Reading and Writing Workshop Training: Launching the Workshop

I gave the teachers in my Reading and Writing Workshop a taste of what workshop is like similar to the way that I launch workshop each year - with a narrative genre study. Because of the compact nature of the time allotted, I did have to explain what I would do in a regular classroom in some stages, while having them try it out in other portions.

Influenced by Aimee Buckner, I explained that I start the year with stories, reading books that I think have universal themes or experiences with which my students can connect in order to prompt their own thinking about stories they have to share. I showed them one of my favorite start of the year texts, Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories. I shared with teachers how it is a perfect fit for our community of dual immersion students since all students have stories of learning a new language.

I often talked to students about my own list of possible experiences, such as the first time riding alone in a taxi cab in Mexico when I paid the driver a 50 cent piece (thinking they only had pesos) and being confused when the driver was waiting for more money, rather than getting me my change. I talk about trying to express my confusion and the driver eventually having to take another 50 cent piece out of my hand, holding the two together to say "un peso" and my embarrassment of realizing that I had only given him half of a peso. As such, my students and I would laugh together about experiences learning languages - the joys, the challenges, the laughter...

I mentioned to teachers that I would not necessarily use this book as a start of the year writing workshop launch if I was teaching in my hometown community where most students have not yet experienced learning another language. In that context I would choose another book that would closely connect to my rural community's experience. I shared with teachers how depending on the age and stories students have to tell, it might be that students start writing on the first day or it is just fine to have successive days reading and orally sharing stories, as oral rehearsing is a vital portion of the process, waiting as Buckner says until the day when it seems that everyone in the class has a story to tell.

Then I transitioned into a narrative just for them, Penny Kittle's "of frog legs, crickets, and Superman's cape", one that I first heard when she read it out loud at the Boothbay Literacy Retreat. Just as I imagined I saw teachers smiling and laughing as I read it aloud, and after they were able to think of their own memorable moments with teaching. I guided them through listing, partner sharing, and then writing quick writes, again highlighting the importance of oral rehearsing with the sharing portion in between listing and quick writes. Then they did a whip-around share, each sharing a small portion of their quick write in order to model a different way of sharing.

Next teachers "sat in" on a mini-lesson with Lucy Calkins in her Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5, and I had teachers go back and experiment with their quick write with Calkins' lesson in mind. Then teachers shared with partners again. I heard them respond naturally to each other's writing, as well as noting what stood out to them. They were getting a sense of what it is like to be a part of a community of writers, of what they could foster in their own classrooms.