About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers
Based on a profound understanding of the ways in which young children learn, this book shows teachers how to launch a writing workshop by inviting children to do what they do naturally - make stuff.
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About the Authors is about the littlest authors - those in kindergarten through second grade. Based on a profound understanding of the ways in which young children learn, it shows teachers how to launch a writing workshop by inviting children to do what they do naturally - make stuff. So why not write books? Gifted educator and author of the best-selling What You Know by Heart (Heinemann, 2002), Katie Wood Ray has seen young authors do just that. And she wants your students to be able to do the same. Beautifully describing young children in the act of learning, she demonstrates what it takes to nourish writing right from the start: a supportive environment that enables even the youngest students to write respect and sensitivity to the way children really learn inviting instruction that both encourages and elevates young writers rich language that stimulates writing classroom talk and children's literature that energize young writers developmental considerations that shape the structure of the workshop, making it natural, joyful, and absolutely appropriate. What's more, Ray explains step by step how to set up and maintain a primary writing workshop, detailing eleven units of study that cover idea generation, text structures, different genres, and illustrations that work with text. She also draws on data, projects, and the language of teaching used in the classroom of first-grade teacher Lisa Cleaveland. Ray allows readers to "listen in" to Lisa as she helps her young students learn from professional writers, work with intention, and think about their own process. Chockfull of examples of little books by young children, About the Authors is proof positive that a primary writing workshop is a smart writing move.
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionSect. 1Building a strong foundationCh. 1Writing workshop : a happy place where we make stuff1Ch. 2Work, space, and time : writing workshop right from the start23Ch. 3Wrapping strong arms around the writing workshop : children learning about language all day long38Ch. 4How our youngest writers use the writing process to help them make books58Sect. 2Understanding the teachingCh. 5Looking closely at minilessons : whole-class teaching that fills the workshop with possibilities82Ch. 6Organizing for thoughtful instruction with units of study102Ch. 7Assessment : learning all we can about the authors119Ch. 8Teaching into and out of the work of individual children : writing conferences and share times139Sect. 3An overview of units of studyUnit of study AThe kinds of things writers make and how we'll make them in this room155Unit of study BWhere writers get ideas159Unit of study CHow to read like writers165Unit of study DFinding writing mentors172Unit of study EHow to structure texts in interesting ways177Unit of study FHow to make illustrations work better with written text183Unit of study GHow to have better peer conferences188Unit of study HLiterary nonfiction192Unit of study IHow to use punctuation in interesting ways205Unit of study JPoetry214Unit of study KRevision221Closing thoughts233Works cited235Index237
