In this post, Ashley Coblentz, Jackie Moreno, and Brian Digate take a closer look at stories that matter.
Context: We want our students to master digital
age skills while staying true to the core principles of the writing workshop.
So when thinking of how to do this, we kept Lucy Calkin’s philosophy at the
heart of our writing block. Students still write “stories that matter”
regardless of whether they are using pencils or keyboards. When students began
using iPads during writing, we didn’t want to simply replicate what they were
doing with paper and pencil; we wanted them to have experiences as writers that
were not possible before. Take a look at these students conferencing if you
remain unconvinced:
Have you seen high school students conference as well as
these elementary students?
Outcomes: We still give students the option to
write with paper, but the digitization of the writing process has created
inspired writers in our classroom and has taken the writing process to new
heights. Students feel more motivation
to write because they know that more readers will have access to their work now
that they can share multiple copies digitally. They have more stamina and
enthusiasm for writing than ever before.
Writing Workshop 2.0
Planning:
Instead of teachers giving students
printed graphic organizers, where they have to fit their ideas into our
structure, students use Popplet
to create their own graphic organizers, customizing them in a way that allows
them to take ownership of craft and structure.
Drafting: After planning using Popplet students
draft their piece in Pages or
another word processing app.
Conferencing, Revising and Editing: Before it was
difficult to know what students were discussing during peer writing conferences
unless we were right next to the kids. Now students are able to record their
thoughts about potential revisions and edits in the app Educreations,
using a CCSS-based rubric and sending conference links to teachers and each
other. We have noticed a dramatic increase in use of academic language and
focus during this part of the writing block. One of the most powerful outcomes
is how much having access to videos of students talking about their writing has
improved our formative assessment practices, which in turn, has greatly
improved the instruction we offer our students.
Publishing: Students love when it’s their turn to
share a published story. Students used to only be able to publish only one copy
of each of their stories, and it was typically read by only a few students who
got their hands on it. Now students can send their work to their classmates’ iBooks libraries, and
every single student in the class and beyond can have a copy of that story,
accessible at any time, on their personal bookshelves.
How
to Upgrade the Writing Workshop:
1. Plan with a graphic organizer app (Our
favorites are Popplet
and
Idea Sketch).
2. Write rough draft in a word processing
app (Pages or Google
Docs).
3. Open writing rubric in Educreations to
conference with a peer.
4. Have a writing conference-annotate
draft.
5. Make revisions & edit in a word
processing app (Pages
for
us).
6. Send to iBooks via email.
