This past week we wrapped up our first Writing Circle cycle. Writing Circle is a workshop format that accelerates a student's understanding of writing for an audience. In a traditional writing workshop, students conference individually with peers but especially teachers. Sharing one's work is important but, because of the constraints of the classroom, only a small percentage of children get to share their work.
In a writing circle, every child shares his or her writing every week. Because they know they will share, they work hard to use their writing time wisely to finish a first draft of their pieces. The first time I used writing circles, I was amazed at all of the students' productivity. I was used to some students being prolific writers and having to really stay on others to produce anything – writing circles addresses that in an authentic way. Students want to entertain their peers and they make sure to get their ideas down on paper.
Each group of four or five students chooses a topic for the week – monsters, magic, and cupcakes – were some from the first round. Then each students chooses a genre in which to write. Some choose a traditional narrative story, some choose a play format, others write an advertisement or a diary.
Students develop writing fluency – the turn around is so quick, they know they won't have to write about a given topic forever. It also helps students try a variety of types of writing.
I provide a mini-lesson at the beginning of each writing session. The topic varies based on student needs. This past week, I did a lesson on the conjunction "and" (ONLY ONE PER SENTENCE! (unless you have a really good reason to use more and can explain that to your editor)), another on revising, and a third on unusual genres to try. Future lessons will include dialogue, commas, powerful verbs, and introductory phrases.
After three or four cycles, we will enter a revision cycle. Students will choose a piece to revise and then edit and publish. This provides authentic stimulus for using one's best spelling and punctuation in the first draft since it's a lot easier to work with pieces that are coherent in their draft stage.
When we enter the revision cycle, I'll be looking for some typists to get rough drafts onto the computer. I have found that students are much more willing to make significant changes when they work on a computer (don't worry, we still do the first several steps of revision and editing on paper.)
The Rookery 
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