Accountability in Writer's Workshop

When you are setting up your room for your literacy framework, there are many things that you want to keep in mind. It is essential that you have a designated place for materials and supplies that your students are able to access. This will help your students become more independent in that they aren't always asking you for things...they know where to find them. Of course, in the beginning of the year you will want to have many management minilessons to help ensure that they understand routine.

How you want to organize things is up to you...just remember child friendly organization is the key. Here are some suggestions of what you will want to include in this area of your room:

• pencils
• pencil sharpener electric and a few hand held for when it needs to be "silent" in the room
• erasers
• highlighters
• red pens (editing)
• blue pens (revision)
• stapler and staples
• staple remover
• paper clips
• tape dispenser and tape
• stamp and stamp pad
• discovery draft paper (yellow)
• revision paper (blue)
• final draft paper (white)
• various different types of publishing paper
• sticky notes-  A LOT OF THEM!
• rubrics 
• graphic organizers
• scissors
• glue sticks
• dictionaries
• thesauruses
• **Also, I like to have a file holder box where there is a hanging folder for each student where they put their drafts after they have made it to the final draft and/or publishing stage. Students are able to take their work home once it has been graded, so that parents can see their work; however, they are to return it, so that they can see the progress that they make as a writer throughout the school year. 

If you can think of any other supplies that would be beneficial to your room and your students, feel free to add them to this list. 

Something else that MUST be included in this area is a WRITING PROCESS BOARD. This is essential for accountability purposes and to help students better understand the steps in the process. The Writing Process that I adopted in my room was from Fountas and Pinnell:
Explore, Discovery Draft, Revise, Edit, Final Draft Conference, Final Draft, and Publish. 

In the past, I took over my chalkboard (something that I no longer use) to display the process. I made sure to explain each step in the process on the board, so that my writers have a clear visual in case they forget what a certain step means. I also included what materials (i.e. type of paper and writing instrument they should be using). Under the "Editing" and "Revision" steps, there is a list of the editing & revision symbols that they should be using (they have this in their writing folder, too).

Now, the accountability part. Students are taught in the beginning of the year that it is their job to move their name (laminated and magnetic- not shown in pictures) through the writing process. This also helps me to see a quick visual of where the majority of my writers are, who is ready for a conference, and who needs extra support.

There are many other ways to hold your writers accountable during the writing workshop. Here are some suggestions and I may explore with you more later:

• Writer's Notebook
• Minilessons
• Writing conferences
• Guided writing groups
• Shares
• Rubrics
• "What I Learned as a Writer Today" 
• "List of Writing Projects (with start and completion dates)

Let me know if you have any questions/concerns or anything you would like me to discuss more...

Professional Resources

Are you looking for a quick and beneficial professional read that you can actually implement in your daily routine? I cannot express enough how much I loved reading Aimee Buckner's new book, Nonfiction Notebooks. This book is essential for your Writer's Workshop. It gives you great lessons and strategies to help you incorporate nonfiction writing into your workshop. This is very important to think about since the Common Core wants more nonfiction implemented. Your students may know how to read nonfiction since you have been adding more to your reading workshop, but can they write in the genre and for different purposes? This type of writing is imperative for our students as the majority of the reading and writing they will be doing as adults is nonfiction.

As I was reading Aimee's text, I was happy to know that I have in fact done some of the things that she has suggested in my own work with nonfiction. I quickly patted myself on the back a few times and said, "Hey, see you know what you're doing!" Other times I was thinking, "Hmm...now why didn't I think of that?"

I don't want to give away any of Aimee's strategies because I do feel as though her book is worth the money. But, I have to say, if you are familiar with the "Heart Map" to use in your poetry launch, you'd love to hear how she uses something similar with nonfiction and brainstorming. I also really enjoyed reading on how she had her students research using sticky notes (a strategy we are all familiar with) but then the mini lessons she did to have her students decide if the information was relevant to their angle. Brilliant!

Pick up Aimee Buckner's book and her others at Barnes and Noble or Amazon!
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nonfiction-notebooks-aimee-buckner/1116261335?ean=9781571109521

http://www.amazon.com/Nonfiction-Notebooks-Strategies-Informational-Writing/dp/1571109528/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388880096&sr=1-1&keywords=nonfiction+notebooks

Also, check out some of her other books:
Notebook Know-How and Notebook Connections (this is on my desk at work...wish I brought it home over break!)