Day 1- Who I Am As a Writer
Just like with anything we do in our classroom, students must be introduced to why and how. This is true for Writer’s Workshop and those first few days are a time to slowly introduce students to what Writer’s Workshop is and what it will look like in the classroom.
The first day is a good day just to get to know your students feelings and thoughts about writing. Begin by having your students come to the carpet. I would also use this time to review any expectations for how you move to the carpet and also how you sit during this time.
Begin with a Read Aloud
After we have reviewed expectations for how we sit at the carpet, I will begin our time with a Read Aloud. I plan to use Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown. Before I begin I will ask students to think about what Arthur learns about writing as they listen to me read.
Check out the links below for the Amazon link or the Video Read Aloud link for this book.
Think-Pair-Share
After the read aloud, it is time to work on Think-Pair-Share. Once again it is a good idea to either review expectations for Think-Pair-Share if you have already discussed them, or introduce these expectations. Make sure to discuss that this is something that you will ask them to do a lot in writing workshop. They will be discussing what they are learning about being a writer or they will be sharing their writing with partners. It is a good time to remind them the importance of sitting facing their partners, taking turns and listening to each other.
The following is a link to a great resouce on teaching students to use this strategy. Even if you are familiar with this strategy, I highly recommend checking out the the information at this link and the video included. The video is a great example of a teacher demonstrating using this strategy.
Have students share with their partners what Arthur learned about writing in this story. After you have given a few minutes for partners to share, have a few students share out loud what they discussed with their partners.
Now it is time to explain to students that they will be doing lots of writing this year. Sometimes I will tell them what to write about, but other times they will get to choose what they write about. They will also have time to talk with classmates and share what they are writing about and what they are learning as a writer.
Writing Interest Survey
Next, I will pull up a writing interest survey on my Smartboard. I will explain to students that I want to learn about them as a writer and in a few moments they will go back to their seats to complete their surveys. I will go over the questions they will be answering and ask them to think about their honest answers to each questions as I read them.
Students will then return to their seats to complete the survey as I read each question. This survey will give me valuable insight into how each student feels about writing and will help me as I prepare future lessons.
Click the image below for a simple writing interest survey I created to use in my classroom.
As you can see, the first day is just a simple introduction to writing workshop in our classroom. Be sure and check back soon as I go into what will happen on day 2 as we discuss “The Heart of a Writer”. Until then…
