SmoothingOut the LayOut

I would love to implement writing workshop in my own classroom one day. Being the control freak that I am, I've been slightly worried about the structure of the workshop. I'm really glad that chapter 7 offered some tips for managing predictable distractions. One way to prevent absolute chaos in the writing workshop is to use classroom space efficiently. Having a space that is comfortable for students to meet as a class is super important. As a teacher, you can have assigned spots or a rotation to follow each week so students know where and how they are expected to sit during this time. Also, having a wide selection of resources for your writers in a designated area of the room will cut down on problems when resources are needed.

When chapter 8 said that writing workshop would always feel slightly beyond your control and messy, I almost decided to just give up on ever trying writing workshop. BUT I guess knowing that can actually be comforting and in a way, gives me a sense of control! I'm not sure if that even makes sense but needless to say, I still want to use writing workshop. The out-of-controlness doesn't mean that students are running around crazy! The workshop itself is actually very much structured in a flexible way! It just means that as the teacher of 18 or more students, you'll constantly be trying to keep up with where each young writer is in their writings. I think I can deal with that.

Knowing when and how often to set publishing deadlines for students is pretty scary. But one thing is for sure...Studnets MUST publish. Chapter19 made it clear that publishing doesn't require a big celebration for every piece published. Publishing just means that the piece is finished and made available to the public (newspaper, school library, classroom, parent newsletter etc.). It is important for teachers to give students a calendar of the publishing deadlines. This allows students to plan out their time in the workshop.

Conferring, Sharing, and Assessing...

Katie Wood Ray did a good job making the processes of conferring, sharing, and assessing seem not so scary. Before reading chapters 14, 15 and 17, I always thought of conferences with the teacher as a some-what formal and a whole-lot teacher telling you what you need to do next.  The only teacher conferences I've ever experienced in school were super intimidating. I just rememeber being called to the teachers desk where we "conferred" about what I was doing wrong with the assignment and what I needed to do to fix it. And that's about all I can remember. So when I read that teacher-student conferences in writing workshop shouldn't just be for students who are having trouble, I was a little surprised. But it makes sense because as teachers, we are supposed to use these conferences as a time to teach students, not just help them.  I really like the fact that conferences should take place at the students' desks instead of having the students come to the teacher.  This takes the edge off and makes the conferring seem  like exactly how its supposed to be: a conversation between the student and the teacher about how the writing is going. It is pretty helpful to know that conferences should be short and sweet but also meaningful to both the teacher and the student. The following acts are great components to conferring with students: Researching (listening to what the student says about their writing), Deciding (deciding what you can teach the student about writing that will be useful), Teaching (self-explainatory), and Recording (making note of what you taught student during this time).This is good stuff...it will be so helpful in my future classroom!

I'm really glad share time was addressed in chapter 15 because I recently was asked to share students' writings in a Kindergarten classroom. The teacher wanted me to go through and read all of the precious informational writings to the class. I've seen the teacher, and others, do this before and I wasn't really a fan of the format but I also wasn't so sure of the best way to have share time. I asked the students if they would like to read their stories but most didn't want to. I think only 2 people stood up to read their stories. I think if the students had been given the opportunity to share their work themselves from the beginning of the year, they might feel more comfortable doing so. The book called this creating a "learning community" which I am all for! Students should be able to share their completed work with others so they can gain a sense of accomplishement and acknowledgement. After all, they are the ones who worked so hard on completing the writing. Why should the teacher get to read it for them? Doesn't this take away their sense of ownership? There are always going to be those who don't like reading in front of the whole class or sharing their work with everyone.  That's why I love Katie Wood Ray's different formats of sharing time. The Simple Response Share allows students to talk about their work instead of actually having to read the whole thing. The Survey Share is probably one of my favorites because students are asked to choose a sentence or a word that they think is particularly "well crafted." This way, students are choosing what they think is their very best to share with everyone.

Chapter 17 did a good job taking the edge off of the assessment part of writing workshop. I really liked the suggestion to have students explain what they think they deserve and why. I love having rubrics to refer back to when I am completing an assignment but I always worry that the teacher grading my assignment might not apply the rubric in the same way that I do. Allowing students to assess themselves and to back it up with explainations is great especially for writing assignments. I definitely want to do this kind of assessing in my classroom.