Login · Sign up

TeachAde

Writing Workshop

As a school, we were trained in --and required to do--Writing (writer's) workshop this year. While the kids do seem to love it, I am not so good at keeping up with what mini-lessons I need to teach and who needs a conference, who needs to share...I also have trouble helping kids write better without coming out and changing the words for them! I have some students that can't focus on a topic at all, and besides doing story maps, I really don't know how to help them. Do you make them start over? How do you help them fix mistakes on the paper without writing all over that paper and confusing them? Also, to be honest, I am sometimes bored listening to students' stories! I feel awful about it, but, whew, it's hard to listen sometimes!

I am also tempted to write all over the students' papers, fixing every error. Instead, I choose a few of the most important areas that each student needs to improve, and give precise feedback in those areas, along with precise praise.

March 28, 2013, 8:01 pm [ report as inappropriate ]

I just started using Writer's Workshop to teach writing to my 5th grade class...the Units for Study by Heineman are very useful. They even have DVDs that you can watch to see how to manage your class during the workshop. All the questions you have are answered either in the books or on the DVD. I'm excited that I'm attending the summer conference in July. I don't know if you do this already but it may be useful to collaborate with another teacher to plan your lessons.

May 22, 2007, 12:00 am [ report as inappropriate ]

For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.