Managing the Writing Process

Hi Friends!

This week was LONNNNNNG and HOOOOTTT. I'm so glad it's Saturday! I finally get to rest my super swollen feet and watch some Texas Longhorn football! :)

In my classroom this week we are working on revising our personal narratives. This is our sixth week of school so we've been at it for a while. I find that second graders have a really hard time revising at the beginning of the year. They are still in the mindset of, "Well I already wrote it, I'm done!" I'm trying to teach my tooshy off and show them what great writer's do to revise their stories.

We worked on "showing, not telling" this week. I used Kevin Henkes books like Chrysanthemum and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse to teach them ways to show the reader what you're trying to say. We also looked at sensory words and created lists of sensory words to use to help show our readers what we want them to see.

This year I began using my old behavior chart as a writing process chart. The children each have a pocket will colored coded cards for each step of the writing process. I am so glad I made it because it matches my writing binders. (See my binders here.) So far it's really helped the children grasp the concept of a "process". Next week we will work on editing and finally some publishing!

Here's a pic of my writing process pocket chart. (The fish bowls at the bottom are part of my Daily 5 management system.)

Click on the picture above to see my writing process cards. I have brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. The last slide has several different ones on a page because I have 22 kids and it helped me save paper when I printed them out.
I'm due September 17th, so I may not be there to publish with them. However, my long term sub will make sure it gets done. The kids look forward to that part so much! I'd love to see what the writing process looks like in your classroom! Happy Saturday!