Writing Workshop Tips

Are you looking to begin or tweak Writing Workshop in your classroom?

Writing Workshop has been a important and delightful part of my classroom for over ten years. My students and I absolutely adore writing workshop! Yet - I'm still in a constant state of refinement.

Here are some tried and true tips for what has worked well over the years, regardless of the writing curriculum I was using...Let me know which tips you find most helpful!

Make sure to pin this post so you can come easily back to it when you want to add more layers to your workshop or have more questions.

Heads up - this is a MONSTER BIG post! Took me over two three months to write (#reallifefirst #thenbloglife) and there's SO much more I could say about each tip. #teachingiscomplex #whichiswhyiloveit #mostdays #somedaysijustwantjammies

Here we go...

(There are some affiliate links in this post.)

This one's a big deal that can have a big impact...

All writers need to feel successful. As a teacher who ditched the deficit model decades ago, I am eagerly on the hunt for positive, genuine ways to compliment each writer as often as I can. Not only is this kind and humane, it respects the writer's developmental stage and builds on his/her strengths. And they ALL have strengths.

In an effort to be strategic...

Compliment based on your teaching points...and do it in a loud-ish whisper...it's another opportunity to reinforce what you're teaching. And...it will benefit all who overhear it.

In order to feel more genuine, your compliments will often sound like "noticings."

If your mini-lessons are about including introductions, your compliments (noticings) might sound like...

"I notice you introduced your piece with a question!"

"You're trying out a sound effect in your introduction!"

If your mini-lessons have been about improving writing stamina, your compliments might sound like...

"Check out the way you're really sticking to it today! You're not letting anything distract you from your important writing work!"

"Wow! I noticed that you turned your body away from your friend so that you could stay on track with your work. Powerful decision!"

If your mini-lessons have been about editing, your compliments (noticings) might sound like...

"Look at you, going to town, editing your piece for punctuation!"

"I see you edited for using capital letters only for names and at the beginning of sentences!"


For 11 more tips, pop on over to this Growing Firsties post!

Parent Input Freebie

Hello, Hello!!!

It's Lisa from Growing Firsties dropping by today to talk a bit about getting Parent Input.

Over the last few years I've been pretty jazzed about Growth Mindset. You may have already seen this recent Primary Chalkboard post or this Growing Firsties post.

Smile if you like getting input from your students' parents at the beginning of the year about their child's learning style and personality. (Did ya smile? Hope so!)

Back in April, when I started thinking about my new crop of students, I started thinking about how I could get different input from parents...mindset-based input.

'Cuz, at the very beginning of the year, before I reallllly know my students, it's helpful to know which students may...

need extra organizational help

be reluctant to try something new

are reading at the beginning of the year benchmark, but it was lots of hard work to get there

benefit from close support to learn routines

For some students, the above characteristics are pretty easy to see...but in others, the ones who stay under the radar a bit, not so much.

Sarah has a GREAT post about her parent input form - you can read it by clicking {right here}.

I like to hit the ground running as much as possible, so this is the Parent Input Form I developed.


Here's a bit of a closer look:


You can download it by clicking either of the above pictures. It's a zipped (compressed) file because one of the formats is EDITABLE. Yep...you can make it work for YOU and YOUR context. :) I hope you find it helpful!!!

Growth Mindset

Hi There!
Lisa here, from Growing Firsties & I'm going to share a little bit about Growth Mindset today, which is based on Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's work.

Heads up that I do have some Amazon Affiliate links in this post. Should you choose to use the links, I'll earn some "circle money" as my daughter calls coins. :-) Half of my affiliate proceeds are for paying it forward - each month I receive earnings I give to my local food pantry/outreach services organization. The other half is spent on books and items for my classroom.

With a growth mindset, people believe that through effort and practice, they can develop and improve their talents and abilities. In a fixed mindset, people believe that their talents and abilities are fixed...and that it's talent (not effort) that creates success. Woah.

Years ago, I first began to think about mindset in terms of working with struggling students...those students where the learning is hard. Students, who, if they don't have the mindset to keep trying, will give up. Then what will they learn?

My thinking expanded as I witnessed students labelled as gifted hitting a struggle academically and not knowing how to handle the struggle when they are unfamiliar with the resilience and effort needed.

Then I realized that mindset, resilience & perseverance are critical for all of us. Regardless of age. #helloIhatecardio #gottadoitanyways

You may have seen this Growing Firsties post from a few years ago, containing this freebie download.

Or maybe this post from last summer all about perseverance.

I am blessed to work at an amazing school! Some talented colleagues ran a book study on Dweck's Mindset book this year and it was such fun to re-read and discuss mindset with like-minded teachers! I also added Mindsets in the Classroom (by Mary Cay Ricci) to my collection.

We read aloud some great books and I expanded my collection beyond the wonderful texts from Peter H. Reynolds (Ish, The Dot, Going Places...)

One of my teammates asked me if I had a printable for our work on mindset and that gave me the motivation to put my swirling thoughts to work....Here's a little peek at the inside...

Scroll down to download this freebie! :)

You might be interested in reading an article by the always eloquently-thought-provoking Alfie Kohn "The Perils of Growth Mindset" education. You can get to it {right here}.

Carol Dweck, author of Mindset, has written this EXCELLENT article...you'll definitely want to check it out! You can get to it {right here}.

I have a Pinterest board called Mindset and I love pinning to it! You can check it out by clicking here or the screen shot below. You should really check out the Famous Failures video! It's amazing!

We'd love to hear what you do to help build a growth mindset with your learners!

Day 12 "Advent"ure

Hello, Fab Followers!!!

Lisa, here, from Growing Firsties, checking in to share a little fun on Day 12 of our Primary Chalkboard Advent Calendar!

For today ONLY, I'll be offering my Common Core Crunch Bundles for 35% off the individual pricing!

The January to May Bundle packs, individually priced, are $20...the bundle is normally $17.50...but for TODAY ONLY, you can snag each of them up for $13!!!

And the September to October Bundle packs, individually priced, are $16...the bundle is normally $14...but for TODAY ONLY, you can snag each one up for $9!!!

This deal applies to the ELA and the Math bundles! Click any pic to get to it on TpT!

ELA

 

Math

 

I have two freebies for you to snap right up...

The first one includes a printable (w/answer key) and matching center that helps your little spellers...

The second one is a little graphing printable...

And...have you seen this?

I posted it over on my facebook and instagram pages and folks were loving it! The lovely ladies over at #2superteachers had their students learn their elf name and illustrate a picture of themselves as the elf! How cute is that???? I've got that one in my back pocket for next week, when I miss prep time due to meetings and a concert. :)

Hope these can help save (at least some of) your sanity during this bizzzzzzy month!!!

Thanks for stopping by the Primary Chalkboard!! Maybe I'll see you over at ----

Big smiles to you all! Lisa