Launching the Writing Workshop
Writing Process for Upper Elementary Grade
Writers
Grades 6-8
Launching the Writing Workshop
 Introductions
 Sharing: Personal Narrative
 Model & demonstrating
 Partner introductions & sharing
 Writing: How are you feeling about your experience so far?
Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5
Writing Choice:
Write about a time when writing was successful or
empowering to you…. OR
2. Write about a time when writing was frustrating or did not
feel good to you.
1.
Be prepared to share your experience with a partner.
I. Starting the Writing Workshop
 Connection
 Begins minilesson – how it will fit into their lives as writers
 Celebrate the wonderful memories that fill the classroom, but remind
students that the goals is not only to remember but also to think.
 Teaching Point: tell students what you’ll be teaching them
 Teaching
 Next – something they’ll use often as they write
 Demonstrate a strategy we use to write with greater accuracy, fluency and
comprehension.
 Use an example of one child’s work in order to show the steps a
writer can take in order to generate and shape expository sections of
a text.
Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5
I. Starting the Writing Workshop cont’d
 Active Engagement
 Then give all students a quick opportunity to try what we’ve taught…
 Set students up to examine one student’s draft, looking for the
structure in it
 Review the steps this student took to structure her writing and
timeline her thoughts, steps that you also hope other writers might
take
 Link
 To bring closure, we usually link the minilesson to what the class learned on a
previous day…
 Jot a note in the margin and keep going. Remember the writing
process involves drafting, then researching, analyzing and deciding,
then making and revising plans.
Writing
 What are the big things you think about?
 Record three.
 Pick a small moment. Choose one to write about.
 Which aspect of a small moment had most high emotion or
conflicting emotion?
 Make a connection to the personal narrative. Make a ‘movie’
and act it out – play and make meaning.
 What are the emotions from your small moment?
 Record them.
 What are the conflicting emotions?
 Record them. Expand on one of these emotions.
Share:
 Mid-workshop (mid-interrupt strategy) to add a new piece
from the group
 Complement a place of success to build on positive in
conference
Discussion & Sharing
 Who is the reading for – audience?
 Mini-lesson attributes & set up
 Personal narrative
 Small moment
References
Predictable Problem
Possible Solution
Writer’s feel stuck or have no ideas
CHART that lists generating strategies – posting &
directing students to them
Talking conference – get the writer talking ‘edging the
to a story, interrupt them – ‘your ready to go’
Writers not writing with enough volume (stamina)
Put a dot or # in the margin (clear short term goal)
Goal setting
CHART – teach task
Partnership protocol - teacher can choose partner
Rush with hands up – clear from teacher – expect get
started on own, teacher not attend to hand right away
Teacher dependency
Talking not writing
Writer with multiple ideas – how to pick a seed idea
Use anchor texts for teachers
Sharing time, protect time, child want to share
Practice, practice, practice, more clear & productive,
maintain tone/ silence signals
CHART – pin point
Read alouds
CHARTS
II. Generating More Writing pg 15
 Minilesson
 Connection
 Teaching
 Active Engagement
 Link
Launching the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5
3. The Writing Process for UpperElementary-Grade Writers
 Teaching 8-, 9-, & 10 year-olds the Writing Process
 Read pages 12 & 13 to yourself
JIGSAW – Chapter 3: Each member reads two sections to share
with whole group
 Pacing & Materials
 Rehearsal for Writing
 Drafting
 Revision
 Editing
 Cycling through the Entire Process
A Guide to the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5
Linking Reading and Writing
 Writers can start a story
by describing the setting.
We can name the time
and place, but we can take
this further as in…
 Lois Lowry’s - Crow Call
Linking Reading to Writing
 Writers use gestures,
postures, and facial
expressions to show the
emotions that our characters
are experiencing.