The Three Pillars of
Writers Workshop
NESA Spring Educators Conference
Bangkok, Thailand
April 4, 2011
Janine A. King
The Three Pillars of
Writers Workshop
• The Mini-lesson
• Individual Student Conferences
• Writers Notebooks
Janine A. King
Structure of a Workshop
Janine A. King
The Mini-Lesson
Short
Direct
One teaching point (posted)
Explanation
Modeling/demonstration/examples
Janine A. King
The Architecture of a
Mini-lesson
Teaching Point
Connection
Teach
Active Engagement
Link
Share
Janine A. King
Janine A. King
Mini-lesson Demonstration
What’s in a name?
Writers write about what they
know well.
Janine A. King
Conferring With Writers
Janine A. King
The Architecture of a Conference
Research
Compliment
Teach
Link
Janine A. King
Research
Instead of,
“How’s it going?”
ask
“What are you working on
in your writing today?”
Janine A. King
Compliment
Authentic
Specific
Keep in mind where you want to take this
student as a writer. (Remember… you
want to teach the writer not “fix” his or her
writing).
Janine A. King
Teach
Connect to the compliment
Small steps – take the writer from where
s/he is to the next step
Demonstrate or show an example in your
own notebook or draft
Give the student something specific to try
then wait for evidence of understanding or
check back in a few minutes
Janine A. King
Link
Apply your teaching point to writing in
general
Janine A. King
Record Keeping
Provides assessment information
Builds a profile of the student
Guides future conferences
Helps intentionally develop the student as
a writer and a reader
Janine A. King
Janine A. King
Janine A. King
Janine A. King
Types of Conferences
Content
Compliment
– “Keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working!”
Expectation
– when a student isn’t doing what they need to be doing
Goal
– Example: stamina
Inquiry
– “ Together let’s figure out some things you are working on and
where you might go with them.”
Janine A. King
Conferring Around Notebooks
RESEARCH
Look for:
– Habits
– Effort
– Generating
– Developing ideas/meaning
– Volume
– Stamina
– Growth
Janine A. King
Conferring Around Drafts
RESEARCH
Look for:
– Meaning
Why is this important?
Is it focused in on a small moment?
– Organization
Beginning, middle, end
Leads/conclusions
– Craft
Action
Dialogue
Inner thinking
Detail
Janine A. King
“Cheat Sheets”
What are the goals of the unit?
What are some common challenges of
the genre?
Janine A. King
Conferring Practice
“Student”
 Read the piece of writing and make it your own.
“Teacher”
Confer with the student and record the parts
of the conference. Remember…
• Hands off the writing
• Look for what is good.
• Teach the writer instead of fixing the writing.
Janine A. King
Writers Notebooks
The Heart and Soul of
Writers Workshop
Janine A. King
Writers notebooks…
give you a place to write every day to




explore your writing
take risks
record your thinking
note your observations of the world around
you
 practice living like a writer
Janine A. King
Getting Started
Janine A. King
What’s in a name?
Where does your name come from?
What do you like/dislike about your
name?
What about nicknames?
Janine A. King
This story makes me think of…
Think about a time something like this
happened to you.
What feelings did you have when you
listened to this story?
Janine A. King
Laundry Lists
Best Life Events
Worst Life Events
Notable Quotes
Interesting Words
Unusual Facts
Scary Stories
Janine A. King
Observations – Using Your Senses
“Your writers notebook can work as an
alarm clock to remind you to wake up and
pay attention to the world”
Ralph Fletcher
Janine A. King
Music to My Pen
“What is living if I can’t live free?
What is freedom if I can’t be me?”
Bonnie Raitt
Janine A. King
Tips
Keep your own writers notebook
Write regularly
Share your writing spontaneously
Praise effort – especially in the beginning
Be patient
Janine A. King
Caution
Prompts
Journaling or diary entries
Teacher handouts
Note taking
Lack of growth/change over time
Janine A. King
Resources
Mini-lessons
The Writing Workshop: Working Through the
Hard Parts (and They’re All Hard Parts)
by Katie Wood Ray and Lester L. Laminack
Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5
by Lucy Calkins
Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in
Reading and Writing Workshops Grades 4-12 by
Heather Lattimer
Janine A. King
Resources (continued)
Conferring
Assessing Writers by Carl Anderson
Notebooks
Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s
Notebook by Aimee Buckner
A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer
Within You by Ralph Fletcher
Janine A. King