1. The Writing Process District Professional Development October 29, 2012
Welcome!
The Writing Process
District Professional Development
October 29, 2012

2. Prewriting Drafting Revising Editing Publishing The Writing Process
KEEP

3. One: Prewriting
Some researchers say 70 % of writing time should be spent on Prewriting (Murray, 2005)
Students choose a topic
Students gather and organize ideas
Students identify the audience to whom they will write
Students identify the purpose of writing activity
Students choose appropriate form based on audience and purpose
KEEP
Discuss the different ways that prewriting happens – ask teachers what they do when they prepare to write – uncover all of the things we do – internally, externally, etc.

4. Pre-Writing Quick Write
For 3 minutes:
Write down one distinct memory you have from each of the last 5 years.
“Prompts” are not authentic experiences for writing- they are for assessment purpose, students should be writing to and from their own experiences.

5. Choosing topics…
Students MUST take responsibility for choosing their own writing topics!
teachers can and should (at times) specify the writing forms—journals, stories, poems, plays, letters, biographies etc.)
teachers can also specify the purpose and/or audience for writing (narrative, argument, informational, letter to author being studied in class, class newsletter to parents, etc.)
KEEP

6. OPTIONAL

7. Considering purpose…. Is this writing being written…
to make thinking visible-Why is this important?
to entertain?
to persuade?
to inform?
KEEP
Talk about the “making thinking visible” bullet. Should be able to see what students are thinking. When you make thinking visible it’s easier for the teachers to see the gap between what was presented and what the students heard.

8. Prewriting with Purpose Sort
At your table, match a graphic organizer and to its writing structure/purpose.
After you match the graphic organizers , discuss one way to use each graphic organizer with its purpose for writing. Please be prepared to share.

9. Examples of Prewriting
Thinking Maps
Brainstorm
Lists
Timelines
Bubble Map
Flow-Chart
Venn Diagram

10. Links and Resources for Prewriting and Choosing Topics

11. Two: Drafting Stage Time for ideas to hit the paper!
Not a time to edit or correct mistakes.
Also a time to get a good lead—opening sentence(s).
KEEP

12. Strategies for Drafting
Students may want to skip every other line as they right to leave space for revising.
Give students sentence starters to help develop leads.
Create a list of words related to topic and circle the most interesting words to get the “hook”
For struggling writers:
Color-code main topics vs. supporting details
Cut sentences apart and have students reorder them

13. Links and Resources for Drafting

14. Three and Four: Revising and Editing
“You revise with your ears and edit with your eyes.”
KEEP
You revise with your ears and edit with your eyes – does it sound right? Does it look right – capitalization, format, style?
Rereading the rough draft—usually a day or two after the drafting stage. Why?
As students reread, they make changes and place question marks by things they want to ask their writing group and/or teacher.
Revising consists of:
adding
substituting
deleting
moving text from one place to another

15. Revising Looks at the content and structure of the paper.
Adding, substituting, deleting, and moving text
Show youtube video

16. Editing
Addresses writing conventions: spelling, grammar, and other errors.
1-2 day wait time in between revising and editing stages (teachers could do mini-lessons on editing in between stages)

17. Links and Resources for Revising & Editing

18. Five: Publishing Final stage!
Students should have a finished product that they are proud of and are able to share with peers and/or adults.
Common Core calls for presentation in a variety of formats/media
Read alouds, students share on the document cameras, post on a website/blog, create a class anthology, share a story with a parent/peer
KEEP
Ask who students can share writing with.

19. Components of Writing Workshop in the Classroom…
Writing (30 to 60 minutes)
prewriting
drafting
revising
editing
publishing
Sharing (5-15 minutes)
Mini-lessons (15-30 minutes) Includes lessons on:
writing workshop procedures
information about authors literacy concepts
writing strategies/skills
Reading aloud—teachers share (orally)—or have their students reading models of high quality writing through literature .
KEEP
Discuss the wide variety of things that occur during “writing”: conferencing with teachers and/or peers, creating lists of ideas, the writing we do in math, science, social studies – if the overarching purpose of writing is to make thinking visible, what do we write?
Why is it important to incorporate high quality literature?
Bring in Literacy Framework for each level for comparison discussion.
Ask teachers to consider how classes structures might look.

20. Additional Resources

21. Your Turn…..
Start from the beginning stage and create a writing assignment for an upcoming unit/theme in your class.
How would you have students prewrite or would you leave this open for them to choose?
Go through each stage to design your lesson/mini-lessons.

22. Ticket Out the Door 3 things that you learned today
2 things that you are still wondering about
1 thing you will to try with your students tomorrow and/or share with your colleagues
OPTIONAL