Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Working on Writing and Word Work 

 Working on Writing

In the first part of this chapter (about working on writing) the sisters write about the importance of providing time for students to write about what really matters to them. I do writer's workshop in my classroom. But, I do not have students continue working on something from writer's workshop during the working on writing center. If you've been following my other Daily 5 posts, you'll remember that I have 8 literacy centers and 5 of those are Daily 5 activities.

To be honest, I probably have a different philosophy than many elementary teachers when it comes to writing.  I believe that it is important to develop good writing habits when practicing writing.  Call me type A.  Call me a control freak.  I like the writers in my room to develop good writing habits and produce high quality work.  Yes, I like them to express their creativity and I encourage them to share their thoughts in writing.   But, I admit that I feel a little crabby if  a student in my classroom tries to write page after page of letter strings (with no visible conventions) that he/she is unable to read. I want to be able to read it.  I want them to be able to read it too.  I also want it to make sense.  I can't be the only teacher who feels like that, right? 

Since I have those preferences about developing good habits during writing, my students do very specific things during writer's workshop and very structured things when they visit the working with writing center.  I think the structure of the activities that my students do during the working with writing center allows them to be independent enough for me to accomplish my small group time without interruptions.  Below are some of the things my students do during the working with writing center time. 

My students work on how-to writing, which they are able to accomplish independently.  This is a summer how-to writing book that I made for my students.  Each student gets their own copy of the book but can work on the pages in any order (giving them choices).  If you click on the picture you can download the book.  I have how-to books for other times in the year that I will be adding to my Tpt and Teachers Notebook shops soon...just haven't gotten around to that yet.

Here are two of the other things that my students do during working on writing time.  These products can be found in my both my Tpt store and my Teachers Notebook shop.

Word Work
Word work is a student favorite in my classroom.  It is also one of my favorite things to plan/create.  My students do lots of sorting activities, spelling activities, sight word practice, word family activities and even practice sentence building (and identifying parts of sentences) during the word work center.

I do not introduce any new concepts or skills during my centers.  I want my students to be able to work independently during this time.  I want the children to be challenged enough to stay busy, but able to work without help while I work with small groups of students.

I use this planning sheet when planning my word work activities.  It helps plan a variety of work work activities over time. You can click on the image to download a copy if you'd like.

Here are a few of my favorite word work activities.  These can be found in my Tpt store and at my Teachers Notebook shop.  In August, Tpt is having a back to school sale and I'm going to stock up on some new word work activities from other bloggers.

Deb from Fabulously First is hosting this chapter of our Daily 5 book study for first grade.  Jenn from Best Practices for Teaching is hosting this chapter for 2nd/3rd grade. Please stop by to visit their fabulous posts and to read what others are saying about this chapter.  You can even link up your own post about this chapter of the Daily 5.