A few weeks ago now, our TC Staff Developer ended each of our lab sites, K-2, by modeling shared writing. Back in the meeting room for our debrief, she shared a schedule for shared writing that would take students through the writing process in a week’s time. She said that often shared writing becomes too long, but by following this plan, we could carve out 5-10 minutes a day, either outside of the workshop time or even during a share. Genius I thought to myself. Why hadn’t we thought of that?
The very next day, in a grade four grade level meeting, the team was sharing and calibrating scoring of opinion on-demand writing. I pulled out my brand new learning from the day before, about the use of shared writing, and suggested this to the team. “Wouldn’t that be a quick way to give them a vision of the work?” As I thought more about it, this shared writing routine could benefit all of our students, K-5.
As I’ve visited writing workshops around our building in the last few weeks, I’ve often found myself wondering what might happen if kids had a clearer vision for the work they were after. Could this practice of shared writing make a difference?
Today, I took it upon myself to find out. Our kindergarten team is about to launch into narrative writing for the first time. So this weekend, I reread the first bend of their unit, reminding myself of some of those early strategies for generating ideas, planning pages, and adding details.
Today was just day one, but we had so much fun telling the story of coming to school in our pajamas (today happens to be pajama day!) and getting read for a whole school meeting. We made plans to write out the gratitude greeting that the fourth graders created for our school. I felt good about the strategies and bigger work we were already laying the foundation for…all in less than five minutes!
Today, shared writing felt good.
Where There's Joy 
So much of teaching is about learning, planning, and feeling…when we have these three pieces in place, kids know it and they, too want to learn and plan which leads to them feeling good about learning. Can’t wait to see it in action.
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That’s great when the pieces come together and the world of learning, writing and classroom culture all align.
Kevin
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I LOVE shared writing, as so many students can feel competent and accomplished with it! And yes! It really helps EVERYONE to see a finished product of what we’re after. Shared writing’s a great way to do that.
I always admire how you weave narrative with reflection.
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Thanks! ❤️
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I hope you’ll continue to share about shared writing. It’s something I never did enough of in my classroom. (If I could turn back time…)
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Same! Trying to make up for that now!
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I echo Stacey’s thoughts – please keep sharing! I need to know more. It’s funny, and I know I’ve said this before, but I keep coming back to strategies that you and other elementary teachers share. Sometimes I think that my kiddos missed some crucial stages on their way to me & sometimes I think that the practices that are foundational in elementary actually remain foundational but hidden in later years. Either way, I grow when I read these ideas.
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Maybe I’ll continue the story next week! Today we retold our stories and drew pictures to remind us of our plans. The kids practiced drawing themselves wearing their pjs on white boards. Tomorrow we add words! I’m also testing this out for essay writing in grade three next week! I’ll keep you posted.
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“I felt good about the strategies and bigger work we were already laying the foundation for…all in less than five minutes!” This sentences captures the power of focused energy and how sometimes writerly productivity can happen in a very short amount of time. Love this thoughtful slice 🙂
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Shared writing is such a great bang for your buck. So much learning can happen and you can guide but step away when kids are ready. It can be so beneficial at helping them see, like you said, have a vision!
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