Description of Implementation
At the start of Phase Three, I shared various folk tales with the students such as “How Zebras Got Their Stripes,” by Ned Jensen and “When Hippo was Hairy,” by Nick Greaves. Children were extremely engaged during these readings as evidenced by the way they leaned into and maintained eye contact with me as I read. They also made comments throughout the stories (“Poor donkeys!”, “The hippo brags, he is bragging!”), shared insights, and made predictions as to what would happen next. When I asked the students if they would want to create their own stories about the animals they are researching, I was met with clapping and exclamations such as “Yay!” Students also began talking with each other about their animals and the special characteristics they could write about. Some of their comments included:
“I’m gonna write about how the koala got a pouch.”
“My toucan has a rainbow beak.”
“What about a gorilla? My gorilla is fat. And hairy. I could write why he is hairy.”
As a class, we reviewed the elements of a story and I reminded students that they could brainstorm ideas for each element of their story to facilitate the writing process.
Week One: Adapting to an inconsistent schedule.
In Phase One, students spent a specific amount of time on brainstorming. They were also given a set amount of time to write the beginning, middle, and end of their stories. Students that finished an element of their story before their peers were given the opportunity to reread, revise and add to that specific element until the rest of the class was ready to move onto the next element. Because students were not familiar with the Writing Workshop at that time, I felt that they needed more guidance and scaffolding during independent writing. However, because students have grown to be more independent during our Writing Workshop and due to the scheduling conflicts and time restraints in Phase Three, students were given a suggested sequence of smaller writing activities and encouraged to move onto the next activity when they felt ready to do so. The sequence of activities, which was created as a class during a mini lesson was as follows:
1. Brainstorm ideas for each element of your story: Setting, characters, problem, solution.
2. Draft, get feedback and revise: Introduction (to include the setting and character descriptions).
3. Draft, get feedback and revise: Problem
4. Draft, get feedback and revise: Solution
5. Draft, get feedback and revise: Entire story
6. Publish final draft on website.
Students had approximately 3 weeks in which to complete their stories. However, several periods of the Writing Workshop had to be cancelled or shortened to due end of the year activities. Students were made aware of this and when asked if they felt that this was enough time for them to finish their stories, 92% of the students answered, “Yes.”
By the end of the first week of Phase Three, students were working on different stages of their story. While 10 students had almost half of their story drafted, 8 students were still working on brainstorming. This significant disparity in progress can be attributed to several factors:
- Students received letters from their pen pals and needed to respond by the following Monday.
- Students were being pulled individually for end of the year reading assessments.
- Students were being pulled in small groups to work on building their animal models.
- A school assembly was scheduled that I did not account for.
- Unexpected absences
Despite these disruptions in schedules, students worked diligently during Writing Workshop and most students maintained positive feelings regarding writing.
The end of the week exit slips revealed the following:
- In response to, “Are you enjoying this week’s writing assignment?” 89% of students said “YES.”
- In response to, “Are you excited to have your stories published on a website?” 92% of students said, “YES.”
- In response to, “Do you think you will finish your story in time for the Art Exhibition?” 60% of students said, “YES.”
Students who responded in the negative to the above questions shared similar feelings and comments included:
“I didn’t get a lot done because I had to [do my reading assessment].”
“I was working on my pen pal letter most of the time.”
“I’m nervous about not finishing my story.”
Week Two: The Discontinuity Continues
I did not want students to feel nervous or anxious during writing this week and knew that with the end of the year quickly approaching, there would be an increase in Writing Workshop disruptions. I reassured my students that if they did not complete their stories by the last Writing Workshop, they could finish their stories over the summer and share them with their families and friends. I explained that sometimes, things come up that we cannot control and I wanted them to focus on enjoying writing and sharing during the time we had left.
We received the published book created during Phase One this week and spent almost an entire Writing Workshop celebrating and looking through the book. It was such a joy to see the students’ faces light up as they saw their stories and names published in a “real book.” They were complimenting each other on their pictures, pointing out whose stories were next to whose, and saying, “Great job!” to each other.
Schedule changes occurred this week due to other classrooms’ showcases, a field trip, continued student assessments and conferences, and an awards assembly.
Nine students finished their animal stories this week and wanted to publish their stories on the website. Although I would have liked these students to spend a bit more time editing and revising, I thought that seeing their stories on the website would be more beneficial for their confidence levels and would motivate other students to finish their stories as well. I shared the website during a mini lesson and taught students how to log on and comment on stories. Later that day, two students asked if they could work on their stories during recess since our Writing Workshop time was cut short.
Week Three: A Sad Goodbye
During this last week of Writing Workshop, we only had time for two more sessions. The students expressed sadness over this realization and made comments such as, “Will you be back next year to teach us writing?” and, “I will write every day over the summer!” Three more stories were published on the website.
I noticed when comparing the students’ stories from Phase Three to the stories from Phase One, the stories from Phase One were much longer and more developed in terms of story structure, word choice and sentence complexity. Furthermore, only 50% of students were able to finish their Phase Three stories before the Art Exhibition in contrast to 100% of students finishing their personal narratives in Phase One and Pen Pal letter deadlines in Phase Two. I feel that a large part of this was due to the fact that students had a greater amount of time during Phase One to reread, revise and receive feedback on their stories and the Writing Workshop schedule was regular and consistent during Phases One and Two.
The last feedback survey/exit slip revealed the following:
- 100% of students felt that they improved as writers since the implementation of the Writing Workshop.
- 100% of students stated that writing for an audience motivated them to do their best when writing.
- When asked, “What helped you become a better writer?” common answers included:
-conferencing,
-having time to write every day and
-mini lessons.
The last feedback survey/exit slip revealed the following:
-conferencing,
-having time to write every day and
-mini lessons.
- 100% of students felt that they improved as writers since the implementation of the Writing Workshop.
- 100% of students stated that writing for an audience motivated them to do their best when writing.
- When asked, “What helped you become a better writer?” common answers included:
-conferencing,
-having time to write every day and
-mini lessons.