Day 3.... The students wrote!

I am going to talk about both writing workshops as I begin because we followed a similar process in both. We began with the public conferences I described yesterday, another form of we do it. I explained that we were going to do some conferences to help us get started writing and that a student would sit beside me in front of the class.  I would ask questions and talk with that student about what they were going to write about and how they were going to get started.  If you wanted to do this, you could volunteer and the classroom teacher would select someone for me. The others were reminded that their job was to listen out of respect for their classmate and to listen for ideas they might use in their own writing.  After each conference, I asked the listeners what they had learned from the writer.  Their responses are starting to be more about what we can do as writers and less about content of the writing.

I recorded some key words on a sticky for each of the volunteers and explained how they were just a reminder, not something you had to copy.  It is still my contention that these notes cause me more trouble in K-2 than they are worth.  You almost need a modelling session on how to use the sticky note.    I am resisting this because it worked just fine at Grade 3.  If you use this strategy with younger students and have success... please share your secret.

After 4 or 5 conferences we sent off those ready to write and had a quick private conversation with those left.  I had the benefit of several teachers in the room.  If I had been on my own, they would have been just about how each writer would start, allowing me to quickly begin roving amongst the writers, stopping to read, celebrate and support.  My goal was to keep moving and I met it, although I must admit it took greater determination and self-control (on my part!) in Grade 2.

Grade 2
I did a Think Aloud about how I had decided when to change lines in our candy poem and then moved into the public conferences. When I sent them off to write, some students were able to start right away but many showed signs of needing more support.  Two issues seemed to be causing them pause:

• figuring out how to spell the words they wanted 
• the differences structurally in writing free verse poems and a journal entry or a story

After a few minutes of writing, I stopped them and shared a classmate's beginning.  I celebrated how he had been using his personal dictionary to look up every word and that when I reminded him of how we had stretched out delicious (dulishus) in our candy poem, he tried it with some words.  I encouraged them to use that idea in their own writing.  Five minutes later I stopped them and celebrated a classmate who was making his writing look like a poem and reminded them to try that as well.

Students continued to write and the teacher and I continued to circulate and encourage and support.  We came together for the last fifteen minutes of the day for some celebration conferences.  Again I asked a child to sit beside me, facing the group.  I chose some poems and writers to celebrate line by line, focusing on those that looked like poems and those where students had taken risks and tried to write the words they needed for their poem.  I told them that we would celebrate everyone, just not all today.The kids were clearly excited to celebrate each other and were a very appreciative audience.  We had conversations about what we were learning from each writer.  They see themselves as poetry writers.  

In our after school reflection we made a few decisions:

• Blank paper might help them move away from filling each line as it seemed that lined paper was providing too much structure for them to write free verse.
• They need more modelling and shared experiences.  Most of them were not quite ready to write on their own. 
• We need to focus on keeping yourself writing, using what you know to spell the words you want to use and making our writing look and sound like a poem.

Tomorrow we will spend significant time providing this support and then giving them another block of time for writing.

Grade 3
The frontloading, modelling and shared practice were just right for this group.  After our public conferences they all got started immediately with writing.  Assessment FOR learning at its most obvious.  The writing flowed out of almost everyone, they clearly understood the genre and the criteria.   Many finished in 15-20 minutes and we celebrated extensively.  Again, this was a teaching time, another opportunity to name and describe what is important in a book review... this time with a real live example.  I read each review twice and celebrated almost line by line.

The students were interested and excited to share and celebrate.  They knew they had written well because of the responses they were getting from the audience.

I have read the pieces we did not celebrate earlier and have made notes on what I want to celebrate when we get together tomorrow.  That will take the first 20 minutes or so tomorrow and then we will return to writing, some finishing, some revising and some beginning a new one.

Thank you to those responsible for reminding me to take photos today.  Enjoy our draft writing.