Workshop Wednesday: Where Does Writing Hide?

Today, I'm linking with Ideas by Jivey to discuss my Writing Workshop for her Workshop Wednesday linky party. Launching is in full swing this week for both Reading and Writing Workshops in my classroom. My charts are starting to go up around the room!  Here are a few that I hung up yesterday....

 Budget Saving Tip: I make my charts with each class on the SMARTboard and then laminate the chart after class to save paper. If it's a chart you're going to use year after year, you can save it! Chart paper gets expensive! 

Tomorrow, we're getting the students out of the classroom and starting one of my favorite writing lessons... we're going on a hunt for hidden writing! Yep, that's right, our students are getting to play detective tomorrow! Students are going to find writing hidden around our hallway, classroom, and inside their hearts. The lesson is adapted from Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook. It teaches students to be aware that the ideas for writing pieces can be all around them. It's great because it gets the hands on students out and about but no one is talking because everyone is doing observing work... we limit the observing to our hallway just because our school is SO huge. But students can listen outside classrooms, look at objects, peek out the windows, look within themselves, etc. 

Before our expedition, I always go over this handout of where writing can hide...

I can't take credit for the actual handout or the idea behind it. It was made by a colleague several years ago. I print it out on half sheets and have students glue into their Writer's Notebooks. We use this handout as our guide for getting our writing ideas. It helps students narrow their focuses as they become seekers of writing. If you want the handout you can snag if from my drop-box here.

My favorites are always the "snatches of talk." It's amazing what kids pick up on after only a few minutes of hanging out in the hallway... some of my more creative types also have some very interesting stories about lockers and the community drinking fountain! Hopefully, I'll remember take some snapshots of our detective work in action! This should help us start honing our observing skills before starting our first piece which is a personal essay.

What have you been up to in Workshop?