Writing 5
Writer's Workshop
Writer's workshop emphasizes the importance of student engagement and the interaction between readers and text. It provides differentiated instruction in writing. Writer's Workshop focuses on the teaching of writing strategies. The purpose of Writer's Workshop is to foster a love of writing. Students develop an ability to write confidently in many forms for a variety of audiences and purposes.
In the classroom this looks like a mini lesson devoted to one aspect of writing, followed by guided practice where the teacher works with groups of kids, and time for students to practice the skills independently.
Specific components of this grade level are described below.
Writing Mini-Lessons
Shared Writing
Guided Writing
Independent Writing
Writer's Circles
Writing Conferences
Literacy Philosophy Statement
An effective literacy program offers a balance of challenge and support while building children’s confidence in their emerging abilities as readers and writers. Our goal is to develop fluent, capable readers who enjoy the process and learn from it, drawing from a diverse array of literature. Helping students become writers who can express their ideas cogently, clearly, and creatively is another important goal. We view reading and writing as a developmental process and understand that a child’s progress is seldom even or linear. It is common, for example, that a student’s leap ahead in learning is followed by a consolidating phase or an apparent plateau. We also find that students cannot be easily placed in a single category along the learning continuum. Rather, students often exhibit a range of skills and understandings.
While no two developmental journeys are identical, the following reading/writing continuum describes the basic path to literacy in the Beginning and Lower Schools.
Units
| Unit | Content | Skills and Processes | Assessment | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing Workshop |
Writing workshop is a continual aspect of the fifth-grade writing curriculum. In addition to supporting students in meeting the established benchmarks for writing, Writing workshop honors the pace of growth and development that will best support individual students. The Guiding Principles of Writing Workshop:
• Writing Workshop is not using a writing journal, writing to prompts, copying a poem or handwriting/penmanship practice.
• Writing Workshop is a time for students to practice what good writers do, without editing and publishing every piece.
• Writing Workshop is a time to involve students in authentic writing experiences that focus on the strengths and needs of each individual student.
• Writing Workshop occurs as often as possible (daily being the ideal).
• Writing Workshop will often include a well-planned 10 minute mini-lesson that could be taught through a modeled, shared, or interactive writing lesson or a reading experience. Mini-lessons address author craft, conventions (grammar and editing) and writing routines.
• Writing Workshop is structured around the writing process that includes the six traits of writing: Ideas: The ideas are the heart of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with the details that enrich and develop that theme. Organization: Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the thread of central meaning, the logical and sometimes intriguing pattern of the ideas. Voice: The voice is the heart and soul, the magic, the will, along with the feeling and conviction of the individual writer coming out through the words. Word Choice: Word choice is the use of rich, colorful, precise language that moves and enlightens the reader. Fluency: Sentence fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of work patterns, the way in which the writing plays to the ear - not just to the eye. Convention: Conventions are the mechanical correctness of the piece - spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, use of capitals, and punctuation. +1 Presentation: • Writers' Workshop includes the five modes of writing (narrative, expository, descriptive, persuasive, and creative) and a variety of genres.
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Throughout the year children will: -Use a variety of strategies to prepare for long-term writing projects such as brainstorming, making lists, mapping, outlining, grouping related ideas, using graphic organizers, and taking notes -Identify audience and purpose -Use the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing successive versions -Focus on a central idea, excluding loosely related, extraneous, and repetitious information -Use a scoring guide to review, evaluate, and revise writing for meaning and clarity -Revise drafts to improve the meaning and focus of writing by adding, deleting, combining, clarifying, and rearranging words and sentences -Edit and proofread one's own writing, as well as that of others, using the writing conventions, and, for example, an editing checklist or list of rules with specific examples of corrections of specific errors -Present important ideas or events using organizational structures, such as sequential or chronological order, cause-and-effect, or similarity and difference -Establish a plot, point of view, setting, conflict, and resolution
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Does the student: -Plan a piece of writing -Draft own writing -Use computer to type stories -Use time effectively -Experiment with various modes of writing (poetry, research, stories, etc.) -Express personal voice in writing -Use clear story structure -Create cohesive paragraphs -Convey ideas clearly with thoughtful transitions -Varies sentence beginnings -Use descriptive language -Experiment with new vocabulary -Use appropriate capitalization -Use spelling rules/patterns as a reminder of how to spell words -Use quotation marks appropriately -Uses commas correctly -Handwriting is legible -Use the writing process including: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing successive versions
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Nancy Atwell, In the Middle |