Skip to main content

Wednesday: Writer's Workshop, the Wonders and the Woes


So I've been meaning to post for awhile about writer's workshop last week, but like I said, I had to wrap my head around it first.  I am not exaggerating when I say I felt like we went ten steps backwards.  The week after Christmas my class was writing wonderful stories with beginnings, middles and ends, with clear illustrations and great details.  The week after... well, let's just say it wasn't pretty!

Here's some of my top woes from last week, with a few examples:

Books with No Titles/Sentences Instead of Titles

Books that Switch from List Books to Stories Halfway in Between

Books with a Title/Illustration that Doesn't Match the Story



 Books that Have No Story! (from the very same author who wrote "Santa Brings Me Presents" last week!)


So what happened?  Upon reflection, I discovered that my kiddos write best when it's an invitation.  They don't write nearly as well when they sit down with me in a small group rotation.  This was important in the beginning of the year when I was teaching them the routines of writer's workshop, but now they do best when they choose to make books on their own.  (I'm still always floating by, ready and waiting to see their wonderful new story, admire an illustration, or hear a great idea).  They don't need to hold my hand anymore.  For lack of better words, it cramps their style!

This week was back to normal.  Making books was an invitation on Monday and many of my kiddos gladly accepted!  Here was my absolute favorite this week: "ABC's of Animals".  It's a GREAT list book with all the identifying features of an ABC book!  Love love love it!  :)


The lesson I learned?  Sometimes it's best to take a step back and let kids do what they do best: create!  This can be really scary, especially as a first year teacher!  But it's totally worth it.

What are your experiences with writer's workshop in your classroom?  I'd love to find fellow PreK/Kindergarten teachers using the workshop model and swap ideas!

Have a good rest of the week!  :)  Don't forget to enter my giveaway for my new Transportation unit by commenting on the blog post here.  Till Friday,
Labels:

Comments

  1. Mrs. LeebyJanuary 16, 2013 at 8:13 AM

    We don't do Writer's Workshop, but we should. I am super impressed with your kiddos!

    Irene
    Learning With Mrs. Leeby

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There's No Place Like Space: Outer Space Adventures & Friday Freebie

TGIF!!!  What a week!  I absolutely adored seeing my kiddos learn about space, but this week was a toughie.  Sick and tired kiddos do not make for a happy class.  Everything kept going the wrong way: food spilled on the newly cleaned carpets, bloody noses on the newly cleaned carpets, bathroom accidents during the middle of centers, pink-eye working its' way around the room, forgotten materials at home, the printer at FedEx Office went haywire and messed up my play-doh mats, the copy machine at work broke, I broke the side mirror of my car coming out of the garage... Yikes!  I was seriously scared to leave my house this morning!  :)  So here's hoping the stars re-align this weekend and my class comes back rockin' and rollin' and ready to learn on Monday! With all that being said, it was still a fun and jam-packed week.  I loved overhearing one of my kiddos tell his parent, "Mom, did you know the sun is ACTUALLY a star?!?!"  And I got to...
29 comments
Read more

Food, Health and Hygiene Fun & TWO Friday Freebies!

My first ever parent teacher conferences are over and I survived! They actually went really well. Although, as many of my parents said, I talk to them so much anyways it wasn't like they were hearing anything new. What can I say? I'm so proud of their kiddos and constantly have to let them know about it! :) Our theme this week was all about Food and Health with a little bit of Hygiene. Overall the week went a lot more smoothly than I expected, being that I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off finalising details for conferences, putting together invitations for Pies with Grandparents next week, and trying to pick a holiday song for our class to sing at the Holiday Program because, as the office keeps kindly reminding us, Christmas is JUST AROUND THE CORNER. Makes me exhausted just remembering! Anyways, here's a look at some of the fun art, writing center, dramatic play, math and science stuff we did this week! Art: Vegetable Soup Stamping ...
265 comments
Read more

Families & Freebies on a Friday... err... Monday!

Happy Friday !  Er, Monday?  Well, originally I was going to post this on Friday but I had no time (big surprise, right?) so here it is on Monday!  Here's a peek at our fun Families unit from last week, with a few freebies for my bloggy family!  :) Art: George Washington Color by Number Many thanks to Maria at Kinder-Craze for this great freebie!  On Tuesday we learned a little bit about what a President does and why we celebrate President's Day.  Pick up Maria's great freebie at her blog by clicking here . Paper Bag Houses Love how these houses turned out!   Family Trees Some of my kiddos were even able to write most of the names on their family tree! Magazine Family Hunt Are you ready for your first freebie?  Click on the picture to grab your own copy of this fun family magazine picture hunt!  The kiddos cut out pictures of people in magazines and placed them in the category they thought fi...
35 comments
Read more