WRITER'S WORKSHOP MINI LESSONS

Editing: Mini Lessons for Checking a Writing Piece for Capitalization, Punctuation, Spacing, and Illustrations, Etc.

The pencil anchor chart on the wall was created by me based on the work of the wonderful Kindergarten teachers at Washington Elementary School in Sheboygan, WI. They are a "Comprehensive Literacy School" based on Linda Dorn's work in Arkansas, and shared the pencil anchor chart idea with a team of teachers that visited them a few years ago. Thanks to them for their originality and generous sharing spirits!

Large Editing Icons for Pencil:
Small Student Editing Pencils:

Lesson 6: Asking, "Do my words match my illustration?"

Wear mismatched socks and inappropriate shoes [for a teaching job] to the mini lesson.

However, do not draw attention to them!

Gather students around the carpet area.

Briefly discuss what was learned the past few days...

Say:

"Finding WHAT the problems are,
knowing WHY they are problems,
deciding WHO will fix them, and
knowing HOW to fix them is very important."

Tell students that today's books will help us all to become better writers.

Say, "We've been leaning about finding problems, and today's books will help us with finding problems in our writing."

Share that the first book is about shoes.

Read Shoes Shoes Shoes by Ann Morris.

By this time, students will have likely noticed your inappropriate shoes [not appropriate for the job/time of year].

Ask, "What's my problem?"

Facilitate discussion about why having the "right" shoes is important for getting the job done.

Refer to book to support the discussion.

Pull off the inappropriate shoes, to reveal the socks, but don't draw attention to them at this point.

Share that the second book is about socks.

Read A Pair of Socks by Stuart Murphy.

By this time, students will have likely noticed your mismatched socks.

Ask, "What's my problem?"

Facilitate discussion about why matching socks are important.

Refer to the book to support the discussion.

Ask, "How can I fix my problem?"

Discuss possible solutions and then fix the problem by pulling off one sock and pulling on a matching pair of socks.

Say, "When I don't have the 'right' shoes on for my job, I can't do my job correctly. I need my shoes to match my job.

Say, "When my socks don't match, I have a problem. I need my socks to match each other."

Say, "Having shoes that match my job, and having socks that match each other, reminds me of my writing."

Ask, "What do books have in them?" [words & pictures]

Say, "Good writer's make sure that their pictures match their words!"

Ask, "Did Ann Morris do a good job of matching her words to her pictures in this story [show book]?"

Ask, "Did Stuart Murphy do a good job of matching his words to his pictures in this story [show book]?"

Say, "Good writer's make sure that their pictures match their words!"

Show the class the first picture for the ANCHOR CHART.

Ask, "What does this paper show us and say?"

Say, "Yes, it is a picture of a sun, and it has the word 'sun' under the picture of the sun."

Ask, "Does this picture match this word?"

Remind students that good writers make sure that their pictures match their words.

Say, "We can use this picture of a sun, with the word 'sun' under it to help us remember what good writers do.

Point to the empty pencil ANCHOR CHART on the wall.

	Color 8.5 x 11 Checklist Pictures	Empty Color Student Pencil Checklist Picture	Non-Moveable Color Icons Student Pencil Checklists	Moveable Color Icons Student Pencil Checklists

Say, "Let's glue this onto our pencil checklist to help us remember what good writers do."

Glue the picture to the pencil.

Remind students that the pencil can be used like a checklist.

Say, "Today we learned about making sure that our words match our text."

Say, "If our words don't match our text, that is a problem and we can fix the problem."

Say, "We can use this picture to remind ourselves that we need to make sure our words match our text."

Ask, "What could we do if they don't match?"

Conclude that if the picture doesn't match the words, the picture has to change or the words have to change.

Refer to the ANCHOR chart again.

Say, "We are going to be adding more pictures to this pencil checklist."

Say, "The pictures and words will be our Writing Checklist."

Dismiss students for Writer's Workshop.

Resources:

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes by Ann Morris

A Pair of Socks by Stuart Murphy