WRITING W

ORKSHOP

READING LIKE A WRITER• Taken from Katie Wood Ray’s book, What You

Know by Heart How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop

“As teachers of writing over time we develop a sort of general habit of mind that always asks of the well-written texts we encounter, ‘Okay, now how’s this written?’”

GUESS WHAT RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND?Middle and upper class parents tend to

engage in these kinds of “habits of mind” with their own children when they are reading out loud to them.

EVERY TEXT IS A CURRICULUM . . .

“All texts are demonstrations of how our language works and its conventions. Most all texts have punctuation and capitalization . . . every single text is a whole chunk of curriculum potential.”

SO START COLLECTING/CURATING “TEXTS!”

Hint: A great curating tool that I love and use is scoop.it!

http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-literacies-and-learning

READING LIKE A WRITER

“When we study texts with questions like these in mind, every answer is curriculum, and this is why a single well-written text is so full of potential.”

MENTOR TEXTS• What do we mean by a mentor text? • Why might it be useful to have mentor

texts?• What mentor texts have you used in your

own writing that you might use in your own classroom?

• What mentor texts have you seen your MT’s use?

QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT MENTOR TEXTS:GENERAL APPROACH TO THE WRITING

• What’s the piece about? How does this help us think about topic selection?• What is the approach to the writing? Is there more than one form operating

in the piece?• What do we think the author was intending to do with this piece of writing?

Tell a story? Describe? Celebrate? Share a memory? Make a point? Compare two things? Help us see something in a new way? Provide information?

• How is the piece focused? What’s included, and what do you think has been left out?

• Who is narrating the piece?• What genre-specific things can you learn from looking at this piece? For

example, what does it teach you about character development in a piece of fiction or placement of your argument in an editorial?

QUESTIONS TO ASK OF MENTOR TEXTS:CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEXT

• How does the title relate to the text?• How does it start?• How does it end?• Looking at the text as a whole, what different parts

do we see? How do the parts of it work together? How does the text move?

• Are there parts embedded within parts—dialogue, side stories, explanations, etc.?

QUESTIONS TO ASK OF MENTOR TEXTS:MAKING THE LANGUAGE WORK

• What interesting work are the various parts of speech doing in the text: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjenctions, prepositions?

• What is the writer doing with sentences in the text?• What interesting punctuation choices has the writer made in this text? How is the

punctuation supporting the meaning and the sound of the text?• If the text is divided into paragraphs, what paragraph work do you see the writer

doing?• Does the writer manipulate any conventions to make meanings?• Is print used in any interesting way to convey meaning?• Which parts of the text have really nice sound? What’s the writer doing in these

places? 

WHY WRITING WORKSHOP?1. Brandon Story2. Disengaged/reluctant/resistant learners.3. The “traditional” stuff wasn’t working.4. Started reading everything I could about teaching

writing: Nancie Atwell, Linda Reif, Randy Bomer, etc.5. Started experimenting with aspects of workshop

approach—mini lessons on writing conventions (Sammy and periods), poetry unit, etc.

6. After two years of teaching, I developed a workshop approach that worked for me and my students.

WRITING WORKSHOP IN MY CLASSROOM1. Memoir Unit: Started keeping writing notebooks

(collaged)2. Poetry Unit3. Persuasive Essay Unit4. 5-paragraph Essay/Of Mice and Men5. Book Club unit6. Romeo & Juliet/drama unit7. Portfolios: crates/hanging file folders

MEMOIR1. Mentor Text: “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” by Alice

WalkerActivities: reading our mentor text like writers. Lifegraphs, sketching

your neighborhood, sensory details games2. See lesson plan example

PERSUASIVE ESSAY—POPULAR MEDIA

THE SECRET E

DUCATION

OF CHILD

REN

ACTIVITIES

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vincie shows the noral proportions

of a human being. Compare the proportions of Vitruvian Man to

Barbie’s proportions.

What do young children learn from Barbie about what it means

to be a girl?

Do Now: Take a Stand! Gender Survey1.___Boys who cry are sissies2.___Television shows and cartoons teach children how to

act like a boy or a girl.3.___Girls who play sports are not feminine.4.___Girls are better than boys at taking care of children.

ACTIVITIES

CHARTING STEREOTYPES FROM READING, WRITING, AND RISING UP

As you watch the cartoons today, begin to think about the education that children soak up while they view. Of course, I can hear you already: “Cartoons are innocent fairy tales.” Keep that assumption, but also imagine for a moment that children might learn some lessons. Using the chart, take notes on the following questions as you view:

1. Who plays the lead? 2. Who plays the buffoon?3. Who plays the servant?4. Look at the race, station in life, body type of each character?5. If there are people of color in the film, how are they portrayed? What

would children learn about this particular group from this film?

6. What about women other than the main character? What jobs do you see them doing? What do they talk about? What are their main concerns? What would young children learn about women’s roles in society if they watched this film and believed it?

7. What roles do money, possessions, and power play in the film? Who has it? Who wants it? How important is it to the story? What would children learn about what’s important in this society?

8. How does the film portray overweight people?

MENTOR TEXTS“Our Barbies, Ourselves” by Emily PrangerEssays from Linda Christensen’s bookEssays from previous students

FINAL PROJECT

EXCERPT FROM “THE SECRET EDUCATION OF CHILDREN"

“What I found to be most shocking after reading the article, “Our Barbies, Ourselves,” is that it wouldn’t even cross your mind why Barbie looks like that, or to even look at her and see all the negative images she could possible be sending. I personally wouldn’t buy Barbie for my own child, or any other child. I’d rather get them something productive and fun. Something they can interact with and not just something that they can play dress up with. The only thing Barbie could teach your daughter is how to look like the perfect girl in a man’s eyes. Doesn’t that seem peculiar?”—Leslie

EXCERPT FROM “UNCUT BOOTY BOUNCIN’”“Black Entertainment Television, also known as BET, is

stretching the limits of late night television with its uncut block of videos. From 3am to 4am, BET broadcast a segment of videos for its more mature audience titled “Uncut.” BET Uncut started as a way for new aspiring artists to get their music heard but has now turned into a butt-bouncing buffet. Before the show airs, a disclaimer appears on the screen which warns viewers under 17 to change the channel. But, is this really enough to discourage children from watching the show? Sex is infiltrating mainstream pop culture at an alarming rate and whether you like it or not it has just begun.” --Chris

BACK TO MY WRITING WORKSHOP CURRICULUM . . . • I also incorporated more traditional 5-paragraph

analytic essay to teach test prep as a genre. • We did the test prep unit along with Of Mice and Men.• Final unit was an interdisciplinary 9th grade

Renaissance Fair. Students read, “translated,” and then performed scenes from Romeo & Juliet.

WHAT IS YOUR END GOAL?

• Meet the standards?• Cover the curriculum?• Follow the pacing guide?

MY END GOAL?• Try to show kids that reading and writing was relevant

to their lives.• Try to show kids that reading and writing are powerful

and political acts.• Try to make my classroom a really warm, happy (and

sometimes even fun) place to be.

WORK ON YOUR LESSONSEach group will be given a page on the wiki. Share the best links/resources you find as you

research your genre!1. Read Smago’s chapter on your genre2. Books from CML*3. NCTE4. EC Ning