Mini-Lessons for the Writers Workshop

W r i t i n g M o n o g r a p h S e r i e s

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W r i t i n g M o n o g r a p h S e r i e s

Mini-Lessons for the Writers Workshop

Authors

Grace Morizawa

Elizabeth Woodworth

Contributing Staff

Lori Bolling

Susan Fitzgerald

Sally Hampton

Kristi Kraemer

Linda Lewis

Faye Richardson

Program Design and Development

Sally Hampton

Introduction 1

What Experts Say About Mini-Lessons 3

Guide to Presenting Mini-Lessons 5

Categories of Mini-Lessons 6Procedural Mini-Lessons

Craft Mini-Lessons

Skills Mini-Lessons

Resources for Mini-Lessons 9You as a Resource

Your Knowledge as a Resource

Literature as a Resource

Cautions on Use of Literature as a Resource

Student Work as a Resource

Other Resources

Formats for Mini-Lessons 14Students Modeling

Teacher Modeling

Direct Presentation

Interactive

A Final Note 18

References 20

Mini-Lessons for the Writers Workshop

Table of Contents

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"Just as the art instructor sometimes pulls students who are working at their separate places in the studio together in order to demonstrate a new technique, so too, writing teach-ers often gather their students for brief whole-class meetings. I call these gatherings mini-lessons . . . . The mini-lesson is our forum for making a suggestion to the whole class — raising a concern, exploring an issue, modeling a technique, reinforcing a strategy" (Calkins, 1994, p. 193).

Mini-Lessons for the Writers Workshop

Mini-lessons are a key instructional component of the Writers Workshop. There are three kinds of mini-lessons: Procedural, Craft and Skills (for more details, see Mini-Lessons: Establishing the Writers Workshop). Whole-class or small-group mini-lessons — focused instruc-tion that usually occurs at the beginning of the Writers Workshop — should last five to 10 minutes. Mini-lessons become an opening ritual, bringing together a community of readers and writers. They add a sense of direction and rigor to a class and, most important, they impart

information about writing (Harwayne, 1992, p. 132).

Mini-lessons connect students’ needs with writing instruction. The mini-lessons can easily be repeated with small groups throughout the workshop as appropriate to students’ needs. Mini-lessons are often reviewed during the closing meeting.

Grounded on what successful writ-ers do, the content of mini-lessons should be based on students’ needs, standards, evaluations and observa-tions. The goal of each mini-lesson is to

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move students forward as writers and to support students trying new strate-gies. The content of mini-lessons should be flexible from day to day based on what students need to learn about craft, procedure or skill and how to achieve standards (Atwell, 1987, p. 124).

Sometimes you may share your authority as a writer; you’ll do most of the talking, sharing your knowledge and experience. The format of a mini-lesson also can be interactive, with you and students working together to build ideas, brainstorm or rehearse a strategy orally.

You can use student work to dem-onstrate a mini-lesson, “especially when a student has found a solution to a writing or reading problem or taken a ‘deliberate stance’ in creating or responding to a piece of literature” (Atwell, 1998, p. 152). Sharing stu-dents’ successes in mini-lessons can be useful and even inspirational, but don’t use student work to illustrate what shouldn’t be done. Published children’s literature, however, can be a very useful model, whether positive or negative. For the lesson to work well, the students need to be familiar with the literature before using it in a mini-lesson.

No matter what kind of mini-lesson you present, keep a record of it so you can refer to each mini-lesson later in individual conferences and throughout the year. Post each mini-lesson or keep them in a binder so children can refer back to a particular mini-lesson when they need it. By doing this, you reinforce the mini-lesson and you share with students your expectation that they take respon-sibility for their learning (Graves, 1994, pp. 207–08).

Key points to remember as you define a mini-lesson

for your students:• interactive

• sharing of knowledge

• thoughtful

• authentic (based on students’ needs)

• creates a frame of reference

• comes from looking at student work

• comes from experiences as a reader and writer

• features students’ work positively

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Mini-lessons enable you to teach and still reserve the majority of time in the Writers Workshop for student writing. Mini-lessons give you time to write with students, time to read with students, and time for you and your students to talk about the read-ing and writing being done (Fletcher, 1998, p. 110).

What Experts Say About Mini-Lessons In Lasting Impressions, Shelley Harwayne describes how her mini-lessons evolved from brief stand-alone lessons focusing on specific points to lessons that are embedded in complementary rituals, activities and structures throughout the school day. For example, some-times students engage in the joyful performance of literature; other times

they undertake long-term investiga-tions of a good writer, lingering over qualities of good writing; and some-times they simply live with a beloved book, reading as writers. Harwayne writes, “We need to add breadth and depth. Students need to realize that the qualities that make good writing involve complex issues,” and they learn this from reading as writers, really diving into an author’s works (Harwayne, 1992, p. 227).

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… sometimes students engage

in the joyful performance of

literature; other times they

undertake long-term investi-

gations of a good writer … and

sometimes they simply live

with a beloved book.

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For example, not only do writers need to know ways to add details but they need to understand how authors handle details. Harwayne suggests that during mini-lesson time, students engage in an entire course of study and look at several books by the same author to study one quality.

Nancie Atwell, in In the Middle, also discusses how she began to recon-ceptualize the mini-lesson. At first her mini-lessons were five to 10 minutes of direct teaching, presenting well-researched information about writ-ing. As she began to consider what else a mini-lesson might do, she saw that it was a forum not only for shar-ing authority, but also for students to share what they knew and for students and teachers to think collaboratively and produce knowledge together. She began to see mini-lessons as a ritual for a community of writers to create a communal frame of reference devel-oping vocabulary, criteria and proce-dures together. At times she relied on longer, interactive mini-lessons to help students reflect and improve on their writing. These mini-lessons work well as a way of reaching more than one student at a time outside of confer-ence time. Mini-lessons do not replace conferences, which are a vital part of teaching, but mini-lessons can be linked to those conferences.

Carl Anderson suggests this format in “The Architecture of a Mini-Lesson”

included in How’s It Going?:

• A mini-lesson begins with a connection in which we tell stu-dents what we will be teaching them and why.

• Next, we teach students about a kind of writing work, either by giving them information or by helping them gather informa-tion about that work.

• After we teach, we often have students have-a-go with the work we’ve taught them — that is, they give the work a brief try.

• Finally, we end the mini-lesson by linking the lesson to stu-dents’ independent writing (Anderson, 2000, p. 141).

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JoAnne Hindley calls the mini-lesson “a time for rigorous whole-class instruction” — the title of chapter three in her book, In the Company of Children. Meaningful mini-lessons are based on knowing students well, knowing their behaviors as writers and knowing their work. It’s your role to keep mini-lessons flexible and rel-evant because students’ “real growth occurs only when kids have ample time to put their pencils to paper.” Mini-lessons are especially important to have in your instructional tool box because, as Hindley writes, “No one knows our kids as well as we do. Only we know when our class is ready to learn about something or needs to spend more time on something else” (Hindley, 1996, pp. 19, 21).

Guide to Presenting Mini-LessonsAlthough different mini-lessons have varied and diverse formats, the basic structure is similar and eventually should become a ritual that marks the beginning of each Writers Workshop and also works to build a community in the classroom.

A mini-lesson begins with a connection:

l tell students what you’ll be teaching and why;

l teach the mini-lesson;

l allow a brief time for students to test out this new knowledge;

l link the mini-lesson to students’ writing; and

l give students a chance to thoroughly try out what they’ve learned.

You may choose to explore the topic further through oral discussion in large or small groups, by letting stu-dents look through and work in their sourcebooks, or by sharing writing. Students can choose drafts in which

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No one knows our kids as well

as we do. Only we know when

our class is ready to learn about

something or needs to spend

more time on something else.

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to apply the strategies introduced in the mini-lesson. Strongly suggest that students apply these strategies right away, and support students’ efforts through individual or small-group conferencing.

Categories of Mini-LessonsMini-lessons can address any aspect of writing or a writer’s process.

Procedural Mini-LessonsThese mini-lessons explicitly teach the rituals and routines of the Writers Workshop. They define where stu-dents need to be, what they need to be doing and how they need to be doing it. Rituals let students know exactly “how” they do things in the

Topics for Procedural Mini-Lessons (younger writers):

• writing the title, author’s name and date

• establishing workshop rules

• defining the structure and sequence of the workshop (mini-lesson, writing with con-ferring, large-group sharing)

• using only one side of the paper to facili-tate revision

• managing time in the Writers Workshop

• identifying ways to respond to writers

• using a writing folder

• suggesting procedures for editing one’s writing

Topics for Procedural Mini-Lessons (older writers):• expectations for writing

• rules for the Writers Workshop

• workshop routines

• silence during writing: writing as thinking

• daily writing folder and its purpose/ organization

• permanent writing folder and its purpose/organization

• spelling folder and its purpose/organization

• homework folder and weekly homework assignment sheet

• writing/reading handbook and its purpose/organization

• adding mini-lesson data to the writing/ reading handbook

• why we confer about writing

• conferring with oneself about one’s own writing

• conferring with the teacher

• conferring with peers: where, when and how

• how to whisper

• response forms for recording what hap-pens in peer conferences

• procedures and agendas for group conferences

• creating and updating an individual proof-reading list of the conventions taught to each student in editing conferences

• what to do when a writer is “finished”

• how to use an editing checksheet

• possible ways of publishing finished work

• scheduling student computer time

• self-evaluation procedures for the end of a term

• setting goals

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Writers Workshop. Routines explain “what” they always do in the Writers Workshop. Procedural mini-lessons help students develop ways to enhance their working environment, from how to set up a conference or goal setting to the best way to use a writing folder or how to whisper. (For more information, see Mini-Lessons: Establishing the Writers Workshop and Rituals, Routines and Artifacts: Classroom Management and the Writers Workshop.)

Craft Mini-LessonsCraft mini-lessons teach students about the elements of good writing and techniques for writers that facili-tate their process. Craft mini-lessons help students develop a repertoire of approaches such as techniques for selecting a topic, methods for adding and moving information, and ways of rereading their writing. Craft mini- lessons “touch on matters of tech-nique, style and genre” (Atwell, 1998, p. 130). To write well, students must learn about the strategies authors use to make their writing effective. An essential element in learning about the writer’s craft is reading stories, songs, poems and books. As students learn to read like writers, they begin to look closely at how the author wrote; they will tune into the author’s craft.

Craft Lessons, by Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi, is an extensive collection of this sort of mini-lesson. They offer the writing teacher a wide variety of craft lessons from “Deciding Where to Begin” to “Varying Length of

Sentences” for students in grades K–8. Each mini-lesson suggests an age range and supporting materials needed but, as the authors tell you, flexibility and adaptation are impor-tant. The mini-lesson may suggest grades K–2, but you can raise the bar a bit, select an alternate text and adapt it for grades 6–8.

Refer to Craft Lessons frequently as you plan your Writers Workshop. Use it as a companion to this monograph and to Mini-Lessons: Establishing the Writers Workshop.

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Topics for Craft Mini-Lessons:• using the active vs. passive voice

• describing a character

• developing plot

• using repetition

• experimenting with metaphors or similes

• using dialogue

• creating the right title

• using setting as a “character”

• experimenting with flashbacks

• adding illustrations

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Skills Mini-LessonsThese mini-lessons function as the third leg of a three-legged language stool. The first two legs are procedures and craft. A student needs to develop proficiency in all three areas in order to grow as a writer.

Grammatical correctness is nothing if it is not part of a beautiful, intrigu-ing opening sentence, revised with care and joy. A grammatically correct sentence with no joy doesn’t make a great opening sentence. For language to captivate a reader — in student writing or in any writing — it must be shaped with writer’s craft, and with commonly accepted conventions of language use.

While it’s true that knowing where to put a comma doesn’t help a student know how to draft or where to add more detail, skills are very important. The research on typographical errors and poor writing is clear — readers connect typos with poor quality, they quickly lose interest in the writing and they lose respect for the writer.

Skills mini-lessons address the conventions of English language usage (spelling, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing, subject-verb agreement and such). A convention is the con-tract the writer makes with the reader, agreeing how language will appear in a text. Learning the skills of English entails learning about the conventions and how to apply them. Students need to know that this contract or agreement is an important part of being a writer and, as writers, it’s their responsibility to themselves, their writing and the reader to then fulfill their part of the bargain. It’s your responsibility, as a writer and a teacher, to help students learn about the writer’s bargain with the reader. Your respectful attention to skills mini-lessons will set the tone, for “[w]e do our students a big favor by approaching rules and forms not as minutiae to be mastered, but as a means of helping them make their writing look and sound as they wish it to and in order that readers will engage with a text and take it seri-ously” (Atwell, 1998, p. 187).

Topics for Skills Mini-Lessons:• what conventions are, what they do and why we need them

• how and why writers edit as they go

• how to edit formally; why to use another ink color

• using dictionaries, spellers and handheld spell checkers

• margins, how they work and what they should look like

• formats of genres

• keeping a consistent point of view

• the difference between grammar and usage

• origins of punctuation and other marks; histories of marks, changes over time, Aristophanes — the inventor of punctuation

• hyphens and what they do

• easily confused verbs, such as lie and lay

• letter format — personal and professional

• spelling — why it matters, creating a personal word list, word study procedures, how to develop and use mnemonics, prefixes, suffixes, syllabication and splitting words between syllables, sound alikes, look alikes, and much more (Atwell, 1987, pp. 187–88).

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Most important to remember is that skills mini-lessons should come from students’ needs as you observe them in their writing. Small groups are especially conducive to teaching skills mini-lessons, because you truly can target a few students who need a bit more experience with and exploration of conventions.

Resources for Mini-Lessons

You as a Resource The first resource for mini-lessons is you. By sharing your writing and your experiences as a writer, you take on a new role of being part of the classroom community of writers. Becoming a writer with the students means you momentarily put the role of “teacher” aside and become a learner along with them. You can share small, short writ-ing projects with your students or get them involved in longer projects in a collaborative effort.

Many students will never see another person write unless you demonstrate your process as a writer. Students need to see how a writer struggles to find a topic and put words on paper, and witness firsthand a writer deliberately trying to write well. When you compose and think aloud while writing on the overhead or on chart paper, students see your inner exploration, sense of discovery and experimentation. They see how you examine the world around you to develop a piece.

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Your Knowledge as a ResourceMini-lessons also come from your knowledge. Atwell writes of how she positions herself with her students as a leader, coach and teacher:

I am an experienced reader and writer

imparting practical information to a

group of younger, less experienced read-

ers and writers. I know the difference

between recopying and revising . . . .

I teach my students what I know . . . so

they can put the information to use in

their writing and in their reading of litera-

ture (Atwell, 1998, p. 151).

Just as you, working as a writer in front of your students, serve as a resource for mini-lessons, so can your knowledge about writing be a resource. You can share what you know about adapting the writing process, working through a revision, attempting publication, checking that conventions are followed in your writ-ing, adding details, researching, seek-ing out readers and more. You also can share the authors who have influenced you as a writer, who have inspired your words or style, who you wish you were like on paper, who you try to be like when you write. What you read and how it affects your writing is a wonderful part of the resources you bring to your mini-lesson tool box.

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You don’t have to be an experi-enced or published writer to make a difference when you write in your class. “There may be an advantage,” writes Donald Graves, “in growing with [your students], learning together as both seek to find meaning in writ-ing.” But, he adds, “it does take cour-age to show words to children who haven’t seen an adult write before” (Graves, 1983, p. 43). It’s unheard of in some fields to teach without first dem-onstrating what must be done to grow, learn and achieve. And writing stu-dents certainly can benefit from both watching how it’s done and acting as partners to help accomplish the writ-ing task. “Writing is a craft,” states Graves. “It needs to be demonstrated to your students in your classroom, which is a studio, from choosing a topic to finishing a final draft. They need to see you struggle to match your intentions with the words that reach the page” (Graves, 1994, p. 110).

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Literature as a ResourceLiterature can be a powerful resource. Harwayne, in Lasting Impressions, suggests keeping loads of print mate-rial on the shelves in your room: “textbooks on writing and literature, journals, magazine articles, book reviews, the notebooks and mem-oirs of published authors as well as author publicity, promotional mate-rial and videos” (Harwayne, 1992, p. 314). Hindley agrees. In her work, In the Company of Children, she writes “Literature is a wonderful resource for mini-lessons . . . . Good literature works in various ways: it reminds us of our own lives or the lives of those we know well, serving as a resource for what we have to say in our own writing; its authors serve as mentors and the texts as models of what we might be attempting in our own writ-ing projects” (Hindley, 1996, p. 20). When students read as writers they are learning from master craftspeople. But then, writers — whether students or not — have always learned from read-ing the work of other writers.

While learning to write by read-ing others’ writing isn’t a new concept for professional writers, it may be new in classrooms. Katie Wood Ray, in Wondrous Words, cites examples of writers who have learned from reading other writers’ works:

Countless interviews, articles and memoirs

by and about famous writers attest to the

fact that writers learn to write from read-

ing the work of other writers. In an article

in Workshop Two (1990) about the teaching

of writing, Cynthia Rylant says, “I learned

how to write from writers. I didn’t know any

personally, but I read … ” (p. 19). Gary

Paulsen would agree with her. Speaking at

an NCTE [National Council of Teachers of

English] conference he gave this advice to

aspiring writers: “Just read for about four

years before you even start. Read every-

thing you can get your hands on.” And in

Radical Reflections (1993) Mem Fox talks

about listening again and again as a child

to the actor John Geilgud reading Shelley’s

“Ode to the West Wind” until she knew the

poem by heart (p. 113). Today, she says,

she still has “Shelley in her bones” and

his rhythms help her write. Like any other

craftspeople, professional writers know

that to learn their craft, they must stand

on the shoulders of writers who have gone

before them (Ray, 1999, p. 11).

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Both craft and skills mini-lessons can be designed around literature. But there can be more to it than that — the scope can be larger. You can create mini-lessons that invite students to live literate lives, “in which literature is used to build community, reveal stu-dents’ literary backgrounds, demon-strate [your] own passion for reading and writing.” Through mini-lessons employing literature, the invitation can be expanded: “invite students to play with language, encourage mentor relationships, inspire notebook writ-ing, or simply take their breath away” (Harwayne, 1992, p. 281).

Cautions on Use of Literature as a Resource As wonderful a resource as literature can be, it can also be overused in mini-lessons. Hindley reminds teachers that only familiar literature should be used in a mini-lesson. Whenever time to read and respond to literature is sched-uled in your class, it can be very help-ful if the literature the students read corresponds to the genres in which they are writing. Students need the opportunity to appreciate and listen to literature in its entirety, so it’s appro-priate to study something specific, rereading the piece or selected sections to discuss the writer’s craft explicitly through a mini-lesson or in prepara-tion for one (Hindley, 1996, p. 20).

Student Work as a ResourceNot only does student work determine the content of a mini-lesson, but it also is a resource. If students are reluctant to revise, ask a student to demon-strate a revision for the class to show the value and challenges of revision. Feature student work by having a stu-dent read aloud or make an overhead. Atwell writes about how she uses student work: “… I highlight the good writing — interesting and effective choices, breakthroughs, changes, risks, experiments and decisions that others can learn from. And I ask student writ-ers and readers to conduct mini- lessons, and bring their techniques, strategies and accomplishments before the group” (Atwell, 1998, p. 152).

Only familiar literature should

be used in a mini-lesson —

rereading a piece or selected

sections to explicitly discuss

the writer’s craft.

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Other ResourcesOther resources include:

l a wide range of reference materials;

l advice from experts in the field; and

l Web sites about writers and writing.

Professional literature not only discusses qualities of good writing but can give you a glimpse at the teaching experience of others. You can share books about writing and published notebooks with plans and drafts about writing with your students. Seasoned writers, both professional and student — invited guests or members of your school — can talk about their own experiences as writers. Most publishers offer Web sites about popular writers; authors sometimes share their writ-ing process as they talk about specific works they’ve published; some pub-lishers’ Web sites make available “live chats” with authors or, at minimum, offer an e-mail address for questions and answers.

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Check Out These Web Siteswww.inkspot.comInkspot offers support to writers, words of advice from authors and editors, articles and activities related to writing, and interviews with writers. For writers of all ages and levels of experience (there also is a “For the Young Writer” site specifically for students).

owl.english.purdue.eduThe Online Writing Lab at Purdue University offers you and your stu-dents a vast array of information about writing, tips on teaching, presentations, tutorials, tips on style and editing, and much more. The site is most appropriate for middle and high school students and teachers.

teenwriting.about.comThis site offers a list of helpful tips and information about writing for teens, such as grammar help, parts of speech, publishing centers, story starters, spelling and vocabulary, writing tips, impromptu essay writing tips, and much more. For teen writers and their teachers.

departments.colgate.edu/diw/NWCAOWLS.htmlThe National Writing Centers Association Web site offers links to writing centers nationwide. From the American University Writing Center to the Xavier University Online Writing Lab, you’ll be able to find a resource just right for your needs. For older students and their teachers.

A Cautionary Note:Preview all Web sites before logging on with your students — with the changing nature of the Web, you may have the right address but find that the content has changed. And remember, always supervise stu-dents working online — better to be Web safe than Web sorry.

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Formats for Mini-LessonsMini-lessons can be presented in a variety of formats. A mini-lesson presented by teacher modeling for the opening of the Writers Workshop could be repeated with student mod-eling for a small group during the workshop. The mini-lesson format can change to include more opportuni-ties for students to share work as they become more experienced and sophis-ticated writers. The possibilities for mini-lesson presentation are endless; the following are some samples.

Students ModelingYou and your students can work col-laboratively using student writing as a model. You may choose to make an overhead of student work showing the qualities of effective writing; the student, however, should explain the writing process — a sort of think aloud after the fact.

Students could read their writing to the class to show how they addressed a particular element of the craft. Students can also demonstrate the rituals and routines of a response group for the benefit of the whole class. Students can directly teach the class by demonstrat-ing how to use quotation marks, colons, semi-colons, dashes or whatever. They could even sign up to present mini-les-sons on self-generated topics relevant to their current projects.

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Teacher ModelingMany teachers find an overhead help-ful when modeling. Announce your intention about the demonstration: “I’m going to show you how I start a draft.” As you write on an overhead or chart paper, think aloud, reveal-ing your inner thoughts and decision-making process. Following the demonstration, the class briefly dis-cusses what they saw you doing and thinking. While modeling, you may have a specific focus for the lesson,

but you may also demonstrate for stu-dents a wide range of writing strate-gies, inviting them to take what they need from the lesson. You may choose to record student comments and create a reference chart for students (Graves, 1983, p. 49).

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Topic: Planning to write “About the Author” for a published book

Goal: Students will learn to know what kind of information to include when writing about themselves for the “About the Author” section of a published book.

Resources: Books that include a section “About the Author” (usually on the inside flap of the cover page); chart paper and markers

Have students read the “About the Author” section of books you are reading aloud to students or studying with students.

Procedures:• Read aloud two to three “About the Author”

sections of familiar and favorite books of students. Ask them to notice what kind of information is included about the author.

• Make a cluster with student input about the information included.

• Model for students making a cluster about yourself. Refer to the chart and think aloud about what information you might include and exclude in your “About the Author” section.

• Review your writing process with students. Make notations on the chart of what they noticed you doing as you planned.

• Younger students may need another mini-lesson with you modeling how to use the cluster to write a draft.

Sample Lesson: Teacher Modeling

Prior to Lesson:

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Direct PresentationIn these mini-lessons you give infor-mation directly to students, usually with some kind of brief modeling. Often mini-lessons on procedures are formatted as direct presentation. After you give information, you include your expectation for student applica-tion and can invite students to ask questions or make comments.

Sample Lesson: Direct Presentation

Prior to Lesson:

Topic: Introducing procedures for writ-ing in sourcebooks

Goal: Students will learn to date each sourcebook entry and follow a format for writing entries.

Resources: Overhead of blank sourcebook page

Students should already have selected their sourcebook and be aware of some ways writers use a sourcebook. Think about what format to recommend for writing in sourcebooks: where and how to date entries, skipping lines between written lines, writing on every page, etc.

Procedures:• Ask students to join you, bringing their

sourcebooks and pencils.

• Demonstrate on the overhead how to set up the first entry by writing the date (in what-ever form you select as a class format) on the first line. Tell them that dating each entry every time they write in their source-books is a habit that you expect them to

establish. Later you will show them how to write their dates for continuing entries in the margin so they know how may days they’ve worked on it.

• Remind students that one purpose for a sourcebook is to explore ideas, thoughts and feelings about something you notice in your everyday life. Rehearse by talking with them about the things you’ve been noticing lately.

• Show students your recommended proce-dure for writing entries by demonstrating how to write on every line or every other line. Keep the focus of this mini-lesson on the procedure for writing entries. You will support the composing process at another time.

• Ask them to talk with a partner about things they have noticed lately that they might write about.

• After a short discussion ask for volunteers to share their observations with the group.

• Invite students to write their observations, ideas or borrowed ideas from their class-mates following the format you previously demonstrated.

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InteractiveThese mini-lesson formats are meant to create new knowledge opportunities for the students (and you). They can be as simple as brainstorming and compil-ing a list of student experiences as writ-ers and readers. For example, with you acting as scribe students might discuss and then list qualities of good writing or share steps they take to select a topic.

Often lessons that draw the bridge between literature and writing are

interactive and invite students to explore and discover a range of writ-ing strategies and ideas. The lesson may focus on looking at a familiar text to discover qualities of the author’s craft, such as verb choices or organi-zational strategies. This format might include a student exploration of books to learn the purposes and character-istics of different genres, or students could also study a particular feature of a book, such as leads or endings.

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Topic: Reading like a writer

Goal: Students will learn to read with the eyes and ears of a writer and link possibilities in a published piece they are reading to their own writing.

Resources: Copies of “Honey I Love” by Eloise Greenfield; Highlighter pens/markers

This is meant to be a follow-up lesson to previous lessons on reading like a writer. Students should have had many opportu-nities to read, listen to, appre-ciate and discuss the poem. Assign students during literature time or for homework to read the poem this time like a writer, marking and highlighting lines, words, phrases, ideas, thoughts and feelings that make an impact on them.

Procedures:• Direct students to come to the meeting

place with marked copies of the poem and markers.

• Read aloud the entire poem.

• Return to the first stanza to talk about what students noticed. Students can read aloud examples of powerful language more than once so that it reverberates in the room. Go through the poem in sections.

• Support students talking about how they were moved by the poem and by specific stanzas or lines.

• Explore how to articulate why certain words or phrases seem to be just right such as “hot and icky and the sun sticks to my ski” or “flying pool.”

• In later lessons, you may return to this poem to teach specific points, but for this lesson the focus is to probe and deepen the con-nection between literature and students’ own writing by looking closely at the poem.

• Conclude by reviewing some of the points made by students and pointing out how books and poems can provide a rich array of strategies and models for writing.

Sample Lesson: Interactive

Prior to Lesson:

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Mini-Lessons

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A Final NoteThere are as many ways to use mini- lessons as there are teachers. Eventually, you and your students may decide that small groups or individuals would like to gain experience writing and present-ing mini-lessons. Go for it. No matter who teaches the mini-lessons and no matter when the mini-lessons happen — at the beginning of the Writers Work-shop, in the middle or at the end of the session — mini-lessons are invaluable teaching and learning tools for helping students pull together, keep together and apply what they learn about writing.

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References

Anderson, C. (2000). How’s It Going?: A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Atwell, N. (1987). In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Atwell, N. (1998). In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning. Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook.

Avery, C. (1993). …And with a Light Touch: Learning about Reading, Writing, and Teaching with First Graders. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Bomer, R. (1995). Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Calkins, L. (1994). The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Fletcher, R. and J. Portalupi. (1998). Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K -8. York, Me.: Stenhouse.

Graves, D. (1983). Writing: Teachers and Children at Work. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Graves, D. (1994). A Fresh Look at Writing. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Harwayne, S. (1992). Lasting Impressions: Weaving Literature into the Writers Workshop. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.

Hindley, J. (1996). In the Company of Children. York, Me.: Stenhouse.

Wood, K.R. (1999). Wonderous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom. Urbana. Ill.: NCTE.

Mini-Lessons

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In This Series

Rituals, Routines and Artifacts: Classroom Management and the Writers Workshop

Mini-Lessons for the Writers Workshop

Planning: A Rehearsal for Writing

Drafting: Getting Words on Paper

Response Groups: Providing Feedback to Writers

Writing Conferences

Revising Writing

Editing for Clarity and Conventions

Author’s Chair: Bringing Closure to the Writers Workshop

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