Introduction - Grade 4
Writer's Workshop is a teaching technique that invites students to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum. Ideally students are introduced to the process of writing in the early elementary grades and write daily through varied activities.
In Writer's Workshop, Upper Elementary students organize thoughts to create a story or write about a given topic and develop it into an understandable narrative with a voice and focus that present information to the reader. Upper Elementary students are able to use writing mechanics comfortably and the shift in their cognitive abilities to higher order thinking allows them to develop a more sophisticated sense of what makes good writing. While it is still important to allow students to choose a topic, students are now ready to learn about other types of writing such as persuasive arguments and compare and contrast assignments.
One big difference in Upper Elementary students is an ability to think through their options before starting the first draft. Peer conferencing is still useful to students, but it may not be as crucial in the overall process because older students begins to ask themselves the same questions a reader might ask. The Writer's Workshop format includes story planning (possibly with peer conferencing), revision, teacher editing, and direct instruction in the mechanics of grammar. As in the Third Grade classroom, this teaching technique allows students the opportunity to develop expression, revision strategy and skill in writing, and encourages them to try a few new things during the revision process. The Upper Elementary classroom Writer's Workshop format may also expect the student to work on a large assigned task from another area of the curriculum.
Teachers will notice that students in the Upper Elementary grades can write independently and fluently, ask themselves questions before writing and even shift from rewriting to rereading to revising on their own. A teacher may not see many first drafts because much of the work is being done simultaneously. Some students will require more supervision than other as skills are fully learned. Students can trust that the correctness of the final product is easy to achieve in the final edit.
The writing goals for the Upper Elementary student are the same as for the Third Grade student: to challenge the students to expand their ideas in the revision process not simply 'correct' the previous ones, to help students become aware of writing for different audiences, create focus within a topic and try to see the piece of writing fom a distance. One very important additional goal is for teachers to be sure revision strategies are well developed so students may use them comfortably in middle and high school. Computers continue to be the writer's most important tool for editing, correct spelling, and punctuation. Instruction
in formal outlines, story mapping and first drafts may done on the computer, and revisions certainly can be done effectively on a computer. Skills will still vary and progress at different rates, but students who are familiar with Writer's Workshop will have a regular opportunity to practice independent writing. They will benefit from seeing the power of their words to express thoughts and from the repeated activities of writing for a specific purpose.
Writer's Workshop can be paired with reading and research activities to create a powerful motivating tool when teaching literacy. In Upper Grades literature becomes an essential source to model good writing; a wise teacher will carefully choose the books used as sources. The opportunities across the curriculum for writing practice are endless and can be part of the daily Writer's workshop. In Writer's Workshop a teacher can quickly see a student's vocabulary level; organizational skills; their ability to learn, retain and apply information in new situations; attention span; and how a student's abilities grow through the year.
In the Upper Elementary Grades the main components of the Writer's Workshop is the same as the earlier grades, however, it will not seem as formal as it once did. The students will work much more independently. The format includes a Mini-lesson, Status of the class, Writing & Conferencing, and Peer Sharing & Author's Chair.
Mini-Lesson
A Mini- Lesson is usually a 5-10 minute whole class activity and may be as simple as doing guided writing from a story, or how revision codes are used. An example is to lay out a favorite story's events in beginning, middle, and end form, create an idea web featuring a book's plot, or formally present the use of ' mechanics' such as more complicated grammar parts and punctuation. Modeling good interviewing techniques is still appropriate because students will need to use them in their peer conferences.
Write and Confer
Writing & Conferring is ideally a 20 - 40 minute session. Upper Elementary students will easily use 40 minutes if they have been carefully introduced to the Writer's Workshop framework and they have a clear understanding of the expectations. Brainstorming sessions may still be the best way to come up with topics and ideas, and peer conferencing is still useful to the student. Often a discussion with another student can be enough to break through 'writer's block.' This is a good time to iintroduce the use of 'lead' sentences for beginning different paragraphs, this can help a writer structure the plot of the story. A good peer conference may inspire students to include additional details in their writing, and brainstorming sessions may provide many topics for the student's future use.
Sharing
Sharing usually takes 10 minutes and be done either by having the students read to the class a 'published piece", by children sharing their work in pairs, or by allowing students to read published works to themselves. Upper Elementary students may want to share a 'Work in Progress' or 'Revision' to get many different opinions for inspiration.
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