Chapter 1 -5 Using the Writer's Notebook in Grades 3-8: A Teacher's Guide engage in an online discussion group on our class blog.
1)propose “meaty” fat questions to discuss,
2) make connections to your teaching and work with students, and
3)Please respond to two of your classmates’s entries in your study group.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Ladies!
ReplyDeleteWell, I thought I would get a little bit of a head start. I am finding this book a very easy read, which is a refreshing change from other textbooks I've read for classes!
I used Writer's Notebooks for four years when I taught third/fourth grade. I found that it was initially difficult for my students to totally understand what the notebooks were and their purpose for being used if they did not have them in previous grades. They could not get used to the idea that their writing was not going to be judged or corrected. It is kind of sad to think that so many students are in fear of that!
I read in Chapter 2 about the importance of the teacher keeping their own Writer's Notebook, too. I admit, I always modeled my writing for my students on chart paper during each of my focus lessons. I also had my own Composition notebook, which I decorated to personalize it for me. However, it was difficult for me to keep up my entries in the notebook. I know this may sound weird because I actually love writing, but I rarely found the time to write in my own notebook! Is any one else struggling with this, too?
Jessica-
ReplyDeleteI agree compleatly, I start my writer's notebooks early in September. My children take home colored spiral notebooks, decorate and personalize them, we start making lists of writing topics, but as the year goes on, i find myself getting caught up in the genre or new type of writing and loose my notebook focus. In march i decided that the children should take out their notbooks when they come in first thhing in the morning and what for the first 20 min before morning meeting. This has been helpful in getting them to use their notebooks more. I wish I could keep my own notebook up to date to show them, but time is the biggest challenge, I can't write with them because i need to conference, and doing it on my own just never happens. Chapter 1 and 2 made me think that i need to spend more time modeling different way to use the notebook and really stick with it. Like with anything I do, i have a group of kids who love writing in their notebook and a group that really struggles with it.
Chapter 1 mentioned keeping a notebook for feelings, thoughts, reactions and memories. I currently have a reader's responce notebook where my children keep their reactions to text, which i do like because I learn so much about what my children understood from their reading by reading these notebooks. Do you think these books should be combined?
I always had a separate notebook for writing and reading, too. I think that keeping them separate worked well for my students. Often, I would assess something they wrote in their reader's response journal such as a "CMT" like question for example. However, I always kept the writer's notebook free of teacher assessing, just as the textbook mentioned. I truly valued the idea that a notebook should be free of teacher judgement and a place where the kids could just write about their thoughts and opinions. For these reasons, I think you may want to keep them separate, just as you have been doing.
ReplyDeleteI was also thinking about chapter 3 which talked about Planting Seeds. I actually really enjoy this part of the workshop! I think I enjoy it the most because I am able to learn so much about my students as I listen to their seed ideas during the share portion of our workshop. Usually, I would designate the first week - 10 days of every new writing unit as our "Seed Writing" time. Each day, I would do a focus lesson on a new way to gather a seed idea and this seemed to work really well. So, by the end of the week - 10 days, the children gathered numerous new seed ideas from which they could write a story. If I do ever get back to teaching third grade again, I think I would also set a special time one night for homework each week to for the students to take their notebooks home to write in. In my current school and the school I taught in the for the past five years, most teachers are on board with the Writer's Workshop approach using the Writer's Notebook. However, it is hard when some students enter my class with no experience from the previous year with Writer's Workshop. It is hard to combat the resistence that some teacher have in using the Writer's Workshop approach. What are your experiences with this in your school?
Hi Ladies,
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I am really enjoying this book. I took the writing course a few years ago and we discussed Fletcher's book quite a bit. Many of the people in the class said their district required them to use the book in the classroom as an instructional tool. So, I bought the book and high expectations. While the book has some ideas from which I can pull, I really felt like the overall expectations werent realistic for our population. This book really breaks down the various aspects of having a writer's notebook, which I find really helpful. I often struggle as a teacher on how to break down the big picture...and this book really does it nicely! I especially like how the author introduces so many ways of generating ideas...on the inside of the front cover I started keeping track of ways to generate ideas and on the inside of the back cover, I started keeping track of ideas to write about. I student taught with a teacher that used to keep a separate writing center, always stocked with fun pencils, erasers, and a bulging folder of newspaper clippings, pictures, quotes, and any other odds and ends. The students used to love using the fun pencils and erasers, that they often werent burdened with the idea of writing. Perhaps it might be something to try in my own classroom!
While taking the writer's course, I introduced writer's notebooks to my students, a few months into the school year. Writing has never been my srength, and without any curriculum to help guide my instruction, I often find myself overwhelmed. So when I introduced the idea of writer's notebooks, my students were very resistent. I blocked a time each day, offered a topic, and we wrote. I kept a notebook as well, and always shared along with my students. We complimented each other's ideas, and thanked each student for sharing. After months of this routine, their writing really seemed to improve. While the students were finally writing and sharing ideas, we never took their work to the next level...revising, editing, publishing...So I will be curious to see how the author makes that transition from ideas to published projects.
Jenna, in response to your question about combining the notebooks, when I did use the writer's notebooks, I incorporated it throughout the content areas. If they wrote responses to Science, SS, fieldtrips, LA, they used their writer's notebooks (it helped with organization, genres, and writing too many times a day was overwhelming for them). As Chapter 1 mentioned, a writer's notebook is supposed to help kids connect with their feelings, emotions, and experiences...and we hope that reading responses can evoke all those same aspects...as well as connecting to their own experiences. Try it, and see if it works. If it doesnt work for your instructional style, you can always go back...
Jessica, I really like your idea about spending the first few weeks "planting seeds"...it gives kids so many resources right from the start. You could also post the different ways on a chart similiar to the Strategies chart mentioned in the first vignette. This way, during Writer's Workshop, kids have not only a visual resource, but the peer support.
ReplyDeleteYou also pose a good point about keeping the notebooks separate which answers my larger question about what to assess. Do you keep the writer's notebook judgement free for the entire school year? Do you use their entries to launch more formal writing assignments? (and if so, where do they write those ideas?) How do you approach the student, who after months of modeling and sharing, still has not progress (or perhaps isnt motivated to progress) in their writing?
HI Stacey!
ReplyDeleteYou ask some good questions. Here is what I do (which of course is always open to revision). I do keep the notebook judgement free for the entire year. What I do assess are the children's actual Writer's Workshop pieces. Here is what I do: for every writing unit (personal narrative for example) I use the first week for writing seeds. In Week 2, I have my children choose a seed that they want to turn into a longer writing piece (story) and begin drafting. Each day my focus lesson concentrates on some aspect of drafting. In Week three, the children usually revise their piece and my focus lessons are about revision strategies. In Week 4, my focus lessons are about editing andthe kids edit their piece as well as write their final draft. We then have a Writing Celebration to share our writing pieces. These final pieces that have gone through the drafting process, revision, editing, and then brought to a final copy are scored on our district's writing rubric. The next month, the genre may change for writing (realistic fiction, informational writing, etc.) but the process is still pretty much the same. I hope I wasn't too wordy and that this helps!
This is what I usually did when I taught third and fourth grade. This year in Kindergarten,it is very different but I know you said that your students were intermediate level.
Hi Jessica...
ReplyDeleteI would love for our school to invest in training for a writer's workshop model...it sounds like the structure and guidance is exactly what we need! I like the idea of just picking a seed from the writer's notebook...in what do they compose their actual piece to be assessed? When do you work in the time to conference with the kids (do you conference for Writer's notebook or during workshop?)
Hi Everyone-
ReplyDeleteI think without really knowing it I structure my writer's workshop the same way that Jessica does. I do find that some of my students like using the packets of double lined paper with room for pictures so some children keep more of their writing in their folder. One silly tip that worked great this year was after a week of planting seeds, and working to write many different ideas, I had my kids choose their story that thought they would want to publish. I immediately put a smiley face sticker on top of the story. I could then refer to the story they would be drafting as their sticker story since when you are studying personal narratives for example, the children are writing on many topics. Their "sticker stories" would get revised an eventually published.
Stacey-
I find conferencing to be the hardest part of the workshop, Reggie Routman's book that I read for my writing class helped me put it in perspective. There are many ways to conference. I made a class chart with boxes and I try to get around to everyone every few days. I leave myself notes of students that need longer conferences of trends that I might be able to address in a mini lesson rather than many conferences. The children have to read their story to themselves and to a partner before they can meet with me for a final conference, this helps make their papers more readable and allows me to see more students, they also learn more about the revising process by fixing some of their own mistakes.
If it makes you feel any better my school hasn't invested in any training either, we are supposed to read the book, put all our materials together and just do it. There is a great set of books- Units of Study for Primary Writing By Lucy Calkins, its great for getting started. I think there is also a 3-6 version aswell.
Does anyone else have conferencing tricks, especially for that final conference near the end of the unit?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteUgh. Blog mishaps. My boyfriend's profile popped up, so I copied it to paste it under my own profile and now I can't find it....here's my test.
ReplyDeleteSo what I had said the first time was that I enjoyed reading these chapters, it was definitely a quick read and made me think about how I approach writing in my own classroom. I can see my anxious, reserved, and reluctant writers responding to a writer's notebook. In the first chapter the author mentions the writer's notebook as a way to develop a sense of self, "a place to make sense of their lives and to savor their lives" (p.2) A writer's notebook could be the source that some of my students need to vent about their experiences and sort it out on paper. One of statements that was made in the beginning of chapter 3 definitely hit home with some of my thoughts on my students writing. I always attributed resistance to writing to a lack of life experiences to draw on. However, chapter 3 began with a quote that says "it is our job to validate their lives by honoring their thoughts, feelings, and daily experiences whether or not they fit with our preferences or values" (p.15). I can picture a few students taking advantage of a judgment free outlet for their thoughts and feelings, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I can recall having a journal in my 5th grade English class where our teacher gave us the option to fold our page in to indicate a private piece we did not want read. I wonder now if she ever did read them? Next week I am going to do a trial run of a writer's notebook, using my students' current writing books. I plan to tell students they should take the opportunity to write about anything that is on their mind, even negative thoughts. I want to tell students to fold a page in if they do not want their piece to be read at all and to dog ear the page if they want me to read it, to understand what is going on in their lives, but do not wish to discuss it further. One question I have after reading these chapters, and maybe it was addressed and I just missed it, is, would this be the only writing outlet students would engage in? Would students have a separate writing book which addressed spelling, grammer, content and organization of written pieces? I also wonder how my students would do with a task with such vague expectations and little accountability.
ReplyDeletehello again ~ after reading your comments about your own readings I am thinking the writer's notebook would be separate from any other content area writing outlets. I would imagine the writer's notebook to be used every morning as a way to clear your mind for the day, or at the end of a day to clear your mind before you leave school. I would envision a separate writer's book for answering prompts and a way to address the content, organization, and mechanics of writing. Though it could be confusing at first, I think with a routine and clear expectations for each writing source, students could benefit.
ReplyDeleteHey Everyone!
ReplyDeleteStacey, you had asked where I draft my students' writing pieces. After they choose a seed from their notebook to turn into a longer story, they begin writing out of the notebook to draft. I just give my students lined paper. When the whole process is complete and they have drafted, revised, edited, and produced a final copy, I grade it and stick it in their writing portfolio. Each child has a writing portfolio, it is simply just a folder for each student where I keep all of their finished pieces. They take them home at the end of the year so they have a collection of their writing to keep.
I agree with Jenna that conferencing is always difficult. I tend to do mine in different ways. When I tuaght third grade, I would go around to about five students each workshop, pull a chair next to their desk, and have an individual conference with them. I kept a class chart on a clipboard and I would write myself notes about their areas of strengths and weakness. Sometimes, I would also conference in a strategy group. I would work with a small group of students (3-5) who all needed help with a particular skill. This is the way I tend to conference now that I teach kindergarten. I hope this is helpful!
Hi everyone-
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading chapter 5 about all the different books that could be used as seeds to help students write, I couldn't help thinking about wanting to do much more of that next year. Many of the books that I currently use for teaching text connections were listed as books for seeds. The new curriculum we are using next year has a 6 week launching unit in it, I think that the ideas from this book are going to be perfect for that unit. Are their other books that you use as seeds that might be even more appropriate for our young children? One i thought of was Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, for "names"
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! I definitely want to make a better effort to use mentor texts in Writer's Workshop as well as Reader's Workshop. It is so valuable to kids to see how actual writers write! One book I have used is Stand Tall Molly Loud Melon. I use it to have my kids write seeds about what make them unique, just as the book talks about how Molly Lou Melon is unique.
Jessica-
ReplyDeleteI love that book, great idea! That will be perfect for the beginning of the year.
Thanks
It sounds like the idea of using "seeds" helps kids find a topic to write about and stick to it. Do you give students their seed and say, today our topic is going to be about names? or whatever the connecting book focuses on? Are kids limited to write to this topic, or is it only to help students who are reluctant or struggle to generate topics? Hopefully we will have a chance in class to review different writing outlets, and the expectations and limits for each.
ReplyDeleteI liked the way many of you keyed into particular ideas in the text and connected to your own work. I think tht it is important to respond to each other's comments and questions to delve more deeply into the ideas. I only saw a bit of that.
ReplyDelete