The Writing Center

      Writing is a great center for kids. It gives them a chance to practice their newfound skills in another setting besides writing workshop (because, of course, we want kids to think of their skills in isolation) and explore different types and purposes for writing. This is also a great time for students to practice writing to a prompt. In writing workshop they usually have the freedom to use their own ideas and choose their topics. Almost all writing tests students will ever take, though, involve prompts so it is important that they are able to do that, too. Prompts can be as vague or specific as you’d like. Many time Kindergartners struggle with staying on one topic and this is a skill you can reinforce in your writing mini-lessons. Some teachers like to write prompts and post them in the writing area while others like to give slightly more choice. One of my favorite compromises was to make posters with similar themes, ex: Clifford, Froggy, Curious George, Olivia, and Chester Raccoon and then give a prompt such as “Please write a story about one of these characters and the adventure they have.” By this time we’ve talking about plot, setting, character, so the students have ideas about what their story’s shape will look like. You could make similar posters for setting, problem, or theme.

          The writing center can also encourage students to use functional forms of writing as well. They can write letters to friends and family, make shopping lists for the grocery store, or write a diary or journal entry about their day.

          The writing center’s location is extremely important. Anchor charts, word walls, picture dictionaries, samples of good and bad student work, idea charts, sound charts, pencils, crayons, erasers, paper choices, and handwriting charts should all be close by and easily seen. If you have the resources, students can also publish their writing on the computer through word processing programs. Many kids programs, such as Kid Keys, allow students to illustrate their work on the computer as well.

          In addition to your “I Can” chart you may also want to work with your students in interactive writing to make a chart about writing topic ideas. It will be important for you to model the different forms of writing children may do (you may only want to start with one or two choices), how to sound out words, how to use your classroom resources, taking out and putting materials away, sharing with peers, how to use pictures dictionaries, and what to do with finished and unfinished work. Many of these mini-lessons will also be replicated during your writing block, but you may find you need to reinforce them during literacy centers.

Writing Ideas

          -writing prompts

          -free choice

          -meaningful story recall

          -meaningful story predictions

          -write lists, cards, letters, stories, journal entries, books, surveys

          -write descriptions for pictures