Penny Kittle Writing Workshop: A Magnetic Attraction
pennykittle@roadrunner.com






one week to buy a journal of your choice for the year (ask what
parent book talk
compressed autobiography into (frisbee – floating through life) an object that represents their life
(written on an old guitar) (thanksgiving dinner and assigned places and changes that ocurred after
her parent's divorce)
book talk every single day
goal: reading becomes a habit (100 pages/week)
mentor texts/novels: model/use genre study
Keep individual portfolios in classroom and bind in the end – electronic

Daily planning includesat should you
Every monday hand the kids the schedule:
Predictable Daily/Weekly Structure:
1. Agenda: Unit goals and expectations...What should you be learning this week?
2. Reading: book talk and SSR (silent reading)
 How many pages do you read in 10 minutes? Calculate your reading rate for 1 hour.
 Assign that many pages per week.
3. NotebookWork: Choice
-Quickwrite
-Poem of the day
4. Mini lessons
 mentor texts: reading instruction based on REALWORLD READING MATERIALS
 my process
 revision
 grammar
5. Workshop
 conferring
6. Sharing lines
 symphony share (ok, let's start our symphony share – previously assigned cool lines, etc.)
Digital Storytelling: 3 week unit
text, image, sound, video: 4 elements
sets mood and conditions, evidence, tieing it all together with images
BOOK TALKS
one a day, share what you love, summarize, read a little
drive what kids read
chart in the back of the room
WRITERS NOTEBOOKS
 back pages are for keeping track of books (plan to read)
Student Name Book Title Monday Wednesday Thursday Friday Total Pages
(This goes around daily and is recorded – adjusted to reading rate)
How do you know if this book is a good fit for you?
“Unlimited choice is no choice at all...”
Notebooks are dedicated to perpetual sketchyiness
collage: things that they care about - (outside cover then covered with contact paper) always a source
of inspiration if you are stuck

write without stopping for 10 minutes to improve your own stamina and fluency
quickwrites...absolutely impacts students' belief that they can write
 shut off the inner editor in you...let it go
 write for 10 minutes (like we did after reading the poem: Where I'm From – george Ella Lyon) and
then using a colored pencil, circle, underline things that you want to doo more with, write more,
extend, etc.
 reread and engage by revisiting short written pieces: like you circled DAD, now take 5 minutees
and just write about that
 Revision is not cleaning up AFTER the party – REVISION IS the PARTY!!
 like – take your favorite line and make it even better
 critical rereading of the writing
 teacher writes at the same time as the kids EVERY TIME!! not check papers...
 sometimes have short share time
Quickwrite ideas:
- Think of a photograph that has personal meaning to you. Tell the story of that potograph: who
is
in it? What is happening?
 Collage: tell why you chose to put these things in the collage
 Freewrite about the research topic that you are working on – with no particular format
 Write about what makes you different.
 Ask for feedback on your own writing piece and note their comments in your notebook to
model editing, revising.
 Stephen King's Babysitter Blues essay: anything that you remember about a babysitter
 What narcissism means to me...
 Write a letter to someone that you are annoyed with
 Are you up for a challenge? (Rick Reilly)

(Are you going to read this? Are you going to gradde this? If there is really something that you
don't want me/others to read – fold the page. Take a grade every couple of days.)
INTEREST JOURNALS: grab one that you want, read, and go for it!
 topics like: internet, facebook, first dates, marriage,
 do this every so often...
From Quick Writes to topics: discussa colleaguew something in your qw might be worth pursuing as an
essay: where do YOU have more to say?
Try the structure for your idea in talk
READING LIKE A WRITER
Katie Woods Ray – Wondrous Words – 1999



Notice what the author did to craft his/her text.
Read this and note: (color-coded key) where the suthor ...
What did you notice that I missed? (show them a piece that you've written all over)