During this launch your students will do most of the work on their own. They will try new things and practice making their own books. You'll give them very little direction; let them learn on their own and learn from other students. They'll figure out the writing process on their own, they'll think of ideas on their own, they'll do it all on their own with you cheering on every success whether it be adding details to their illustrations or spelling a word on their own. Just think of the first 5 days as days of discovery.

Before we get started, I want to put you at ease. Every class is different. Every school and schedule is different and if these first 5 days turn into 6 or 7, so be it.

What is Writing Workshop?

Writing workshop is a model used during a 40-55 minute block of time to instruct students in writing. The first 10 to 15 minutes are dedicated to a mini lesson where the teacher will teach a short lesson, and then invite students to try it during 25 to 30 minutes of independent writing. Read more about writing workshop here.

Mini Lesson

Mini lessons are short lessons that teach a strategy or a skill. During the lesson you begin by reminding students of something they've been working on. Then you'll introduce something new you'll be teaching the kids by telling them what it is and modeling it. Next, the students practice with you to check for their understanding. Finally, students are invited to try it on their own during independent writing.

Independent Writing

During independent writing, students are writing while the teacher is either conferring with one student at a time or meeting in small groups of 2 to 5 students. Small groups are ideal because you can work with students at varying levels, but all need something similar. For example, maybe you have a group of students that need to work on adding more detail to their illustrations or a group of students that need practice writing introductions. When you find several students that need something similar, group them together and work on that skill or strategy.

Share

After independent writing, students will participate in a share. A share includes students sharing something with the class that you'd like the rest of the students to learn or be exposed to. For example, if during independent writing you observed Rafael using transition words, and you'd like the rest of the class to try, you'd have him share. Or if you noticed Isabella editing her writing and you'd like others to try it, have her share.

Sometimes you'll have students share with a partner. It might be to share their writing progress or they'll share the process their using. Maybe you'll have them share a certain strategy. At times, we tend to skip over the share, but we need to keep in mind this is an important piece to writing workshop. Students get a chance to talk about their writing and to learn from one another.

Day 1 : Authors and Illustrators

Today is the day! The first day of your launch. How excited are you?! Now, we know how much kids love read alouds and writing workshop wouldn't be the same without mentor texts and mentor authors. To get started, you and your students will explore books written and illustrated by the same person. This article, Mentor Texts to Launch a Fantastic Writing Workshop, gives you some great authors to choose from. Once you choose an author, read several books to your students throughout the day leading up to writing workshop. Have a class discussion about the author and his/her job. Have students talk about what they like about the books or things they noticed. Help your students see authors as real people.

Launch Day 2: Sharing the Process

The idea of these first 5 days is to let your students discover how books are made; how writers write. Your job is to enable students into believing they, too, are writers. So, as you begin Day 2, encourage students to talk about the steps they took while making their books. Ask students what they did first and gather several responses since you will get different ideas. Then continue by asking about the other steps they took.

Create a chart with their ideas and use it to ask students what they will do as they begin writing today-Will you use any of these steps as you begin writing today? Eventually, you'll give a name to these steps. For example, brainstorming, planning, revising, editing. . .

Launch Day 3: Brave Spelling

Spelling is one thing that holds kids back from writing. They become caught up in not knowing how to spell a word and, in turn, stop writing. Like I said before, writing workshop is the teacher's time to be a cheerleader; encourage kids to write! So during Day 3, you'll show kids that writers may not know how to spell every word, but that's OK. And spelling those scary words takes bravery.

You might want a brave spelling class mascot, like Stretchy Sloth here. We use him to stretch out big words and practice our brave spelling skills. He also stretches a slinky as he's stretching the words to show a visual of the stretch. The kids love him!

I had the pleasure of having a student write about tsunamis in his first book. Why was it my pleasure? Because he was the perfect student to share his brave spelling. I mean, come on, tsunamis (did I even spell that correctly)?!

I had this student share his brave spelling with the class and told them, “Alex could have written about his dog because dog is a word he knows how to spell well, but instead he wrote about tsunamis.” I had Alex show his spelling and I had him show the class how he sounded out the word. Of course the kids didn't know how cute I thought this was, they just knew I thought Alex had spelled a brave word. I share this story with you because you can appreciate it. Alex had spelled tsunami: zomommy. As in ZOO-MOMMY.

Looking for more? Check out Brave Spelling is Exactly What Your Students Need.

Launch Day 4: Writing Workshop Resources

Giving students writing resources and showing students how to use the resources are two different things. Being the honest and completely transparent person that I am, I will admit that I have given my students resources to use, but never showed them how to use them.

Whether you have an alphabet chart, high frequency words, transition words, blends chart, show students how to use them. Not only will this help free up energy for writing, but you'll teach your students to be problem solvers.

So on Day 4 introduce some of your resources and discuss how they can be used.

Launch Day 5: Writers Celebrate Their Writing

I cannot stress to you how important this part it. You'll just have to take my word. When I tell my students it's time to celebrate, they couldn't be happier. You'd think they were going to Disneyland. I've had parents emailing me to ask if their child could share on a different day because their child won't be at school on celebration day.

You might be asking, how much prep is this celebration? None. Absolutely none. I've had celebrations where kids go up to the front of the classroom and read their books. I've had celebrations where students bring a towel and a snack and we have a picnic while they share with a buddy (ok that took me notifying parents). But the point is, celebrations don't need to be fancy. They only require you to be excited.

I never force a kid to share since writing can be so personal, but I do encourage students to share. If you're looking for something to make the day a little more special, here is a cute resource I found on Teachers Pay Teachers that students will love. My students love when I make a simple card and write a quick personalized note about their writing. They also enjoy writing and giving compliments to their classmates. Just make the day special by celebrating your writers.

Well, there you have it, the First 5 Days of Writing Workshop. If you're new to writing workshop or looking for ways to change it up, the first 5 days are a great way to get started. Your kids will enjoy making books and sharing with each other. They'll become more confident and begin using all those other skills you've been teaching them–phonics, grammar/language, organization, and the list goes on. Don't forget to get your hands on the guide!

The post How to Successfully Launch the First 5 Days of Writing Workshop first appeared on Literacy Please.

What is Mentor Text?

Mentor texts are books or other pieces of literature used to teach learners for different purposes. It is used to point out the use of punctuation, dialogue, word choice, organization, or other craft move noticed in text . . . In the classroom, teachers and students study books together looking for and naming writer's craft that can be emulated in their own writing.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have your first or second graders open a book and be inspired by an author's craft? They can!

We just need to model this for students by noticing writer's craft techniques we can use in our own writing.

When we ask kids to make books, we're not just asking them to write words, they're also illustrating. So wouldn't it be perfect to introduce them to authors who've also illustrated their own books?

There are many children's books out there, and choosing picture books as mentor texts for writing can be overwhelming if you're just getting started. Certainly, there are many resources on the internet if you're in a bind. Here are some authors/illustrator ideas for you. . .

Dav Pilkey

Dog Breath, The Paperboy, and Dragon books are great mentor texts for young writers. Dav Pilkey writes funny and well illustrated books to provided students with ideas they can use in their own writing. The development of his characters and easily identifiable plot make these books great mentor texts for young writers.

Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Grouchy Ladybug are classics. They provide students with an example of a sequence of events combined with colorful illustrations to excite the reader. Eric Carle demonstrates that authors can use what they know about the real world to write stories. For example, in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Carle uses his knowledge of the life cycle of the butterfly to write a story about a caterpillar that eats his way through many types of food. It then grows bigger and eventually becomes a butterfly. Students see that having background knowledge gives them the power to writer great books.

Vanessa Brantley-Newton

You can find many beautifully illustrated books by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. She adds impeccable detail to her illustrations that can provide students with a great example of how illustrators add detail to pictures. But Ms. Brantley-Newton has also written and illustrated a couple of books–Becoming Vanessa and Grandma's Purse. These books include the same endearing illustrations, but also show students that illustrators can also write books. Brantley-Newton dives into the feelings children have, which make for great examples of how characters can share feelings in books. The expressions she adds to characters' faces perfectly models the importance of details to get ideas across in the books students make.

Tommy dePaola

Tommy dePaola does a great job of tapping into the mind of a young child in The Art Lesson. This is a book students can see themselves in as dePaolo shows students how to build anticipation for something exciting. He uses varying sentence structure to show students that sentences can be long, short, and repetitive. This book also includes a surprise ending that students can use as a model for adding something surprising to their own books.

Gaia Cornwall

Two books that students can relate to are Jabari Jumps and Jabari Tries. This author and illustrator creates stories that students can relate to and provides ideas for students' own writing. In Jabari Jumps, Cornwall demonstrates how illustrations can play an important role in showing readers a character's feelings through facial expressions and movements. She also uses techniques in which she shows children that the size of letters can add emphasis to what the author is trying to convey as well as how it should be read.

Jan Brett

Jan Brett has plenty of books to choose from. Many popular books and some not so well-known. Her illustrations are enchanting, detailed, and full of creativity. You may be familiar with The Umbrella and The Mitten, but she has many other great books out there for children to enjoy and use as mentor texts. Jan Brett uses beautiful language in her books, but also includes meticulous illustrations, which can inspire the artists in your classroom.

Kevin Henkes

Chrysanthemum, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and Wemberly Worries by Kevin Henkes are thoughtful books kids can make connections to. His books are longer in length, but have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. This makes it easy to discuss the events in the stories as well as various craft moves. Henkes' book, My Garden, has fantastic illustrations that will spark creativity in writers. He uses everyday problems children face to write his books in which students can see themselves. When students are able to see themselves in a book, they understand that they can write about their own experiences as a story.

Mo Willems

I've never met a kid that doesn't love a Mo Willems book. Elephant and Piggie books and, of course, Pigeon books will make your students fall over laughing. These books are great for teaching students to add speech bubbles to their writing. And how could I forget the yelling and the drawn out words spoken by Elephant and Piggie?

David Shannon

No, David!, Good Boy, Fergus!, and Alice the Fairy have become staples in the early education classroom. These books tell stories that kids love and find entertaining. The story of David is a book many students can make connections to as he can't seem to do anything right. The sentences are short and repetitive, yet the illustrations tell most of the story. For those students that are still building confidence in writing, using David Shannon books as a mentor teaches students they can use their illustrations to tell a story.

Once you begin noticing the elements within a book, you'll find ways to make every book a mentor text. Which, by the way, is totally fine. Teaching kids to do the same will make such an impact on their writing and their ability to read as writers. Teaching writing with mentor texts might just become your new favorite thing. Choosing the right text is so enjoyable, so if you're looking for ideas to get you started, you can find a mentor text book list here. I've included various books by each of these authors that your students will enjoy.

As we use mentor texts to teach kids writing, we inspire them to try new techniques that will make writing more enjoyable. Using mentor texts in your writing workshop excites children and also gives them an example of good writing to refer to throughout a writing unit and over the course of the year.

Continue reading more about how to organize your writing workshop materials, including mentor texts, in this post–Classroom Organization for a Successful Writing Workshop.

The post Mentor Texts to Launch a Fantastic Writing Workshop first appeared on Literacy Please.

Simon Lester Henry Strauss is a young boy that is not afraid of a haunted house. Around each corner, Henry sees ghosts, witches, vampires, ghouls, and many other scary creatures. The author uses her ideas and rhymes to keep children engaged. With each scary creature that shows up in this book, we can ask our students, “What could you find in a haunted house?”

And this is where our next lesson on Ideas comes in. Students will use their ideas to think of creatures they might find in a haunted house.  Click on any of the worksheets to download for free.

Give students the worksheet. Let them draw pictures and/or words to tell what they could see in a haunted house. Remind students to use their ideas, which can come from books or movies they have seen.

It doesn't end there! You can also have your kiddos write their own haunted house stories.

Have students use the web to help plan their stories. Use the pictures to decide which three things they will find in a haunted house.  Cut out them out and glue in the web.

To write a story, use the topic sentence provided– Last night I visited a haunted house. Next use the pictures to help create a story. For example, First I saw a black bat flying in the air. Next I heard a witch laughing while she made a potion. Finally I saw a white ghost coming toward me! I ran out of the haunted house as fast as I could. 

 
Now I don't use this activity during Halloween, which would probably be more appropriate, but that's OK. This lesson is a great way to use what the students have learned from the first two lessons to use ideas in writing.

Don't forget to check out my other posts to download the free traits of writing posters.
Teaching Ideas with Mentor Text (Rocket Writes a Story)
Teaching Ideas with Mentor Text (Enemy Pie)

Thanks for stopping by! Coming up, the next trait, Organization!

The post Teaching Ideas with Mentor Text (I’m Not Afraid of This Haunted House) first appeared on Literacy Please.