Writing Workshop

  We will be off to Cancun in 4 days - 4 DAYS I tell you.  I could not be more excited to spend my mornings with a cup of coffee on the beach and a husband at my side. We are staying for a whole week at a hotel on the strip and are SO excited to be reconnecting with each other. We are praying for nice weather since right now it is currently tropical storming in Cancun - but the forecast looks promising.  With that being said, I have been busy this last week :)

 Since last year was my first year teaching, I felt like I was really just getting a "grasp" on everything. I didn't fully feel like I could commit myself to one subject because then all the rest would fall through since I've never worked through them all before. However, I felt really confident in reading since I have a minor in it, and I also felt pretty confident in math. I had the district math coach come a few times to help me with my CGI questioning but after those few visits I felt really confident to teach math. Writing on the other hand - don't judge me but it was awful. My kids were incredible writers at the end of the year (thank goodness) - but I really don't know how. I felt like I was drowning when it came to writing. I didn't even know really were to begin. I knew I wanted the Lucy Writing Workshop feel but I didn't really know what that really "looked like".  Sure, we talked about writing in college but not in depth like I would have liked - and I took it my sophomore year so by the time I got to my own classroom I had forgotten a lot. Luckily, our district has plenty of classes offered over the summer and one of them was for writing workshop. I could have jumped out of my chair when my dear friend emailed me to tell me about the class, and then to top it all off I could have jumped and screamed when I found out who was teaching the class.  So, my friend Kate and I decided we would tackle the class together. Kate is a first year teacher as well at another school and she teachers second grade.  We went to school together and became super close our senior year of and literally have been the best of friends ever since.  She is an incredible teacher and we love to build each other up in our adventures in the classroom. 

The class at first was incredibly overwhelming. There was so much information to process that first day that I didn't fully grasp everything.  The class was two days long and after that second day I had to just put the bag with all of the information and resources aside until I was able to process through it again.  Well, that day was today. I went back and looked through everything and finally feel like I am able to share a few things! 

Our district is using the Lucy Calkins Common Core Writing next year and our school has bought a guide for each teacher.  I actually kind of went through it last year during our opinion writing but didn't commit to it like I would have liked too.  This year, we are using it as a building and hopefully our team can dig through it and make the most of the lessons.  Her lessons are very long and don't really fit into the "mini lesson, writing time, sharing, conferencing" outline that I would like to do.  I'm planning on taking each lesson day by day and possibly splitting them up into multiple days.
 
Mini lesson are something that I struggled with alllll year.  I didn't really think I was doing my students justice. I didn't feel like I was teaching them what they needed at the time but instead just guessing and knowing that they would need it sometime (just maybe not right now).  And, I didn't think about what to use for it.  Mentor texts were always something I wanted to do, but not something I took the time to plan or investigate.  At this workshop however she gave us a plethora of mentor texts that she has used and thanks to Amazon, and friends with Prime a lot of them are coming  to my door for next year.  I plan on making a running list of standards or topics that each mentor text could work for - in writing and in reading - so that they can be used in multiple settings.  Some of the books I wouldn't have thought could work for a writing objective, but a lot of the things you need to teach at the beginning of writing workshop (procedures, routines, tools, publishing, etc.) can be taught through a mentor text and mid year last year I knew that my writing workshop time was not something I was proud of.  Next year, I plan to actually scope and sequence my quarters and months so that we spend a good amount of time in establishing those routines. I want to introduce writing folders (that I will need to make and will blog about eventually), writing toolkits, paper choice, and how to use a writing partner.

Conferencing is something I didn't feel I did my kids justice with this year either. Are you seeing a pattern yet? ;) They would get a writing goal but I didn't plan it out enough so that I could see them once a week and meet about that goal.  Some of them had goals for 3 weeks before we would meet again. This had something to do with my schedule as well - I didn't fully commit to that hour of writing workshop a day. And, it was hard to incorporate our district standards with the writing workshop of Lucy before this set came out.  That is something next year that I promise myself I will do. Even if it has to be split up, I will make sure they get at least 30 minutes of independent writing time a day.  Of course at the beginning of the year we have to build up stamina but eventually we will have that half hour a day.  Next year, I plan to meet with my kids at the beginning of the year individually, and then slowly start putting them into writing groups where they come up once a week to the table (that group of 5-6 of them) and I conference individually with them while they work at the table. Table time is something first graders think is SO cool, and they really get excited about group. That way my students are right there, and I can make sure that they get the attention that they need.  This will be the time where they will turn in a piece to me to get published.  I'm going to type up their pieces and then the following day they will illustrate them, and then put them in their writing scrapbook that will be made for them.

As I start putting things together - my writing toolkits, my writing scrapbooks, my writing folders and resources, my mentor text library, etc. I will blog more about them and the process!  I'm thankful to be so excited about writing again and getting tips on how to manage everything.  I am hopeful that next year I can have even a better writing experience and my kids can value how fun and exciting writing can be for them.

Until next time.