Writers Workshop

For the past two weeks have been working hard during Writers Workshop. We do Writers Workshop every Tuesday & Thursday. We begin our Writers Workshop time by going to the writing corner for a mini lesson. This is where I teach the students new strategies/traits they can use in their writing. Throughout the year the students will be learning six traits that will help them with their writing (Voice, Organization, Ideas, Conventions, Excellent Word Choice & Sentence Fluency). Within these traits the students will be learning specific strategies. To see what traits and strategies we have learned go to the "ELA" page. After the mini lesson the students pick a spot in the classroom and begin writing...during this time I will either be helping groups of students or having individual conferences. During writing conferences I discuss with each student what their goal is for writing and how they are going to achieve that goal. They pick their goal based on the strategies we have learned. After writing time students have a chance to volunteer and share their writing.

During writing time students have a "writing tools," booklet they can use to help them if they are stuck on a word. In this booklet students have access to an alphabet  chart, a jolly phonics sound chart, weekly words, days of the week/months of the year, number words and colour words. Writing materials are also provided to help students correct/edit their writing. For example, highlighters to highlight a word they know they spelled wrong, red pens to edit their punctuation and blue pens to add detail to their work.(We are still working on how to use our writing tools/materials properly). As the students become more efficient with Writers Workshop they will learn how to use writing portfolios to organize their work. In the next few months they will also learn the six writing stages (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, teacher conferencing & publishing). If you have any questions on Writers Workshop feel free to contact me! 

We worked hard during Writers Workshop today!