Writer's Workshop - Author Findings

I am so excited to finally be back on here.  I had a mini meltdown last week when I noticed my blog design had been taken over by a third party.  Talk about annoying.  Thankfully Emily over at Blogaholics could help me out and get me back up and running.  If you ever need any help with your blog design I highly recommend her.

Usually during the summer months I am out of commission because I am out of my classroom and with my little Nora enjoying our time together, but I have decided to change that because I am learning too much stuff in my masters classes not to share.  I am currently taking a writer’s workshop course and wanted to share some things I have picked up.

Some of the things we researched in our last class were author’s pages and how to incorporate them into your lessons.  I found two really awesome sites that are wroth using in your classroom.  I am in LOVE with Oliver Jeffers books and his site had great video summaries over his books and also some awesome videos that he makes to explain what writes do and the writing process.  The other author that has a great site is Robert Munsch.  Did you know that you can send in your writings and pictures and he will display them on his site? Talk about an incentive to write.  He also uses the stories that kids send in and pictures to give him ideas about his own stories. I loved the idea of using one of his picture books for a mini lesson and then having kids send in their work afterwards.

I love this video that Oliver Jeffers created.  It would fit perfect in the beginning of writer’s workshop when you are discussing how to get ideas for your writing. Plus he is a BIG goofball and the kids will love him.

Some of Oliver Jeffers’ books I love for writing lessons are Stuck and It Wasn’t Me!  I love stuck to teach ellipsis and introducing the use of callouts in illustrations.  I really love to use It Wasn’t Me to discuss author’s voice and craft.  This book had tones of callouts and the Jeffers’ uses lots of all caps in words and bold words to show feelings and voice.  This would even be a good book to use when discussing which punctuation mark he used and why.   

The use of callout boxes in It Wasn’t Me is great because it uses pictures not just words to help describe what the characters are feeling.  Here are some snap shots from inside the book.

Here are some great picture books By: Robert Munsch to use for mini lessons.  I really loved the snowsuit lesson idea. It’s a great excuse to get outside when the weather is snowy/cold or even just a fun activity to do inside during the weather.

Thomas’ Snowsuit is perfect for describing words/adjectives within their writing.  Have them describe their snowsuit with awesome adjectives.   Andrew’s Loose Tooth is perfect for small moment introductions.  Most of my first graders have lost a tooth and could use this as an idea for a small moment writing piece.  He also does a great job with word choice and character feelings in this book. 

Sorry for the extra long post but I also wanted to let you know that my all time favorite author for teachers came out with a writing strategies book!!!!! If you liked her reading version you will love her writing one too!! It has so many awesome ideas for short 10-minute mini-lessons for your writing block.  They are so easily organized by teaching point and grade.