Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Literacy Matters
Teaching Writing
EVG
December 9, 2011
History of Writing Workshop Methodology
http://www.nwp.org/http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/
research_nwpNational Writing Project
NWP began in 1974
By 1976 NWP grew to six states
By 1991 NWP was authorized as a federal education program
Today NWP is in all 50 states
Teachers College, Columbia University houses a “chapter” of the NWP.
Writing Workshop is situated in the latest research on HOW
students learn: (Wiggins and McTighe)
Behaviorists Cognitive Socio-cognitive
B.F. SkinnerTeacher-centeredConditioning ProgrammedThorough and efficientBanking-modelTracking“What” students know
Dewey Piaget J. Bruner Student-centeredConstructivist “movement”“Ownership”Learning is the responsibility of the individualCooperative learning“How” students know it
Vygotsky (*ZOPED)Learning-centeredLearning is a developmental process of gradually participating in a community Students are positioned to learn not “programmed”)Shared expertise ScaffoldingApprenticeship/mentorshipsHeterogeneous/multi-culturalWhat students DO with what they knowStarts with what students know
What Exactly is Writing Workshop?
Writing Workshop creates a rigorous learning
environment that positions students as producers of texts – students produce drafts, revise, edit and
publish within particular writing cycles or genre studies. The focus is on how texts are written…
Teachers become facilitators who
provide both direct and indirect
instruction based on what students
know and still need to know.
Some Teaching Strategies Taught:
•Brainstorming for “seed” ideas•Lift a line (say more)•Leads•Vivid words•Slow down•Fill a gap
More strategies•Get right to it
•Prune
•New idea from old
•New point of view
•Combine entries
•Show don’t tell
Writing generated by
Writer’s Workshop
• Personal narrative (aka) memoir
• Fiction
• Nonfiction (article, persuasive, informational text)
• Poetry
Let’s Pretend that we are writing a memoir….a slice of life piece about a moment in our lives….“Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros could be one
of our “mentor” texts.
Mini lessons:
Effective use of repetition woven throughout the story
Use of similes
Circle story
Voice
How can parents help?Read to your child and talk about the text
Have your child sketch while you read – keep sketches in a family folder
Have your child write about the book – keep all writings in a family folder
Make a word wall on your refrigerator
Take you child to the library regularly
Set reading times and you read, too
Pick out favorite sentences and write them on Post its
More helpful hints
Read a book that has been made into a movie talk about similarities and differencesDownload audio booksBuy books and read together Cook meals together and talk about recipes; read labelsCreate a family writing center with a bulletin board to hang messages, family news items, household and family events
Have your children make books of all sorts
Books of poems Books of letters Books of stories Scrapbooks Dictionaries family
photo albums
KEY: do not over correct
Questions DiscussionComments
Please email us any additional questions or concerns.
• Reading instruction• Math instruction• Updates on Anti-bullying• Budget information & the future of
EVG and GW• Other ideas????
Topics for next meetingFebruary 3, 2011
