kimevans

Chapter 11 focuses on planning the writing workshop.  The planning starts with the predictability.  Children know they will start with group time, then have a large block of time when they can work on their own writing, by themselves or with a group of peers and they will have a share time.  Another important componet of planning for the  workshop is that time we spend at the beginning of the year teaching the student how the workshop "works".  Expectations, how to handle materials, work routines should all be established early on so the teacher can spend her time conferencing with students during their worktime block.  Woodray also suggest that teachers have a vision when planning for the workshop.  Our question should be "After spending a year in my writing workshop, how do I hope my students will be as writers?  She also ask teachers  to remember we teach writers, not writing.  She gives possibilities for focused units of study and a sample year-long plan for upper-grades and a K-1 plan for writers workshop. She then discusses gathering resources for unit studies. 

Chapter 12 deals with focus lessons.  Woodray divides these lessons into two groups.  Focus lessons that deal with text structures and focus lessons that deal with ways with words.  She gives many examples of these focus lessons.

Chapter 13 discusses the writing conferences.  Woodray states that the conference is the backbone of the writing workshop.  Good conferences move the teaching of writing from the whole-group instruction or focus lesson to the individual writer.  In conferencing, we need to really listen to what students are trying to do (assessment), Think of what we know that can help them do well (curriculum), and suggest something for them to try(instruction).  Woodray then gives sample conferences.  One conference dealing with structure and one dealing with ways with words.

 Chapter 14 deals with assessment.  Woodray says assessment should match what we value.  In a writer we should value a strong sense of self, that he/she writes thoughtfully and with purpose using a process that is workable, that a writer knows how to be part of a literate community, how to take and give response, that a writer knows how to read the world for ideas and use those ideass in different genres, that a writer knows how to prepare a piece for an audience,and that a writer uses knowledge of crafting techniques to strive not just to write adequately, but to write well. These values should help to guide us not only in assessment but also in curriculum and instruction decisions. Our assessment should also look at the intentionality of the writer.  Woodray gives some really good assessment questions to give the writer when working on a project to give you a better glimpse into their intentions. She finishes the chapter discussing the ways in which we should respond to writers and thei finished work when we assess.

Chapter 15 finishes up with a personal experience Woodray had witha student and poetry writing.  It proves the point that we learn to write from reading and writing like a writer.  I am glad I chose this book to read.  It did explain alot about writers workshop that I didn't quite understand from just sitting in writing workshop meetings.  Woodray is very passionate about teaching writing and that comes across veyr clearly in her book.  There were places in the book where I found it difficult to stay focused and she did get a little "wordy" but overall this book was a good source for learning about writers workshop 

I chose this book at this time in our blogging because I have just started writers workshop in my classroom.  I am hoping this book will give me much needed insight on how to help my students become writers when most of them still ask how to spell the word "I".  The first chapter discusses how we can learn to write from other writers.  Reading like a writer, looking at a writers craft, realizing that writing is an individual process and not something that has to be unique can all help us to become writers. 

Chapter two focuses on the craft of writing.  It gives numerous examples of writers craft to look for and study when reading.  It also points out that the more you begin to study the craft of writing the more often you will see it as you read.  Seeing authors craft when reading will give students ideas that they can recall and use when they are writing their own pieces of work.

Chapter three deals with "envisioning" in the writing process.  Teaching students to look at the many different ways that they can write about an idea or topic gives them more options with their writing. Several examples of writers envisioning a piece in a different way were included in this chapter. For these students it helped them to see what else  was possible in their writing.

Chapter four deals with reading aloud in the classroom.  It talks about listening like a writer and hearing the sound of well placed and well written words.  Often in our own writing we read something back to ourselves and realize that we don't like the sound of what we have written. Hearing good writing read aloud will help us to become better writers. Teachers need to make time for read alouds in their classrooms so that students can "hear" good writing.