As we enter the fourth week of school, I am overwhelmed with how far these little writers have come in such a short time!! My philosophy on writing instruction has always been one of possibilities; both of my teaching feet are always standing on the edge of what can be. You all know, though, how wobbly I was going in to this year of kindergarten writing. And while I can't yet celebrate that it's going to be smooth sailing from here on out, I can gleefully share that our little writers are giving it their all, with smiles on their faces!!!

Just to recap, here are the lessons we have taught so far:

     * Where do Writers Sit and Why do Writers Write?
     *  Students as Authors
     *  The Structure of the Writer's Workshop
     *  Seed Ideas/Experiences
     *  Supplies and Using Resources Around the Room
     *  Making a Movie in Your Mind
     *  Moving Around in the Writer's Workshop
     *  Writing Your Name and Being an Author

Coming up this week:

     *  Adding Details and Telling Stories with Illustrations
     *  Storytelling Before Writing
     *  Using Letter/Words to Label Our Pictures
     *  Adding Details to Our Pictures

Of course, we have dealt with a hiccup or two along the way. One significant problem we are running into is the level of talking at the tables when the classroom teacher and I are conferencing with individual students. As I was preparing for this past week's lessons, I noticed in my plans that Lesson 7 was supposed to be about moving around in the writer's workshop. Based on what was happening in our classroom, I took advantage of that opportunity to talk about respecting each other's workspace. We read Too Much Noise, by Ann McGovern and practiced using quiet voices when we needed to talk to each other. We will revisit this need to respect each other again and again. And practice, again and again. :)

Another hiccup was brought to my attention by the classroom teacher. She had noticed that very few children knew how to write their own names. And while this is not particularly unusual in kindergarten, we needed to address it during our writing time. So, I added Lesson 9 - Writing Your Name and Being an Author, and we connected the importance of students' identifying themselves as the authors of their writing with practicing spelling their names. We read The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown, emphasizing the last two pages "...the important thing about you is you." 

I know that there are other issues we need to address, and we will. However, for now, we are taking it one step at a time. Just like we can't teach them everything at once, we must also be patient with their approximations and efforts. I am over the moon thrilled that when I did not show up to teach last Friday, the students were disappointed and wondered where I was.

​Their excitement, their eagerness, their willingness to try...it is my oxygen.




Here are a few of our "Hurrahs" from this week.

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This writer was telling me about The Friendly Squid. As he was reading, he noticed that he had forgotten to draw in any friends. So, he took his book back to his seat and added a few! Revision!!
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I am so excited to get back to these writers on Monday! I just know that they are going to have lots of stories to tell, and I can't wait to read them!

​#allkidscanwrite

On the second day, we decided to offer the students the choice to use paper that had been cut and stapled to make small "picture books". We only used two pieces of paper, so the writers did not feel overwhelmed with lots of pages and white space to fill. After reading one chapter from Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons, by Agnes Rosenstiehl, the kindergarten writers were fired up and ready to make their own books! You can see below that one writer in particular really used Rosenstiehl's book as a mentor text, approximating her work with some outstanding effort.

By the end of the week, the writers were becoming familiar with the Writer's Workshop routine. I began moving around the room with my clipboard and observation sheet to try to capture some of the stories being written. Several students held their books in their hands and "read" the pictures, telling detailed stories with rich language and a sense of beginning, middle, and end. Below is one student's work; she started with "Once upon a time me and my sister...." and kept right on going with an elaborate story. She used "...and then..." several times and included words like "accidentally". These are indications that she is already a storyteller who understands how stories go and who possesses a voice rich with word choice.

So, what's next??

This week we will begin with Lesson 5, which we did not get to last week - Supplies and Using Resources Around the Room. I will read A Perfectly Messed-Up Story, by Patrick McDonnell to get us started.

We will continue with the following teaching points, mixing product lessons with process lessons:

• Writers plan their writing by thinking about their stories like a movie in their minds before they write.
• Writers learn how to move from activity to activity and place to place within the Writer's Workshop.
• Writers learn that illustrations should fill the page and add details to their stories.

Remember, writers can work on a piece or book for as long as he or she wants. There is no expectation of beginning and ending a piece of writing within a day, or even two days. What is important is that you are talking with students individually and learning how they are thinking as writers. I will tell our students each day how authors mostly start working on a book, and then keep working on it until they finish it. In our classrooms, we ask the writers to let us know when they have finished a book so that we can conference with the writer and celebrate his or her story!

It's time for me to get working on lesson plans for this coming week :) I am so excited I can hardly sit still...

All Kids Can Write! The proof's on the page!

If you are doing this work in your classroom and would like to share, feel free to leave a comment here, or use the hashtag #allkidscanwrite to join the conversation!

Being Scared

Tomorrow feels like the first day of school to me. We have actually been back for a week, but tomorrow I will be launching the writing workshop along with some wonderful teachers in the kindergarten and first grade classrooms in my school.

Yikes! I am scared.

We had a day-long, county-wide literacy specialists' meeting this past Thursday in my district. Along with the information, news, data review, technology bites, and on and on that made up our meeting, was the introduction of the book we will be reading and discussing this year, Good to Great Teaching Focusing on the Literacy Work That Matters, by Mary Howard. Mary Howard is an author and educator who, according to the book jacket, "supports teachers across the country in creating high-quality literacy experiences for every child." Richard L. Allington wrote the Foreword to this book. That says a lot!!

We were only asked to read the Introduction to Good to Great Teaching Focusing on the Literacy Work That Matters last Thursday as a kickoff to our book club. But, I am already excited and eager to read her book this year...because in just the very first pages of her book, Mary Howard touched on a significant aspect of my practice this year. Fear.

I am going to quote from Mary's book:

     "You see, doing something that scares us every day allows us to slowly chip away our fears as the initial discomfort dissipates. From an instructional perspective, we have two choices. We can accept the status quo or we can change our little corner of the world." (xix)

Being Prepared

I am counting on being scared this year as I teach our youngest students to think of and believe in themselves as writers. But, I am also counting on that fear abating as this work builds on itself. 

In my practice, I have historically been a painstakingly thorough lesson-planner. Thinking through student learning objectives, county pacing requirements, resources, assessments, learning styles, teaching points, differentiation strategies, etc. has been my way of organizing my teaching. It fits my style. Don't tell anyone, but I kind of like to sit down for a few hours and plan the scope and sequence of a unit's lessons. Being prepared helps me be a better teacher. 

And, this year, being prepared will help me feel less scared.

So, as we get ready to launch the writing workshop tomorrow, I have created two 4-week calendars to keep me on track. One is for kindergarten and the other is for 1st grade.


I know when I go to sleep tonight, I will be as nervous and excited as the little ones I'm going to teach felt the night before their first day of school. But being scared is not always a bad thing. I'm hoping that for me, and for our students, being scared helps us change our world.

There's a lot to think about as I get ready for the
first week of co-teaching writing in kindergarten this year. I have been thinking and searching and
writing and revising all weekend. Much of the time my mind has been as cluttered as my desk....

But then, I found my framework. And, for me, that's crucial when I plan. 

• How are my unit and lessons organized? 
• What is the overarching objective? 
• Is there more than one? 
• What is the scope and sequence of my unit?
• What are the resources I can use to teach my lessons? 
• How can I get them? 
  

And after all of those questions have been asked and, hopefully, answered, I begin writing the lessons. There is such a feeling of joy and confidence when I begin writing lessons if all of the planning has been done. When I am in control of what I want the students to learn, it is much easier to design lessons for how I want them to learn.

Process and Product

Launching the writing workshop in the first grade classroom is challenging. When I created my introductory unit for first grade, I used Eric Carle's wonderful picture books as my framework. His words and pictures inspired my writers' products while I set up the routines and expectations of our writer's workshop process each day. I was able to teach craft and process at the same time. First grade writers handled it with ease because they already had a context for writing in the classroom - kindergarten!

As I prepare to launch the writer's workshop in kindergarten, though, I think I will separate my craft, or product, lessons from my process lessons. Most of these youngest of writers will have zero context for writing in the classroom. They will need explicit direction and ample time to become comfortable with the world of writer's workshop. And let's not forget a good dose of redirection as they explore and attempt and approximate...:)

But, at the same time, I do not want to spend twenty days just setting up our classroom rules and routines. There will be many writers who are more than ready for craft lessons to inspire them and get them started on their own work. 

Kindergarten - Week One

Session One - (This is a day where I will combine Process and Product) Where Do You Sit? and Why Writers Write

     Process - To show students where and how they will sit during writer's workshop instruction.  (transition to the carpet, where to sit, expectations during mini-lesson, transition to writing time)

     Product - To begin a conversation with students about why writers write - for an audience and with a purpose. Read Aloud - Bear Has a Story to Tell, Philip C. Stead & Erin E. Stead

Session Two -  Students As Authors

     Product - To help students begin to think of themselves as authors.  Read Aloud - Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons, Agnes Rosenstiehl

Session Three - The Structure of the Writer's Workshop

     Process - Students will understand that every single day, they can expect the same things to happen in the writer's workshop - mini-lesson, writing/drawing time, conferencing, and sharing.  Read Aloud - on the Construction Site, Carron Brown & Bee Johnson

Session Four - Seed Ideas/Experiences

     Product - Students will continue to build ideas for stories that come from their own lives. Read Aloud - No, David!, David Shannon

Session Five - Supplies and Using Resources Around the Room

     Process - Students will follow explicit directions on how and where to store their work folders, where to find resources in the room, and tour the writing center.  Read Aloud - A Perfectly Messed-Up Story, Patrick McDonnell

I am hopeful that by the end of the first instructional week, my kindergarten writers will have begun to create a context for what and why writers do this work. And that they will be excited and inspired to put their own stories on paper. This is our journey in kindergarten.

Off we go!!

So, this morning I went for a run. I will frequently compare distance running with the process of writing, because I find them nearly equal in terms of the need for practice, stamina, endurance, and creativity. 

Anyway, I had been running through the summer heat and humidity since June...mostly just to keep my legs moving and my heart working. But, it was a challenge to push myself through some of those workouts. And, in fact, many of them were so far off the mark from my already low expectations that I nearly quit running entirely.

After nearly two weeks off due to a tweaked knee, I decided today was the day I needed to stop making excuses and get back out there. My Disney Half Marathon is in January and I want to be strong and ready. As I headed out, I figured I would be walk/running the three miles, due to those few weeks off. And I was right. Sort of.

After the first slow mile, I started picking up the pace, and I took a half minute off of the second mile. That encouraged me to have a conversation with myself. Positive chatter. I decided to go for another negative split. Something that I have rarely accomplished. And as the last mile was clicking by, I had to push, push, push myself to keep going. Because I really wanted that negative split.

And, guess what?? I DID IT!!! I beat the second mile by another 30 seconds. Now, here's the thing. These miles were SLOW by anybody else's expectations. There were not, BY FAR, my fastest miles. But, they were my negative splits!!! And just accomplishing that was so incredibly rewarding that I will go out and try again - with more confidence than before.

Which brings me to my advice to you today, kindergarten and first grade writing teachers! Each and every day, invite the young writers in your room to give it a try. Teach and model and use mentor texts and, then, tell those students that you KNOW they have stories to tell. You want them to do their best to write or draw or dictate those stories in the clearest, strongest, most purposeful voices possible. 

Ready, set, GO!

And, then, accept ALL approximations.  Each writer's "finish line" will be different. Celebrate the greatest, and the smallest, attempts to storytell. It is up to you to give your students the confidence to try again tomorrow. Look and listen for any and all words, pictures, conversations that indicate your writers are writing. Pounce on those moments and praise that work with such gusto that your students begin to believe that they CAN do it...even when it seems so hard.

Positive chatter works. Whether it is in your head while you run...or describes your side-by-side teaching with our youngest writers. Invite them in with positive intent. And then just see what happens!