One of our very first writer’s workshop lessons is thinking about what writers actually do.
I think most students have this idea that in order to be a writer, you have to sit a write a really long story, when in fact anyone who uses words to express an idea is a writer.
Writers make grocery lists, send text messages, write letters, send birthday invitations, fill out crossword puzzles, use sticky notes, write emails, write captions for photographs, and the list goes on and on. The idea is that we’re all writers!
I like to use the book Written Anything Good Lately to get students to start thinking and noticing all the things writers write and do.
After we read the book, we begin our “What Do Writers Do” anchor chart. The left is from last year, and the right is from this year. It’s always interesting to see what they come up with each year. We add to our list each day for about a week or so by asking, “Did anyone notice anything that writers do they’d like to add to our list?”
