Awakening Brilliance in the Writer's Workshop

Using Notebooks, Mentor Texts, and the Writing Process

Lisa Morris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781596671959
• eBook ISBN: 9781317925095
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Master teacher Lisa Morris invites you to share her secrets of success with writer's workshops. After years of experimenting with the workshop model, she has developed the most effective ways to apply it in the classroom, yielding higher test scores and increased student engagement. Through practical, step-by-step instruction, Morris demonstrates how to use writer's notebooks, mentor texts, the writing process, and the 6 traits. Specific topics include:

• setting up the classroom for workshops
• creating a writing curriculum
• creating guidelines, expectations, and lessons for using notebooks
• helping students select ideas, brainstorm, and plan
• assigning writing partners and organizing sharing
• getting students to self-reflect
• creating process and product portfolios
• finding resources for publishing
• holding effective writing conferences

The book also offers an array of invaluable tools, such as

• student writing samples
• mini-lessons for each stage of the writing process
• lesson plans
• pacing guides for dividing your time during the workshop
• sample charts to help you stay organized
• suggested classroom guidelines and handouts
• a list of mentor texts, organized by what you can use them to teach (e.g., adjectives, alliteration, onomatopoeia, beginnings, endings, strong verbs, sensory details)
• quotations on each stage of the writing process to motivate students

Chapter One

The Fundamentals of the Writing Workshop

“Children deserve to be explicitly taught the skills and strategies of effective writing, and the qualities of good writing.”

—Lucy Calkins

What Is a Writing Workshop?

If I were asked to give a formal definition of a writing workshop, I would define it this way:

• A sustained, daily writing on topics that are mostly self-chosen because students’ comfort lies in what they know best.

• Writing for purposes and audiences that the writer values and understands. (See Author’s Purpose on page 2.)

• Playing around with language and learning how to craft writing.

• Conferring with students and responding to their writing with explicit language.

• Celebrating what students have done well, and teaching them the next steps for moving forward.

• Modeling what real writers do to make a piece engaging for the reader.

• Guiding students through the writing process, always focusing on the process instead of the product. (See The Writing Process on page 2.)

• Publishing for real audiences.

In other words, the writing workshop invites students to do all the things a writer does.

Author’s Purpose

The writing workshop also holds to the belief that writing is for a purpose and for an audience. This purpose and the audience give the writing the “voice” that it needs. If my students are working on a persuasive piece of writing, then their purpose is to prove “why,” and I should hear that theme reflected in the writing.

I like to give my students an “author’s purpose” reference chart that helps them determine the intended audience and the purpose of the piece they are working on. (See Figure 1.1 below.) I have this same chart displayed in my room. The PIEES mnemonic device is easy for students to remember.

For each different author’s purpose, the voice changes. Many teachers come speak to me after one of my county workshops, asking how to show students what “voice” means. My two suggestions:

1. Expose students to a variety of literature that represents each of the authors’ purposes. The more students hear the differences between the purposes, the easier it will be for them to add voice to a piece of writing.

2. If teachers allow students the freedom to choose what topics to write about, the voice will be natural and the passion for the self-selected topic will be evident. Choice equals voice. Caring about a topic has a lot to do with how good the writing will be.

The Writing Process

I feel it is necessary to elaborate a little further on the steps in the writing process. There are many variations to the writing process. The steps I teach my students seem a little less traditional than the standard prewrite, draft, revise, edit, publish, and share. When Donald Murray, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, teacher, and author identified the steps in the writing process, he clearly wanted writers to make the steps their own. He feared that even naming steps could create rigidity. He hoped it would not.

Figure 1.1 Author’s Purpose (PIEES mnemonic)

Over the past several years, the focus of writing instruction has shifted from product to process. There are numerous ways to model this multistep process. The most common model is the first one, shown in Figure 1.2 below. It was created by Donald Murray and involves five steps of the writing process. The models shown in Figures 1.3 and 1.4 consist of only three steps. The models shown in Figures 1.5 and 1.6 (page 4) are longer and involve more than five steps.

Figure 1.2 Donald Murray (1982)

Figure 1.3 Donald Graves (author/researcher, 1975)

Figure 1.4 James Britton (researcher, 1970)

Figure 1.5 Vicki Spandel (teacher, writer, developer of the 6 Trait model, 1984)

Figure 1.6 Amy Ludwig (Teachers College Reading and Writing Project)

The writing process is not completed in sequential order. Some steps are repeated within one journey to publication. To me, the worst mistake a writing teacher can make is to “corral” students together through the steps, hoping that the products will be completed at the same time. When teachers say they use the writing process, it probably means they are describing it. Unless teachers are modeling the steps, students are not fully grasping the process. The writing process we use in my classroom consists of 12 steps, shown in Figure 1.7, below.

There is no one process for writing, but I have found that the one I use in my classroom combines the important components needed for the journey to publication. It may seem intimidating to some teachers because of the number of steps, but in actuality, it has simplified my teaching of writing and given a clear focus for my students. Writing is not by nature a speedy activity but a reflective one. I want to make sure I allow my students the beauty of time to reflect, self-assess, and share with others. Donald H. Graves, a pioneer in education, says, “The best change occurs slowly and comes from teachers themselves. It takes longer but it lasts.” The process that I have designed and that we use in my classroom provides these reflective moments, and the change I see in my students as writers is measurable in their attitudes, scores, and state mandated test results.

Figure 1.7 My Classroom Writing Process

Why Establish a Writing Workshop?

I always like to answer this question with a simple, yet poignant story called “The Red Flower,” shown in Figure 1.8 on page 6.

Teaching students how to write is hard. In my experience, students who are given choice and ownership in their writing will step up to meet the expectations of the teacher. The accountability is there because the teacher respected the thoughts and ideals of the student. It’s as if by allowing choice and freedom of what to write, the teacher is saying, “I value you, and I respect the writing choices that you make.” Teachers want students to care about their writing, and in a writing workshop, where students have a sense of ownership and personal investment as well as a safe environment to explore their writing potential, this caring is evident.

Major Tools of the Writing Workshop

To set up a successful writing workshop, there are several major tools that need to be in place right off the bat.

• A writing environment

• A predictable schedule

• A writer’s notebook

• Mini-lessons

• A supportive community of writers

• Student and teacher models

• Mentor texts

• Methods for conferencing

• Strategies for sharing

• Units of study

A Writing Environment

I am a product of my environment. I write best in an area that is quiet and organized. If my environment is chaotic, I will more than likely not produce my best writing. I also want to be comfortable in order to do my best work. I have found that most students are not much different. Let’s take a closer look at:

• A meeting spot

• Housing materials and tools

• Arrangement of desks

• Special writing spots

Figure 1.8 Why a Writing Workshop?

A Meet...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication and About the Author
• Table of Contents
• Free Downloads
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Fundamentals of the Writing Workshop
• Chapter 2: Using Mentor Texts to Create Curriculum
• Chapter 3: Practicing in the Writer’s Notebook
• Chapter 4: Collecting and Selecting Ideas in the Writer’s Notebook
• Chapter 5: Marinating
• Chapter 6: Drafting and Sharing
• Chapter 7: Ideas for Revision
• Chapter 8: Polishing, Publishing, and Portfolios
• Chapter 9: Conferencing with Confidence
• References
• Quotes from Authors (organized by stage of the writing process)
• Lists of Mentor Texts (organized by teaching topic)