The Intense Writing Workshop

The Truth Hurts

I have to preface this post with a disclaimer:  I teach 4th grade writing in the state of Texas and, like many others, am always thinking about how to improve our expository compositions.  I realized this week though, after attending a writing workshop with Katherine Bomer, that I may have failed my students because of that initiative.  We began introducing expository compositions (AKA essays) months ago thinking that we needed to get a head start on essays so that students were well-prepared for the state-mandated writing test in the spring.  And, sadly, we've been rather disappointed with what they've produced.  However it is no fault of theirs.  We just haven't set them up for success.  The really sad part is that WE KNEW BETTER!  That darned test looming over our heads can get the better part of us at times.  

I knew from the moment Katherine Bomer started speaking about writing that we hadn't allowed the students enough opportunity to simply write without all the "rules".  That fact was further solidified when one of my students, after I shared that there were "no rules" for an "I wonder" piece, said, "I don't think I can write without any rules".  Yikes!!  That should be SO far from the truth.  Yes, you can and SHOULD write without the rules of how long it should be, or how it should sound, or what type of format to use.  Writing workshop should never be a time for teachers to sculpt little writing robots.  ​

So we came back from this workshop with the great Katherine Bomer with plans to hone our focus, improve our stamina, and broaden our expectations in writing workshop.  The results have been inspiring!  And the best part is that it has taken very little from us, the teachers...

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Enter:  The Intense Writing workshop

Like I said, this intense writing workshop took little effort on my part.  I simply had to set the stage for students.  I wanted them to have an arsenal of tools and materials at their disposal so that they were prepared for writing intensely.  These were things I gathered:

• small bottles of water
• small bags of popcorn
• mechanical pencils
• new erasers
• pillows
• plenty of mentor texts
• dictionaries
• thesauruses 

This is a day by day synopsis of how I got my students hooked on writing intensely:  

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• Monday:  We sat together and thought about memoirs after reading Memoirs of a Goldfish.  We also revisited memoirs we had read earlier in the year.  After creating an anchor chart together, students began brainstorming possible memoir ideas:  memories that are important and that hold significant feelings.  I allowed my students to begin crafting a plan for their memoirs this day.  They planned in any way that made sense to them, be it bubble maps, boxes and bullets, lists, etc...  And that was the extent to which we wrote on this day.
• Tuesday:  This is where writing became INTENSE!  I had already prepared students to come ready to write intensely.  We gathered together closely after students had already noticed a grand central station full of the things they may be using during writing workshop.  I posted these pictures and asked students to think about with which picture they most identified:  sitting alone in the silence to write, sitting near others but working independently, or sitting with a crowd to continuously bounce around ideas.  Students turned to each other and shared their thoughts.  I then shared with students that when authors write intensely, they  usually have all materials right at their fingertips and sprawl out with a mental preparedness for the task ahead.  I wanted my 4th graders to write in this same way.  So we reviewed all the materials they might use or have nearby.  Students were itching to get off the rug and put their pencils to the paper.  So they each left, gathered what they thought they might need, and sat flexibly around the classroom.  Some chose to sit completely alone, huddled in a quiet space.  Some chose to sit near one or two other people.  And there were still others that craved that collaboration of a larger group.  With quiet music, our 45 minute non-stop writing time began.
• Wednesday:  After students had experienced this intense writing workshop, they wanted MORE!  How could I not succumb to their requests to write intensely again?!  And so we did just that.  Before students began on this day, I shared how emotional their pieces had made me the day before.  I truly did have chills all afternoon!  Some made me cry, some made me laugh, some made me anxious, and so much more!  My goal now was to invite students to see the true art of writing, of painting a picture for the reader.  We read Crow Call before settling into our writing spots and began thinking about the crowd pleasers that help us see that clear picture.  Students also started searching their own writing for crowd pleasers as they began intensely writing again.
• Thursday:  I had been so thrilled with the work students had completed and the crowd pleasers that had their readers "oohing" and "aahing" that I framed them shared them on this day for all to see.  I also heavily pushed the use of mentor texts and fellow authors.  We read some of Come on, Rain! which is just dripping with similes, metaphors, personification, and greatness.  I encouraged students to think about how to invite readers into the setting of their memories in the same way.  We also thought about how to invite readers to share our feelings from these memories.  

And so it will continue...

I should have been working with students like this all year, taking a week every so often to have an intense writing workshop with no writing "rules".  They have the potential to become true artists of the written word with the simple stroke of a pencil and just the write setting.  And so we will continue in this manner every now and then.  Next week we will take what we've done this week and apply it to an expository composition piece.  I'm so interested to see what success this week brings my students!  Please share your writing workshop successes!