Writing Split in Two: Multiple Projects for One Genre

 Today I'd like to focus on sharing something that my co-teacher and I have been working on in our classroom for Writing Workshop with our class. I like to think of this as splitting time wisely. We often know that multitasking can either be useful or well, frankly, useless. We found that having different writing pieces for students to work on works well. 

This past unit for narrative writing, we had the students engaged in two different writing pieces. I took the lead with their main narrative writing piece in which most students focused on a personal story they wanted to share. My co-teacher took the responsibility of introducing the students to pattern books using Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle to show the students how to create a pattern book of their own. 

Time was set aside for students to create a class book (shared writing) and then students work with a partner to create a pattern of their own. We rotated writing sessions so students had ample time to complete each of their writing pieces. At first finding the balance took trial and error, and at times it felt more unbalanced because more time was dedicated to the students' personal stories. We both worked on designating time in the workshop periods for each. Some days that meant spending more time on the pattern book, while others it meant providing time for both during one session. Helpful hint- using a timer works well! 

I feel that we are prepared now to manage our time to continue having the students work on multiple projects for one genre. For informational writing, we are going to explore both alphabet books and concept books. I anticipate brining in choices might pose a challenge at first, however we are excited to take the next step with having our writers truly embrace the elements of one of my favorite books- Time, Choice and Response by Katherine Bomer and Corinne Arens. 

Here are some final thoughts on my new adventure with implementing Writing Workshop: Keep thinking of time, choice response, keep a limit at first to ideas you want to try for both yourself and your students. Keep integrating ideas slowly to add more choices for student writing. Keep trying new forms of writing so students can develop their own individual writing style. Keep offering forgiveness to yourself for trial and error. In time, you will develop your groove!