Writing Process---From a Student's Point of View

I recently spent a few days in a writing workshop hosted in my district that featured both poetry and non-fiction writing.  In the workshop, we discussed the merits of different writing programs such as 6 Traits and ideas that are taken from Lucy Calkins but spent a lot of time on developing mini lessons and how to make the most of the writing conferences.  Amid the discussions that we had in how we presented topics and edited with students, we never talked about the writing process as a whole.  We discussed the different steps of the writing process, but as we talked in groups or in pairs, I noticed something that was universal among us.  We all added 'extra' steps into the writing process.  Even more interesting to me was that these 'extra' steps were added at the same exact place by each teacher.  We may not have referred to them with the same vocabulary, but they were there, just the same.  I identified 12 steps needed to help students improve their writing:

Step 1:  The student brainstorms with a graphic organizer.

Step 2:  The student begins illustrating and labeling  the ‘nouns’ which will help with adding details.

Step 3:  The student begins writing a strong lead, a beginning, middle, and end, and a conclusion.

Step 4:  Conference with student. Is the student ready to convert this from 5 sentences to 5 paragraphs?

Step 5:  Check for a problem and solution or opinion. 

Step 6:  The student rereads and edits again if necessary. This can be done with a partner.

Step 7:  Conference with the student to revise the story.

Step 8:  The student rereads to make further changes and checks for clarity of the story.  The focus is on adding more details!

Step 9:  The student begins to rewrite the story to work towards a final draft.

Step 10:  The student rereads for clarity again.

Step 11:  The student adds details to the illustration to help tell the story.

Step 12:  Ready to publish!

Here are those same 12 steps in a poster format for you! I included a check off sheet, too!

I know that realizing this validated not only me as a teacher, but also me as a writer.  I had never thought about breaking it all down so that I could analyze the way I taught the writing process.  I hope that this helps you strengthen your writer's workshop like it has me.  

Here is a poster that I have used for a long time, but I lost the name of the author a LONG time ago!  If this is your graphic please let me know and I'll note you as the source.  But, it is so helpful!

It is incredible when something that you have thought about makes a connection with such strength that it changes the teacher's heart inside you.  

Here are 3 other things to remember....Maybe these can be the beginning of a few anchor charts for you.

A New [Year's} Winter Freebie For You!

Are you back in school yet?  We are supposed to start tomorrow but we already have a 2 hour delay because

It's 7 degrees out there!!!  Wooo Mama!  It's too cold to even think about school in my opinion.  My hats off to all of you that live way up north or in Alaska or Canada.  

When it is this cold, it leads to thoughts about being frozen and then your brain makes the jump to Frozen, the movie and its theme song.  Or at least mine does.  Hopefully I'm not alone!!  Anyway, I found this and thought it would explain my feelings of the temperature outside!  Don't get me wrong--I love a good brisk temperature, but Hypothermia Land isn't somewhere I want to live!

Now that things are ALMOST back to normal and everyone is returning to school I have to pull my teacher hat back out and get busy. I was even given time off by my teammates today because they could tell I was just not feeling ready to jump back in to things.  They knocked out the technical stuff that needed to be done while I took some time for myself in my classroom to work through the piles that had mounted while I was out taking care of my mom.  And since today is Wednesday it means that it is time for a

So to make your day a little bit easier and a little bit brighter I thought I would upload this little baby to TpT.  At my school we are really pushing vocabulary, so I put this together for my 2nd graders.  But, it could be played with any grade level I think.  Go grab it!

My kids have loved my Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Holiday versions, so I can't wait to get this out tomorrow and play.  Let me know how YOUR kids like it!

Back to School Blog Hop

I'm thinking that you just rolled on in from Miss Squirrels.....she was busy doing her thing.  Did you know she is crocheting baby blankets now?  I had no idea she had that hidden talent.  Pretty cool!!

Well, we are off to a rip-roaring and populated second grade year.  Must have been something in the water!  There are 4 of us teaching second grade this year....the largest grade level in the school!

We have been using a great back to school packet by The Bubbly Blond Teacher that the kids are loving.  It is great to use right now because I am so busy getting ready to start my Back to School assessments.

Click here to buy it!

I am also using this great 'keep 'em busy' pack from Tanja at Journey of a Substitute Teacher.  My kiddo saw it printing out and was about to grab a sheet of it before I caught him...that's all I need...to be one short when there is a copy shortage going on!!

I am using this pack from my own store to have with sight words....we need lots of work on those!!  I wish I had been able to snap some pictures....but....the first few days back are tough!!  The kids loved matching the phrases with the pictures though!!

This is what I am using to do some of my assessing with.  It is FULL of different types of assessments so I anticipate using it all year.

Our focus right now is Problem Solving on your OWN!

Not that I want to start with the negative, but this may come in handy for you.  These two were pushing and shoving in the line...they were at the end, mind you....and could not work out their issue by themselves.  So, in my room, if you can't work together as friends, I will FORCE you to become friends!  These two spent about 15 minutes holding hands while trying to work together, getting water, and cleaning up.  Needless to say, at the end of that 15 minutes they were fast friends and ready to be rid of each other.  I haven't had any more pushing and shoving either!!  The wonderful thing about it---no parent can be mad at me for doing something ridiculous.  At least not too ridiculous.

Here is a little freebie from my store...I have lots more if you want to go grab others.  It is a beautiful welcome banner and it even has some dolphins!  I just took a little snippit of a pic just to make you curious!!  Go on and download it!!

So, it looks like you are off to go see Cupcake over at her place.  Leave her a comment when you get there and tell her hello for me.  She'll get a kick if you say "Jenn said to tell you hello!"  hehe