Day 2: Imaginative Narratives

On the second day of Imaginative Narratives, we sketched out our two main characters first through shared writing. We discussed how we wanted our characters to look making sure that we were very descriptive. As students shouted out their ideas, we quickly started sketching. Then, we discussed what kind of characters we wanted them to be by describing their personality. We wrote these words around the characters. We also discussed how these characters needed to sound realistic and jive with out story line. Once, we were done with our characters for our class story, our students set off to work sketching and describing their characters from their story map. Our students had a lot of fun doing this and were eager to share their ideas. By spending the time doing shared writing with the class, there is more ownership and excitement about writing. Below you can find our lesson and a student's notebook entry:

Be sure to come back and see what we did next...

xo

Imaginative Narratives

I've had so much fun in 3rd grade launching a new writing unit on imaginative narratives. While the stories are imaginative, I wanted them to be realistic. I may have them write another story in the genre, but as a fantasy, perhaps as a revision unit...more thoughts on that later.

Before we started, they read and talked a lot about the genre in reading workshop. We began our work in writing workshop with shared writing. I used a story map to help get them thinking about a plausible story line between two main characters in a realistic setting, with a problem and solution. They helped me brainstorm our class story on chart paper on the first day. Then,we moved into the Writer's Notebooks where they were to begging brainstorming their own stories by applying what we did together as a whole group. Below you can see the beginning stages of our story taking shape.

The next day we moved onto characters.

Come back to see what we did as a whole group and what a student did in her notebook 😀

Blogging Club Update!

So...I have been HORRIBLE at keeping my promise to blog weekly with my Bloggers. We did have a week off for Spring Break in there...my excuse for the other weeks....hmm give me time to think. J/k! I am very proud of my students  that continue to show up week after week. I have had a few quit, but I figured that would happen with such a big class. I can't lie and say that I wasn't disappointed in the fact that they'd rather do something else, but I won't take it personal, it just wasn't their thing. Anyways...back to the students that do come...I've been so impressed in how they have been helping one another and how they have taken charge of their learning. One week a student asked me, "How do you put in a link?" I responded, "Great question. That will be what I teach you next week!" (It was at the tail end of class and rather than just show him, I figured the rest of the class would like to know, too.) Then last week, I wanted to teach them how to create their own avatar for their page; however, once I got to class, I discovered that the 5th graders had actually learned that in computer lab that week. So, I did what any WISE teacher would do, and I said great, "Nick you're going to teach the rest of the class how to do it and while you're at it, create one for me, too!" He did a great job! All of the students were able to customize their own avatar to look as much like themselves, or not, as they wished. This week's lesson will be on: How to Comment on Blogs. I have allowed them to view one another's blogs and comment, but it has turned into a chatting message board. With that being said, we need to discuss how to leave constructive criticism and comments. I will let you know how it goes :) 

Check out my avatar:

What do you think? lol

Have you started blogging with your students yet?

Biographical Poems

I've had so much fun in 3rd grade the past couple of weeks. In reading workshop they have been researching an inspiring African American for Black History month and created a poster to show their learning. Their classroom teacher invited me into their classroom to take their research and bring it into writing workshop somehow. I decided that it would be fun to take their research and write a poem about their subject. As a mentor text we used the book below:

Their classroom teacher read many of the poems aloud. When I came into the classroom I used one of the poems to imitate for my writing mini lesson with the research that one of the students supplied me with about her subject: Rosa Parks. See my mini lesson below:

I used the strategies of imitating a mentor author, thinking aloud, and modeled writing to show these 3rd graders how to construct a poem. I was using chart paper without lines, so I used a highlighter to show them where I would make new stanzas. I wanted them to stick to one event/topic when they wrote about their subject. Once I was done modeling, students were able to have a go with their subject. Many students were able to come up with many versions of poems about their subject. 

I came back the next day to show students another way that they could take their research to construct a poem by imitating the same mentor text.

See chart below:

I wanted students to try a quick write about one topic/event about their subject. Again, I modeled using research supplied by one of the students, but this time the subject was Jackie Robinson. After we did the quick write, through think aloud and modeled writing, I demonstrated how writers can remove extra words from their writing to construct a poem. Again, I sent students off to have a go using this strategy. Once they had a poem, they took it through the writing process. They are currently in the publishing stage using Chromebooks to type their work in GloogleClassroom. Once they are done typing, they will find an image to upload into their document.

I will post more once they are done :) What do you think about taking research and presenting it in a different format than the traditional essay? 

Interactive Writing

I started the year very hesitant and overwhelmed to attempt Interactive Writing in our first grade classroom. I didn't understand it and it made me nervous. What do we write about? How do we keep it authentic? We attempted to tie it into our work with our author study of Kevin Henkes and his books. Our class especially enjoyed his books about his mice characters: Lily, Chester, and Wendell. We decided to discuss their character traits by providing evidence from the texts. We made a list of their traits around their illustrations (yes, I have been teaching myself to draw this year, too!) and we noticed similarities and differences amongst these different characters. Here are some pictures to show where we started this journey of interactive writing: 

What do you think?

More to share later :)

Blogging Update

It has been awhile since I have blogged and I promised my Blogging Club that I would get much better at holding myself accountable since I would be blogging beside them every week. The problem is we had a snow day, followed by President's Weekend, so I got a little lazy. With that being said, I decided to update our school's website tonight by adding a new page with all of my bloggers new blogs. You can check it out by going to East Coldenham Elementary School; Teachers; Literacy Consultant: Launa Kruithof; EC's Blog Club. I'm excited to see their excitement and enjoyment for blogging! I can't wait for them to post their first post this week and start their second.

Now, my new goal: get back to blogging about my experience in learning Literacy in the K-2 classrooms! So much to tell...maybe tomorrow...😜

Blogging Writing Club

I'm SO excited to announce that I am starting a Blogging Writing Club at my school for 4th and 5th grade students! My Principal came to me asking me if I was interested in starting some sort of writing club at our school. Of course I said I was interested, since I am the Literacy Consultant for the building. However, I knew that I didn't want to do just any ordinary club. I didn't want to do a school newspaper...I thought about a poetry club...maybe an extension off of the school website somehow? No, nothing seemed right. It wasn't until I sat down with our District's Technology Coach, Jim Treloar, that we came up with the idea of creating a club where students would be able to make their own blog!

What would they blog about? ANYTHING is the answer. We are constantly asking students to write for us...but, how much experience have they had sharing their thoughts on an on-line blog? I bet none! Do they even know what a blog is? I want my students to make their blog about what interests them. A place for them to share their thoughts...maybe like an on-line writer's notebook? Now, that would be cool. I can't wait to discover what THEY want to write about and share with the world. My plan is to share with them my blog and what I write about: literacy of course! I'm sure they will figure that out before I even show it to them. 

When we first thought of this idea, Jim asked me, "How many students are you thinking?" I laughed at him and said, "I don't think that many will show, maybe 10? I mean they have to write. You think they really will want to come and write for me? For an hour in the morning, before school?" Boy, was I blown away by the response that we received back from our students. In our small school with only two sections of each grade level, we received 22 responses! TWENTY-TWO! That's a whole class worth! Wow! I just realized I have a blogging class. :) I wasn't expecting that! 

Well, tomorrow is the first day full of introductions and getting them started. I can't wait to get these blogs off the ground and see what they come up with to write about. 

Are you blogging in your class?

Wish us luck! 
xo

Literacy for All

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Lester Laminack's session on flipping reading workshop into writing workshop. This topic is discussed in his new book: Writers ARE Readers. Of course I had to purchase his book and he signed it! I'm getting quite a collection of signed books in my collection. 

If you ever get the opportunity to see and listen to Laminack do it!! He doesn't disappoint. While he makes you think and reflect on your teaching, he also makes you laugh! He should have an act as a comedian. His session did not disappoint and was one of my favorite sessions so far!

I can't wait to read his book and try out some of his lessons in some of my colleagues classrooms.

More to come....

Literacy for All

I'm so excited to attend Literacy for All Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. I'm currently surrounded by hundreds of teachers of literacy. I can't wait to see many of the gurus of literacy present! I'm ready to push my thinking forward. I'm taking the stance of a learner. ALL teachers should always have this stance, once they quit thinking of themselves as learners, we must remove ourselves from the classroom. We must put our best selves in the classroom each day for our students, the future of our world. So, I ask you...what will you be learning more about this week? 

Literacy Centers

Independent Work Management..."centers" or "jobs" in the K-2 classrooms seem to be quite overwhelming for teachers. I have learned that it is very important to take your time introducing centers to your class BEFORE you begin your work with Guided Reading. This will pay off later as far as behavior management and working independently is concerned. Use a Work Board and teach your students the rules and expectations from the beginning. 

Teach one center at a time while being explicit with your teaching. Revisit this center for a few days. Once you are certain your students can control the center independently, add on a new center. Repeat.

It is important that your centers are meaningful and authentic. It's not just busy work. It is meaningful work that supports their learning about literacy. NO WORKSHEETS! They fail you time and time again. Learning skills in isolation does not teach a reader how to read. There are SO many great center ideas in the Fountas and Pinnell Phonics books! Use them to back up the skills that you've already taught. Don't overthink your centers. You can keep many of the same centers just change out the principle for the week. I'm looking forward to incorporating poetry and technology in my centers this year...more to come on that! 

 

What are your favorite centers to use with your students? Some that I think I will start with this year are:

*Independent Reading

*Browsing Boxes

*Read Around the Room

*Listening Center

*Poetey Center

*Magnetic Letters

*Various Phonics Centers

(Start simple...)

Things to Remember:

1.Take your time (go slow to go fast...)

2. Be explicit with your teaching

3. Retech

4. There is nothing too small to teach and revisit

5. Don't teach a new center until you are certain your students can control the previous one(s).

6. Keep them meaningful and authentic. No WORKSHEETS

7. Don't overthink them

Starting again...

This past week, I started my new endeavor to become Dual Certified as a PreK- 6 Literacy Collaborative Coordinator. I already hold my Intermediate Cert focusing in grades 3-6. The intermediate kids are where I've spent the majority of my career through AIS services and LC. I'm quite intimidated by the little ones, but they sure are cute. 

I never thought about working with the little kiddos until this past school year when my district decided that they were going to hire back 2 more coaches, but we would stay in one building (last year I was in all four buildings concentrating in Intermediate). This would mean that each coach would have to go back to Lesley University in Cambride, MA to learn the other half of their specialty. 

Training started this week with 4 jam packed days of intense instruction about literacy in the primary classrooms. I found myself a few times saying not only in my head, but also aloud, "What did I get myself into?!" 

A lot of the time was spent discussing the theory behind LC in primary concentrating on the work of Marie Clay, as well as many others. While the theory is grounded and very similar in both the primary and intermediate settings, there were some big ideas that we needed to dive into to understand the preK-2 world.

We discussed Writing Workshop and spending a lot of time practicing storytelling and making books. This is very new to me, but I'm looking forward to trying it out this year (I will share our work here this year). 

Interactive Writing was a huge undertaking. I've done Shared Writing with my students in the Intermediate setting, but Interactive is a whole new game. While it is powerful for students, teachers must be careful observers and know their students. It is all about the Zone of Proximal Development and nudging students to learn an aspect of writing that as individuals they need to focus on and incorporate in their independent writing. I will post a video on this once I try it out this year.

More about this last week to come....

Any thoughts on Interactive Writing or Writers' Workshop? 

Writing Professional Development 2015

During this past month, I travelled to each of my four elementary schools offering 3 hour professional development workshops to my Intermediate teachers on writing. When I surveyed the teachers, they all said they would appreciate PD on writing, but they weren't very specific. That's a HUGE subject. Where should I take them? Where should I begin? Last year we discussed the 6 + 1 Traits (see previous post). I knew that I would have to revisit that topic as it was just an overview and I don't think teachers were feeling very confident in that area. So my colleague, the Primary Coordinator, and I started researching and decided we would focus on the implementation and launch of the traits in writing workshop. 

Visit the links below for more information on the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. 

http://www.smekenseducation.com/

http://www.culhamwriting.com/mainstreet.html

Grammar instruction has been a bone of contention for many teachers. I have been on a quest the past few years trying to figure out the best way to incorporate grammar into the classroom. I have read and learned a lot from the work of Jeff Anderson, the Write Guy. He has written many books, such as Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing. However, it wasn't until I saw him at Literacy for All Conference this past November in Providence, RI, that I felt as though I could bring his work to my colleagues. He encourages teachers to show students mentor sentences from real authors and discuss what they notice. It's all about function and application. Students learn why grammar works, how to use it, and apply it to their own writing to reinforce the skill. This would be part two of my training. 

The final aspect of my training would focus on Writing about Reading in reading workshop. I've noticed that often students primarily summarize the book that they are reading and don't share their thoughts about what they've read. I've wondered, why is this? Well...we say share your thinking, but what does that really mean? Students need concrete examples and they need them modeled. Another colleague of mine and former LC shared another great resource, Readers Writing by Elizabeth Hale. In this text she offers 91 different strategies to teach students how to respond using different sentence stems that promote different types of thinking that target specific comprehension skills. 

You can purchase both Anderson and Hale's work on Stenhouse! 

What are you looking to learn more about in writing workshop?

Close Reading in Action

I had the pleasure of pushing into a 5th grade classroom to try out a Close Reading lesson mimicking the ideas from, Falling in Love with Close Reading (see my previous post). I took the mini lessons that my colleagues and I brainstormed while in Cambridge and applied them in Reading Workshop. I used a common text that the class previously worked with through Focus Poetry, "The Abandoned Farmhouse," by Ted Kooser. (see Focus Poetry through Scholastic: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/09/focus-poetry-create-poetry-pros-less-ten-minutes-day)

The first day's mini lesson: Readers notice how an author uses words and phrases to visualize a strong image. As a group, we went though the poem and annotated some of the strong images that we noticed while we were reading the poem. Students did a turn and talk to discuss with their partner what they noticed about the imagery. Then, we discussed as a group what we noticed.

Day 2: We quickly reviewed what we discussed the day prior. Today's mini lesson: Readers categorize strong images in order to find patterns. We read the poem again and started making lists of different images that we noticed and started putting them into categories. We started together with the first stanza about the man...making this our first category (we changed it later). Students did a turn and talk to discover other categories that they noticed. They came up with the house. Through discussion they noticed another category: outside. They also wrote down examples of the strong images that the author created for each category. Independently their job was to continue to add to their lists and come up with any other categories.

When we came together on day three and reviewed our categories, through conversations we added the category: images. We also decided that we wanted to rename our first category to: family. Students discussed their ideas and backed up their thinking with evidence from the text. This led to my mini lesson for the day: Readers consider the patterns to better understand the author's purpose of imagery. Again, we made a list of the categories and brainstormed what the author wanted us to take away from the poem. What was his purpose? What was his bigger message? Close Reading is all about digging deeper...and digging deep was exactly what we were doing. After a lot of brainstorming, I was very proud of these students because they decided that the author wanted us to infer how & why the farmhouse was abandoned through the use of the imagery. The class started making their own predictions of what may have happened based on evidence from the text. 

(My charts aren't the neatest...) 

Have you tried out any Close Reading lessons yet? 

Close Reading

Close Reading...it is the "new" teaching approach that is all the craze now, but what is it? There are many different teaching philosophies out there that try to explain this technique. In New York, creators of EnageNY believe that children should be reading challenging and rigorous texts multiple times. Their idea of "challenging" and "rigorous" are texts that are often too difficult for children to read. As a Reading Specialist, I do not agree with this method. Put a frustrational text in front of a child and ask him/her to read it not only once, but many times, when they can't decode many of the words nor comprehend them, is only going to create more frustration.

Some ideas around close reading include reading the text once to get the overall gist. Reading it again to circle any unfamiliar words and derive their meaning. Reading it again to find supporting details to support the gist. Another reading for perhaps the author's message. All the while, students are jotting their notes all around the paper. I've tried this approach with students and I have to say that it doesn't create a deeper meaning of the text. Students...especially struggling students get quite frustrated and have a difficult time. Can we scaffold it? Absolutely. But, the question I raise is when is there too much scaffolding? Surely, if we are spoon feeding children the information they aren't really reading, are they?

While in Cabridge at Lesley University during my week of Ongoing PD as a Literacy Collaborative Coach, we spent a day reading and discussing the text, Falling in Love with Close Reading. While this text is geared toward MS teachers, I think that we can bring it down to the level of elementary teachers. The thinking is to take a common text, i.e. a read aloud (excerpt) that has already been read to the class, and use it to practice the art of close reading. Teachers would have mini lessons around a specific skill that they would like their students to focus on for a few days. We practiced this skill together while focusing on word choice, more specifically imagery. Here are some of the mini lessons that we created:

(Please excuse my messy handwriting and the scribbles!)

The idea is that on Day 1- students will just notice specific language that the author used to create an image in their mind and we'd discuss and chart those noticings. On Day 2- students will then categorize the images that they noticed to find patterns in the text. For example, we used an excerpt from Ray Bradbury's All Summer in a Day, and we noticed that the author created imagery around specific aspects of the text: the weather, Margot, and the other children. These images would be categorized. The next day, students would look at those patterns to create a deeper understanding of the text: what is the author's purpose for creating these patterns of imagery?

By using this method, students focus on a specific skill and a piece of a text to understand the whole. Students are engaging in a deeper thinking of texts. We are building thinkers and that deep thinking that students are doing through inquiry creates rigor by thinking about a text in a complex way. It is not about taking away the love of reading, as other methods seem to accomplish.

I will leave you with a quote from Lehman & Roberts (2014):
"Rigor is less about how challenging a text or task is, and more about what knowledge a student draws on to reason deeply."

What are your thoughts on Close Reading?

I'm back...

An Announcement...

I have yet to officially announce that I have decided to return to the world of Literacy Collaborative. As you may or may not remember, my district suffered from HUGE budget cuts last school year and with those cuts the majority of LC coaches lost their positions. It also caused the model of a coach to change drastically with only 2 primary LC's coaching 4 elementary schools. They would no longer be in a classroom for 2 1/2 hours a day and PD would only be offered (primarily) after school with limited participants due to many limiting factors. With all of this happening you are probably wondering...what about intermediate? Well, it fell to the back burner. Without a coach, the majority of teachers did what they felt comfortable doing. Some tried their best implementing what they knew or what they thought they knew, while others abandoned best practices and did what was easiest for them. By no means am I pointing fingers....no that's not it at all. I want people to understand the importance of having a coach. A coach helps to push you to do your best, be reflective, think about best practices, think about different possibilities, think about your students individually and what they need, help to think of ways to improve student achievement, provide you with the newest research and resources, and the list goes on. So you can only imagine what was happening to 3-5.

It frustrated me that people were saying that 3-5 teachers were "doing" LC without a coach. Well, if they fully understood LC, they would know that it is NOT something that you just DO. It is a model of best practices supported by research. The model has to include a coach and professional development...both of which were now nonexistent. So...no, LC was not happening.

I spent a great deal of time deciding what to do. I had endless conversations with my fellow coaches, colleagues, my mother, boyfriend, principals, superintendents, and friends. I knew that something had to change. Someone had to step up. I knew that many of my fellow coaches didn't want to do it and I fully understood their reasons, as many of them were my cons, as well. I was not happy with the validity of the program. A coach needs to practice their craft. While, I can model for teachers, to me it's not the same. And 4 schools? How would this work? In the end,  I've decided I have to do what I can and hopefully it will help and make a difference.

With all of this being said...I think that it is time to announce that for the 2014-15 school year, I will be the Intermediate Literacy Collaborative Coach (3-5) for my district (4 elementary schools).

Here is our school's webpage...a work in progress:
http://www.vcsd.k12.ny.us/Page/9293

For more information about LC visit:

http://www.literacycollaborative.org/index.php

Summer Reading!

Good Morning! I was just thinking about the books that I am planning to read this summer and it got me thinking. What are your child(ren) reading this summer? I know I've blogged about this before (last summer). However, being that I've taught struggling readers for six years now, I can tell you that it is imperative that they read over the summer. Kids that don't read over the summer vacation can lose from 1/2 a year to a full year  of achievement. Think of it as a sport...how do you get better at basketball, football, etc? PRACTICE. And if you don't practice, you're rusty. The same thing happens with reading.

What can you do as a parent? Make reading a priority, NOT a chore!

• Set aside a designated time for reading
• Find fun, comfy places to read
• Make reading a family activity
• Make sure your kids see that you read and enjoy it
• Read with your child
• Talk about their reading, ask questions, have a conversation about their reading
• Share the book
• Start a book club
• Take a trip to your local library (they often have fun events planned)
• Take a trip to your local bookstore
• Read anything! Songs, poems, digital books, magazines, comics, recipes, menus, etc.
• Try Reader's Theater
• Play reading games
• Visit reading websites and apps 

Once reading becomes a part of your family's every day events...you will create a ❤ for reading and it will no longer be viewed as something your kids have to do and instead will be what they WANT to do.

Assessment to Drive Instruction

Typically when we think of assessment, we moan and sigh because we don't want to give our students another meaningless test. Especially when the data is not helpful or doesn't give us any insight into our students. Instead, we must use meaningful assessment tools to help us drive our instruction to meet the needs of our students.

At our conference day this past May, we presented the 6+ 1 Writing Traits from the work of Ruth Culham. Through the use of assessment, we can determine the traits in which we need to focus our instruction to help meet the NEEDS of our students!

Assessment helps to...

• create a shared vocabulary
• determine what "good" writing looks like
• assess with consistency and accuracy
• provides meaningful feedback
• students begin to be self-evaluators
• aligns assessments with instruction and writers' needs 

                                                                                                                (Culham, 13)

In September, give your students the 6 Traits Writing Assessment (Spandel).  Score each student in each trait using the 6 Trait Rubric (In our district we have opted to use our own district rubric that is similar to the 6 traits).  Look for commonalities. In what area do the majority of your students need instruction? Start there! This will help determine your writing minilessons for September. Then, you can begin creating small guided writing groups and individual conferences around the other areas you notice.

Keep your data! Make a spreadsheet for each trait. This will help to guide your instruction throughout the school year. 

Things to keep in mind:

• Traits can spiral
• You can teach specific traits for different genres
• You don't have to focus on all the traits at once 

Assessment should be meaningful, informative, and worthwhile.

Have you tried teaching the 6 Traits in your classroom? How has assessment helped you in Writer's Workshop?

-Launa Kruithof

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

 Celebrating Dr. Seuss

    How are you celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday with your students?  Even though March 2nd is on Sunday this year, you can still celebrate with your students. In the intermediate classroom you can incorporate one of my favorite biographies, The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss, as a read aloud. Your students will learn about the many different obstacles Ted Geisel overcame to become one of the most famous authors for children. Note: The timeline in the back of the book is highly informative and your students will love to hear about the many accomplishments of this author!

You could also do an author study with Dr. Seuss! Read aloud many of his books and keep a classroom list of things that you notice about the author's style. Students can jot down this down in their writer's notebook in case they would like to try some of his "style" in their writing. In writer's workshop, writers can then try out his style in their writing. They can write their own short story, poem, or add onto one of his stories. What would happen next if the story were to continue? Don't forget to encourage and incorporate illustrations! Dr. Seuss is well known for his unique characters in his texts. The ideas are endless! Remember have fun with it and try to make it authentic! Throw out the worksheets!


Here are some other websites that you may be interested in visiting:

http://www.seussville.com/
http://www.biography.com/people/dr-seuss-9479638
http://drseussart.com/

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!)