Writer's Workshop -The Process

So, I kept meaning to post and just never got around to it. Now I finally have time but all my charts are packed up. Luckily  I hadn't packed this one up. I made it so the children could follow the process and be able to identify which stage they were at and plan for the next.

So, this is typical of what I've been charting in word study. Kids swear they use them. I'm curious, though. Any thoughts on how to make it more functional?? I feel like it's just a reference point the way it is...merci!

SS - Notetaking Strategies

So, I've been working with kids on ways to take notes...after looking through history notebooks, I saw a need for this. This lesson actually happened a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to post.

WWS - Immersion

Hey Gang -

I hope everyone is off to a a great year!! I have been meaning to post to our blog and kept forgetting. This chart is so-so, but knowing that I will post more actually is going to make me think more seriously about them...more to come!!

Hope to see all of you at the Sat Reunion!

Lainie

Writers Teaching Readers

Happy Independence Day! So... I'm a day late. What can I say? That's usually how my clock runs...

Did you learn something from me there? Was it that I am a procrastinator? Or I am always trying to catch up with my life because I am a teacher and ALWAYS have a full plate and am always adding to my to do list? Like trying out a blog! Because I really needed one more thing to do this summer. (insert rolling eyes here)

Did you see that? I demonstrated one of my strategies for teaching my reader: using questions and answers! Woo hoo! This post is looking H.O.T. already. I am on fire!

But seriously, since this is the first post ever for what will be a fantastic blog, I thought I would give some brief background. The idea for this blog, sharing smart ideas about classroom charts, teaching tools, etc., came out of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project's (now known forever and beyond as TCRWP... thank goodness for acronyms) July 2010 Writing Institute. Some fabulous teachers from around the world decided that instead of sharing food for the last session to celebrate everything we learned (too easy, right?), we decided we would share our awesome charts that we will be making throughout the year... with each other and with anyone who stumbles across our awesome blog.

Of course this idea stemmed from 2 awesome staff developers at TC who challenged us to 1) create a blog (say wha wha?) and 2) reconsider our old-fashioned notions of chart making. So big time props to Amanda and Kristi for challenging and inspiring us.

Us, you wonder? The posts on this blog will come from various teachers around the world who, as they come up with great ideas for tools to enhance Readers and Writers Workshop (and other areas too?), will share their great ideas right here. For you. And me. :)

So above is one of the charts I made during the Writing Institute. As we post charts, we will attempt to discuss the purpose of the chart, how we used it or intend to use it, and any cool tips that we learned in creating the chart. The above chart was simply a demo chart made for a how-to writing unit to support elaboration for this expository writing unit. As you can see, one tip we got from our awesome staff developer is that color coding on charts can help children better reference charts again and again. So I tried it. Cool, right?