 263) We want our students to not only act as writers, but to
become one. To see him/herself as
an author causes the children to make connections with the books they
read. When they make connections,
they are learning.
Chapter 18 dealt with editing and the best way to approach it during
writer’s workshop. She discussed
how many kids come to us thinking writing is a display of spelling, penmanship,
and punctuation and they will focus more on that than the content. We all three have seen this happen in
our classrooms. Students will just
freeze up on spelling a word or where to put punctuation and then forget what
they are even writing about.
Calkins stresses in this chapter that we need to help them write freely
and unselfconsciously. No one
learns well while feeling afraid and ashamed. We need to let students realize it’s ok to make editorial
errors as they write; all of us do, and then we correct them as we edit. She states that the best thing we can
for their syntax, spelling, penmanship, and use of mechanics is to help them
write more often and with confidence.
When she launches writer’s workshop, she tells them their notebooks
aren’t meant to be displays of perfect spelling and handwriting. It’s a place for deep thoughtful ideas
and careful observation. Our group
agrees that young students need to focus, above all, on what they are saying
and let spellings come out naturally. We liked her quote, “This is a rough
draft. It is meant to be rough.
There will be a time for making it beautiful.” Some other ideas/comments we liked when writing rough
drafts:
-Let them use a pen or pencil
-If too much time being spent making letters perfect, she
might say,” No erasing allowed- Just cross out and keep going.”
-She might show students one of her first drafts
-When children keep asking how to spell a word, they keep
asking because you keep giving them the answer. They need strategies for spelling words. Say the word. How many parts in the word? Now listen for the sounds in the
words.
It
was also interesting the research she did among two third-grade classrooms
comparing how they were taught writing.
Ms. West taught mechanics through daily drills and workbook
exercises. She started at the very
beginning, teaching simple sentences, periods, capitals. She did pretests and post-tests, but
the children rarely wrote. In Ms.
Howard’s class, the children wrote every day and chattered as writers do, about
conventions of written language.
When Calkins met with the “writers” who had not had formal instruction
in punctuation, they could explain an average of 8.66 kinds of punctuation,
whereas writers who had studied punctuation every day through classwork and
drills could only explain 3.85 kinds of punctuation. Even more important, children in the writing classroom liked
punctuation. Calkins stresses that
when children view themselves as writers, like students in Ms. Howard’s class,
they see punctuation everywhere.
They start noticing it and becoming familiar with it. The nonwriters described punctuation by
trying to remember the rules they’d been taught. How many of us do this? We get bogged down writing as adults
because we can’t remember the rules or how to spell a word. Many of us were not taught to write “freely”
and our first draft was our final draft.
We wanted it perfect the first time.
She discussed one way to help
students edit is by giving them a checklist to go over before they turn their
work in. The one she gave was very simple and we can see ourselves using it
with our students. When conferencing with students, notice the things a student
can do and only pick out one or 2 things for the student to work on as a
writer. We liked the idea of
having a sheet of paper in their writing folder and jotting down what you
notice and the one thing that student is working on. Calkins also stresses that kids need to know that when
authors finish their writing, they move on to another piece.
We discussed that poetry is a powerful genre because of its condensed
nature. Every child in the classroom can be a poet, because poems can be very
short. We liked how she allowed the children to use pieces from their notebooks
to turn those in to poems.
We all loved the section on Making Memoirs Out of the Pieces of Our
Lives. Virginia Wolfe said, “A memoir is not what happens, but the person to
whom things happen.” We all agreed that Memoirs will be a great way to really
get to know our students, because we will learn their feelings, ideas, and
insights rather than just reading about an event. The stage of writing memoirs
is described by Randy Bomer as the stage of “shoving kids out of the nests.” He
says this because they are forced out of their notebooks into a draft. They
suggest that the easiest way to do this is by setting a deadline for a draft.
In
chapter 25, Calkins discussed how we used to do research from an encyclopedia,
but today research starts out with what we experience and what we know
instead. She said we should tell
our students to seek out new life experiences and relationships, which will
help them to learn more, and to find more to write about. We enjoyed the quote from Jean Fritz in
this chapter, “As human beings, we thrive on astonishment. Whatever is unknown quickens us, delivers
us from ourselves, impels us to investigate, inspires us to imagine.” We should watch out for surprise and
mystery, these things will make for good nonfiction stories.
She discussed how we should create conditions in our classrooms to help
the ‘learning’ happen. We can’t
‘make’ students learn, but we can encourage them to ask questions, to notice
and wonder, and to inquire about the world around them. Writing is a way to do these
things. Writing throughout the day
can be used to develop meaning and compose ideas about different topics. Some ways to use writing that
interested us were:
· Writing to learn journals – add
short journal writing activities into the classroom throughout the day to help
them develop their thoughts and ideas
· Take a few minutes to write down
what we are thinking about a topic – this helps reel them back in if they have
tuned out of a whole-class discussion
· Have them summarize the ‘essence of
the issue’ – use these summaries to get them actively participating in the
class discussion
· Write down what we know or wonder
about a topic before you start discussing a new one
· They can use writing as a tool for
thought
· “The main thing we’re talking about
is…” – is helpful to stimulate a whole-class discussion
· “The main thing I’m talking about
is…” - is used for individual self-motivation
· Writing can encourage students to
ask questions and problem-solve in any content area
· Write to support their reflections
on their guesses and predictions during lessons
Calkins describes ways to make our students into active learners through
their writing in this book. She
talks about how much our teaching matters, and what a big responsibility it is
to teach our students wisely. We
discussed how important our teaching is, and how we want to use more of the
writing techniques from this book to grow as teachers. We are teachers because we love our
students. How better to show them
our love for them, than by expressing our love of learning through writing?
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