EDEC 30213

Writing Workshop Lesson Plan and Reflection Template

Starpoint

Teaching Partners: Julia Lewis, Julia Preuss, Ally Wolchko Dates Lessons Taught:2/17 and 3/10
Students’ First Names: Ethan, Quinton, and Sloane Grade/Level: 2

** You will submit this assignment as partners.***

Background Information on the Writers:

Please provide a brief overview of your classroom experience. This should include information
about the classroom environment and the routines already established for writing. (If you do not
normally observe writing instruction, note any evidence you see of writing instruction occurring,
eg. word wall, charts, writer’s notebooks….)

While the classroom doesn’t have a word wall, the students drill word sounds and their spellings
in different words. For example, the teacher would say a word on the list such as “owl,” and the
students would respond with, “owl, ‘ow’, O-W." Another would be the teacher saying “read,” in
which the students would say “read ‘ee’ E-A.” The teacher would remind the students to think of
these drills when they were spelling, so they knew how to spell certain words accurately. The
students are also provided with challenging words from the day’s reading in which they are
asked to spell aloud words and sounds. The students are also asked to break up parts of a word
such as “suprising-ly.” The students are working on phonological awareness–learning how to
break up parts of a word and say their sounds before stating the full word. In accordance with
the lesson plans Starpoint gave us pre-service teachers, the students perform a spelling test at
least once a week. Also, Sloane showed me a paper that is printed and readily available to the
teacher and students, which is a spelling assessment grading sheet.

Lesson #1 Topic Selection:

For lesson #1, your team will teach a mini-lesson that helps your writers identify a topic for
writing. You may use a picture book or your own writing as a springboard for writing to help the
writers generate an idea for writing. Remember the story should be relatable and appealing.

Book Title and Author:

OR if you plan to share your own writing, include the story here.

For our lesson, we all decided to read Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. Our goal was for the students
to connect to a time when they played in the snow or played outside and to describe the
weather. We had the students draw a picture of one of their experiences in any weather
condition that was brought to mind when listening to the Snowballs read aloud. The students
were then asked to write a story about their experience in weather, reminding them that
everyone has a story to tell.

Lesson #1 Writing Conferences:

In this section, summarize the writing conferences with your students. How did you help the
writers with topic generation or finding small moments, or adding details, etc…

Provide details about how you differentiated instruction for individual students, including but not
limited to ELLs and/or children with special needs.
**Be sure to collect the writing samples from this lesson.**

To help the students start their writing samples, we read them a book and asked them to think of
a time they experienced snow or fun weather. My student, Sloane, thought of the time her and
her brother made a huge snowball together. I let her write on her own for about five minutes
before having a writing conference with her. By then, she had written about a page worth, so I
asked her to tell me about it. The first thing I noticed was that she was talking in such greater
detail than her writing. So, I asked her if she could add more details about who came with her to
make the snowball, what the weather was like, and more.

My student, Ethan, has a difficult time with penmanship, but I have been working on letter
formation with him during my explicit lessons at Starpoint. During this writing lesson, I let Ethan
spend about three to five minutes on his drawing and then began my writing conference with
Ethan. I had my writing conference for about two to three minutes. I first had Ethan read aloud
his story and I was very interested to see what Ethan had to write about. I made sure to let him
know that I was engaged and interested. I noticed that Ethan needed to add more details to his
writing sample. He did have a beginning and middle of his story, but did not seem to have an
end. So, I asked Ethan if he could add more details to the end of his story, asking him what
happened next, what happened after you built your snowman, etc.

Our group found the option of reading a book to prompt student thinking helpful. We read our
students a book about the snow and asked them to write about a time that the weather from this
story reminds them of or any memories this story about snow brings up. My student, Quinton,
has a hard time focusing on writing because he thinks of himself as a “bad writer”. During writing
time he prefers to draw pictures that tell the stories in his mind. I differentiated instruction with
him by allowing him to draw pictures for every chunk of story he writes out on the paper. I tried
to offer him a little trade and reminded him that he is a great storyteller and we all just need to
practice what we are uncomfortable with. Quinton does not have trouble coming up with what to
write because when he explains his drawings he does so with a good amount of detail. Quinton
just has low confidence when it comes to writing, so my goal with this prompt was to encourage
him that practice helps us be more comfortable with things we feel like we are not good at.

Writing Sample Analysis:

Using one or more scoring rubric, analyze the writing samples you gathered from lesson #1,
noting each writer’s strengths and needs. Focus on craft, not just conventions. Remember to
use the criteria noted on the scoring rubrics and to focus FIRST on the writer’s strengths.
Use this information to determine the focus of your next mini-lesson for the group (e.g. adding
details, staying on topic, adding dialogue, etc…)

Based on the writing sample analysis our next mini-lesson focus will be: adding more
details!

[embed your writing samples HERE]

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click
on image for full PDF

1
click here for full PDF of Sloane’s story
 2
click here for full PDF of Quinton’s story

For Sloane, her penmanship was phenomenal, and her understanding of how to create a book
with a title page, and to staple the paper in a way to form a book rather than just stapling the top
right corner was fascinating. Also in her conventions, her spelling needed help as well as the
syntax of her sentences. Some of the sentences had a sufficient amount of words, but the words
didn’t make meaning. In her craft, you could hear her sweet voice in the story, and she told us of
a very clear beginning of going out in the snow with her brother, what they did, and a resolution
of their snow day.

For Ethan, he was able to stay on topic and create a story about the time he built a snowman
during a snowstorm. He was able to come up with a beginning and middle to his story, and was
able to describe and write about how he created a snowman. He was able to add some details
about how he created his snowman. Ethan needs assistance with letter formation, penmanship,
and spelling as well as the syntax of her sentences. Some of the sentences had a sufficient
amount of words, but did not have full meaning. You could hear his writer's voice in the story,
and she told us of a very clear beginning of creating a snowman during a snowstorm, how the
sun affected his snowman, but needed assistance adding an ending to his story. We discussed
his need to add an ending during my writing conference. In the future, I will continue to plan
explicit lessons surrounding letter formation in writing and penmanship. Ethan also needed
assistance adding details to make sure his story had a clear beginning, middle, and end.

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click here for full PDF of Quinton’s story
Quinton loves to draw pictures that tell different make believe stories he comes up with. He has
a hard time wanting to translate those thoughts to paper. This simply comes from a lack of
confidence in his writing. Quinton is a great reader, so I feel hopeful that through reading and
continuing to encourage him in his writing he will grow his confidence as a writer this semester.
I have noticed Quinton’s tendency to connect 2-3 sentences with the word “and”, so I would like
to work with him on the use of punctuation and capital letters to begin new sentences.

While our students had very different needs, we did find one commonality: our students could
work on adding details to their writing. Some students, like Sloane, were able to write with a
clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, while others, like Quinton, wrote more about the
description of his character. Ethan’s sample was only one page, so we concluded that all the
students could benefit from a mini-lesson on adding relevant details to a story.

Lesson #2 Mini-Lesson:
In this section identify:
Focus of the mini-lesson (what skill/strategy are you teaching?):
TEKS:
Materials (if you plan to use your own writing sample, include it here.):

Explain how you will present the mini-lesson (eg. teacher writing, mentor text, etc…). Include a
“script” of what you will say to the students.

Focus of the mini-lesson: Adding details to enhance student writing content

TEKS: ELAR2.b.11.B.ii: “develop drafts into a focused piece of writing by developing an idea
with specific and relevant details.”
Materials: Julia Lewis’ writing sample
i

Implementation:
By using this text, we will be able to help the students to notice the effectiveness of using
specific details in their writing. They will understand that details help to make their story more
complete.
Script:
Teacher 1: “Hi friends! I’m so glad that we get to work together as fellow writers today. We will
be going over what wonders details can do to your writing. Can someone tell me in their own
words what a detail is?
Student: “Little pieces of information to help describe something”
Teacher 1: “Words and phrases to describe something, yes!”
Teacher 1: “To develop our detailing skills, I am first going to read you one of my pieces of
writing. I ask that you show the same respect when I read my story as you would want me to
give you when reading your stories. While I tell my story, I want you to look out for the details
that I wrote.
Teacher 1: *reads story*
Teacher 1: “What did you think about the story? What stood out to you?”
Student: (hopefully what stood out to them is a detail). “You talked about walking across the
river!”
Teacher 2: “Yes! How did she cross the river? Did she swim?”
Student: She walked across the rocks.
Teacher 2: “She walked across the rocks. We only knew that’s how she crossed, because she
added that as a detail of her story. Adding that she even crossed the river is a detail and notice
how that stood out to you.”
Teacher 1: Let’s go back in the story and when I read each sentence or two, I want you to
identify the details that you notice.
Teacher 2: *reads one-to-two sentences at a time*
Student: She talked about planning her walk before she did it.
Student: She talked about the weather
Teacher 1: What would we call that? Talking about the weather?”
Student: description/adjectives.
Teacher 1: Adjectives, right! It is so helpful to the reader when you use adjectives, because they
can picture your writing like they are actually there in that story.
Teacher 2: *keeps reading*
Student: She wrote about the details of what she did on her walk!
Teacher 2: What can we call that technique?
Student: describing actions
Teacher 2: I like that. Describing actions. It’s important that she mentioned that, because do you
think that all she did was walk with her friend Hannah? We wouldn’t know unless she added
those details.
Teacher 1: Way to identify the details of my story, everyone! I’m so proud of you. Now, I want
you to come up with a story—any story! But I want you to add as many important details to your
story as possible. If you have trouble thinking of what details to add, think about the techniques
we just looked at in my writing sample.
*Move onto Writing conference! *
*Have them share*
Teacher 2: Okay students! I’m so happy with our writing workshop today. All of you put the work
in to add details to your story, and you got to hear others’ stories and know their story better
because of their descriptions.

Lesson #2 Writing Conferences:

In this section, summarize the writing conferences with your students. How did you help the
writers with topic generation or finding small moments, or adding details, etc…

Provide details about how you differentiated instruction for individual students, including but not
limited to ELLs and/or children with special needs.

**Be sure to collect the writing samples from this lesson.**

Although the mini-lesson was about adding details to our story, Sloane and I’s writing
conference was about punctuation. She was writing so many details in her story, and spelling
and grammar are her most pressing needs. So, I would have her read and re-read and re-read
her story to see where she paused for a breath and consider whether or not that would be a
good spot for a period. She wasn’t perfect, but she was able to improve and be more mindful of
her future sentences. What was difficult, was that Sloane also struggles with reading fluency in
the forms of reading with expression and reading accurately according to punctuation. So, she
wasn’t able to read her story with very much expression, and she sped through periods. When
she kept making errors when trying to find where to put the periods, she was starting to get
frustrated, because she didn’t understand why I was suggesting putting a period where I was. I
know that writing conferences are supposed to be both generally positive as well as help the
writer, not the writing. For that reason, I did not push her over and over again when she wouldn’t
want to put the period in the correct spot. However, the details in her story were spectacular!
Such a great improvement from her writing sample the week before. Last time, she only added
details after our writing conference, but she kept rewriting the same detail: the snow was icy and
crunchy. This time, she used inspiration from my writing sample as well as appealing to the 5
senses to add very intentional and specific details to her story. Overall, in terms of details,
Sloane improved so much since her first writing sample with me. Sloane did not, however,
absorb the suggestions from our writing conference very well.

Ethan has difficulty with penmanship and letter formation, which I assist him with during my
explicit lessons at Starpoint. Although he struggles with his handwriting, he was very excited to
share his story with his TCU teachers and peers. I let Ethan spend about three to five minutes
on his drawing during this writing lesson and then began my writing conference with Ethan. I
had my writing conference for about two to three minutes. I first had Ethan read aloud his story,
and I was very interested to see what Ethan had to write about. I noticed that Ethan added way
more details to his writing sample than his first writing sample. Ethan also conveyed a
beginning, middle, and end of his story. One thing I noticed was that Ethan had a lot of run-on
sentences, and instead of adding a period or punctuation, he added the word “and.” I discussed
with Ethan that he did an excellent job adding more details to his story to convey more meaning,
so readers can understand what is going on in the story. I asked him to add more punctuation in
his story, suggesting he could add a period instead of “and” during one run-on sentence. I asked
him to continue to think about using periods and other forms of punctuation in his writing. For
example, using an exclamation mark when he is saying something exciting or having a question
mark when someone’s asking a question. I found it heart-warming that he stapled his pages
together and he said that he wrote a “detailed book.”

Lesson #2 Sharing:
Include a description of the sharing time. Who shared? Why did you choose these students to
share?

Since all of the students were adamant about sharing, they all did! Sloane’s story this week was
about the prior day and morning before her snowball story, which is what she wrote about last
time. It was like a prequel, which I found so fascinating. She was so excited to share her story,
and she truly takes the time to make her writing samples look like an actual book, and she
shares her story like an elementary teacher would read a picture book to her class. Sloane
needs assistance with reading aloud, too, so that she can develop in reading with expression.
So, all around it was so exciting that she was able to share with her two other classmates. The
students picked up on the fact that she applied a concept from my writing example to her own
(talking about the preparation of the story’s plot/action) and complimented her for it. That was
such an endearing sight to see. Ethan was also able to share with his classmates the time he
went with his dad on a ski trip. He talked about his experience skiing down a slope and
expressed how he made snowballs at the bottom of the slope. I was so excited to see him come
out of his “shy shell” and read his story aloud to his classmates. His peers noticed how he did a
great job adding more details. He was able to describe so many details from his skiing
experience and was able to add multiple pages of writing to make sure his story had more
detail. He was able to write so much more than the week before and I was very proud of his
achievements and watching him grow as a writer.

Lesson #2 Writing Sample Analysis:

Embed the second round of writing samples here. What changes do you notice in the students’
writing?

For Ethan, he was able to add another full page of writing and added a beginning, middle, and
end of his story. I noticed that he was able to add many more details and used descriptive words
to describe his skiing trip with his dad. I noticed a huge difference between Ethan’s first and
second writing sample. He was able to be a lot more descriptive and was able to write much
more in the same amount of time. I was so impressed that he was able to compute so much
more writing and writing expressions with a lesson on the importance of adding details.

Quinton has a great imagination when it comes to telling stories! He tells his stories to me orally
and by drawing pictures that depict the stories. However, when it comes to writing Quinton
dreads writing his thoughts on paper because he claims he’s a “bad writer”. This week I was so
excited that Quinton felt more comfortable writing instead of just drawing, this progress is
encouraging to watch as his confidence as a writer grows! Quinton has a few areas that could
use some practice/work, but he is definitely not a bad writer and I am excited to continue to
encourage him in his writing this semester! He uses words like “crept” and “immediately” that
make the reader feel like they are in his shoes. I find Quinton’s imagination to be incredibly
complex, creative, and vivid. Two aspects of Quinton’s writing that have room for growth would
be spelling and the use of punctuation. In the past Quinton has used “and” to connect 2-3
sentences that could stand alone or just missing the places where periods and capital letters
could go. I am planning to implement mini lessons that will encourage/build confidence for
Quinton in his writing skills while also working on spelling of high frequency words.
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click on image for full PDF

In this writing workshop, I noticed that Sloane spent much more time on her writing than her
illustrations. She was eager to write, and with as much detail as possible. I was so pleased to
see that her writing had improved in this aspect from the first sample to this one. However, our
conference was focused on period placement, which Sloane still struggled with. Nevertheless,
Sloane’s writing significantly improved since the last time, and her details helped clearly define
the beginning, middle, and end of her story.

Reflection After the Lessons:

Include a detailed and thoughtful reflection of the following questions.

1. What went well and what would you do differently next time?

Julia Lewis: What went well was that all of our students were so creative, and they took their
ideas in such different directions from the same inspiration/starting point. What went well was
when the students were able to read the teacher’s writing sample versus an actual book. There
is something so much more personal about sharing your own writing, and there’s a sense of
trust building. There’s this trust that yes, I am a writer just like you, and yes, I can be vulnerable
just like you and share my story. The students were more determined to pay attention to the
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click here for the full story of Sloane’s 2nd story
writing so that they could compliment it and get a better glimpse of who I am. What could’ve
gone better, in my opinion, was being more easygoing with giving the students creative
freedom. For the first lesson, one of the students did not want to write a story revolving around
fun and unusual weather. The story did include a snow “family,” and one of the students wanted
so badly to write a story about a fantastical creature. Rather than challenge him on his desire to
write about his monster, I would have let his creativity lead him to write a story without distress
or distraction. I think his work would’ve been better without feeling reprimanded for his idea.

Ally Wolchko: For me, what went well was that all of our students were so eager to learn and
had the desire to become better writers through the mini-lessons we had created for them. Each
student took the initiative to be creative and unique in their way, challenging themselves to grow
as writers and complete challenges they may have never experienced before. Everyone
resonated with the idea that we all have our own stories to tell, and everyone’s story is essential.
The students listened to each other’s experiences and shared their written stories,
demonstrating the beauty of being a writer. The students were personal about sharing their own
unique stories and bonded when hearing about their peers’ experiences. They felt connected to
their peer’s stories and expressed memories that resonated with them through others’ stories.
They gave each other compliments and were vulnerable to one another. What could’ve gone
better, in my opinion, was allowing the students to share a story that was personal to them,
which did not have to revolve around the theme of weather. I found that one student especially
struggled with the first writing lesson; he had difficulty coming up with a story that pertained to
weather and wanted to write something more relevant and meaningful to him. He desires to
learn about fiction and write a story about a fictional “monster.” By giving the students a little
more freedom to write about something important to them, they may have been more inclined to
write. I also faced difficulty reading Ethan’s writing, as I know he struggles with penmanship and
letter formation. I have been assisting him during my one-on-one lessons, but I find it hard to
help him in the small group setting with his letter formation. I am glad he could practice his
writing and believe it will improve over time. I know that having him practice writing meaningful
stories will provide him with a greater desire to write.

Julia Preuss: I feel like Quinton did a good job at including interesting details in his writing. I
really appreciated how he tried to write chunks of writing before starting his drawings. I know he
doesn’t enjoy writing as much as he enjoys drawing but I feel like we made progress in building
his confidence as a writer at least a little bit. I feel like this has helped Quinton see that he can
also draw a picture and connect that with writing by telling his story both ways. Something I
would do differently next time is reading my writing to Quinton or the group 1st and also
combining that with reading books to them so that they have two different inspirations for their
writing ideas. I also want to work on encouraging Quinton in his writing and being sure to
intentionally encourage him rather than praise.

2. How are EACH of you growing as a teacher of writing?

Julia Lewis: For me, I learned to expect more of my students. I learned that while writing is very
personal and vulnerable, it is okay to push writers out of their comfort zone during the process.
Also, as the weeks progressed, it was much more natural for me to compliment students’ work
rather than generically praise them. The students want to hear the tangibles of what they excel
in, and the writing conference encourages them to improve in all other areas, slowly and
steadily. And that’s important for teachers to understand and expect of their students:
improvement takes more than an instant. For some students and their skills, it might take years
for them to improve, and you see merely a glimpse of their lifelong progress. Still, that doesn’t
mean you shouldn’t help them because you feel that it’s too big of a cause (or even worst, a lost
one). You should still encourage students along the way yet expect highly of them, just not
impossibly high. I’m starting to grow in my patience of student progress.

Ally Wolchko: From this experience, I feel more comfortable having conversations with my
student about his writing and learning more about him through his written work. I knew that
being a writer is a vulnerable thing, and it is okay to push your students to write about
something that may be challenging. I felt more natural in expressing to my student to add to his
story and address his strengths and needs. I could spot out parts of his writing I usually would
not think about because of what I learned from this class. For example, ask the student to add
more details, check for punctuation, and assess a beginning, middle, and end. I implemented
my first writing conference with my student and felt more comfortable completing my second
writing conference. I also implemented specific encouragement in situations rather than just
using generic praise such as “good job.” I learned that writing conferences are a tool to
encourage students to push themselves and add parts to their writing they may not have
thought about. It challenges them to go beyond their standard writing techniques and add
elements they may not have thought about before. By expecting more and challenging students,
I saw them grow as writers.

Julia Preuss: I feel like I’m growing as a teacher of writing in multiple ways. One way is by
seeing the need for assessments and being able to identify the students strengths and
weaknesses in their writing. I have learned that finding their strengths and weaknesses after the
first writing sample helps me know how to better prepare for the next instruction with my
student. I have also learned that each student has a different way of writing and a different way
of formulating their ideas before writing. By reading books to the students to spark ideas for their
writing I have seen that each student’s personal lives affect what they write about and no two
students formulate the same ideas after asking them to complete an open ended prompt like
these.

3. You began the lesson with a detailed and thoughtful plan, but teaching does not always
go according to plan. Teachers make hundreds of “in-the-moment” teaching decisions
every day. What “in-the-moment” teaching decisions did you make? Were they effective
and how do you know?
Julia Lewis: An in the moment teaching decision for me was deciding what to make my writing
conference about. Technically, my conference with Sloane should’ve been about adding details
to her story, since that was the focus of the mini lesson. However, when it was time for the
conference, Sloane’s story incorporated so many details such as adjectives, giving context, and
location. She was clearly working so hard on adding details, so I didn’t want to critique her for
not having enough (when I felt that she had plenty, too). So, I decided to make the conference
about her more pressing need: punctuation. Specifically, I worked on her about where to put the
period in a sentence. I think that this was an effective decision, because I knew that a writing
conference on adding details would’ve felt defeating for Sloane, whose main goal of her story
was to incorporate as many details as possible. Instead, she worked on a skill of both her
reading and writing: fluency in how to read with expression. Since she has trouble reading
according to punctuation, the punctuation in her writing is nearly nonexistent. For this story,
however, our writing conference challenged her to read her story over and over again with
accurate expression, so she could see where to put periods.

Ally Wolchko: For me, an in-the-moment teaching decision was deciding what to say to Ethan
during my writing conference. I expected my writing conference to address spelling, adding
more details, or an element contributing to his letter formation. However, when it was time for
the conference, I was surprised to see Ethan’s extensive details, two total pages. I was amazed
by how much more he could write in the allotted time. Ethan’s story included comprehensive
details, a beginning, middle, end, and context. He clearly understood the goal of the
mini-lesson, and I did not feel the need to ask him to incorporate more details, as I saw he
practiced using descriptive adjectives to describe his story. So, in-the-moment, I decided to
make the conference about his most pressing need: punctuation. I asked him to look in his story
to find where he was using run-on sentences to add a period and delete the word “and.” I think
this was a practical decision because I knew that a writing conference on adding details might
have shut Ethan down, whose main goal of his story was to incorporate as many details as
possible. I think it was the perfect decision to have Ethan push himself to continue to grow his
writing even further.

Julia Preuss: The majority of the “in-the-moment” decisions I made were when Quinton refused
to write anything and just wanted to draw pictures. I tried to use probing questions to slowly inch
him towards wanting to write something. I discussed with Quinton that if we believe we are bad
at something we should try to practice all we can until we feel more confident in this. After I kept
reinforcing the idea of trying to write and explaining that he was not being judged by his writing
Quinton slowly got a little bit more comfortable with writing in front of our group. Another
“in-the-moment” decision that stood out to me was when Quinton was procrastinating his writing
by taking a long time on the first letter of a word and decorating each letter. To help him move
on from this, I told him that we are not doing decorative letters this time, but after he wrote me a
chunk of sentences that he could draw a quick picture that coincides with the sentences. In
Quinton’s first writing sample he made a few spelling errors, so I circled those and told him we
would work on some of those words. I also explained to him that we are going to work on using
“and” less to connect two independent sentences together because that is a runon sentence.