Reflections on today's writing

I hope everyone has had a chance to see this site and look forward to your comments and ideas. The lesson today was a very August "beginning-type" lesson with a lot thrown out at once for fear of running terribly over the time limit. You know your children much better and understand what their capabilities are and how much support you need to provide much better than I do. Some groups may be more ready than others to start learning blends, chunks and vowel patterns. Mini lessons can be designed by you based on the need you see the day before during writing workshop. This process is a scaffolded process. I was impressed with the independent writing I saw today.


Writing Workshop really is designed and runs better to be done in a small group setting. I always managed this in afternoon workshops that gave children the opportunity to work exclusively in small groups. Two were teacher led and three were independent. I varied content so some were literacy, math, science, social studies etc. and I always did writing. My assistant would also use the conferencing techniques when she did writing at her small group table. During whole group conferencing, it is almost impossible to get to each child in that small amount of time. I would always just try to make sure that I would get to the children the next day that I was not able to see that day. It is also helpful to have something else at the table they can work on while they wait to conference. That keeps engagement a little higher. It might be read a book or work on a skill and concept page. As their writing skill increases, they stay engaged with the writing because they can do it without as much adult support. Journal writing was always a way that I demonstrated some of the thinking process that goes into writing and to indroduce new concepts and add new words to the word wall.

I would like to do some more journal writing tomorrow and would like to use a small checklist to assess their writing authentically while we are conferencing. We will staple it right to their writing after they finish. Could we get some staplers handy?

Saw some cool things from children with IEP's today as we supported their writing. One child who had been used to tracing an adult's drawing pointed to a simple vocabulary picture book and found what they wanted to draw and proceeded to look at the picture and draw it themselves. Then they wrote the word "I", traced the word like and then wrote the first sound of the item they drew! YAY! Another was very verbal about identifying their picture and how the people in the picture were feeling. Let's think about some more ways we can have the curriculum accessible to all children with even simple modifications like this. Great work.