About Primarily
Writing: A Practical Guide for Teacher of Young Children
By Debbie Rickards and Shirl Hawes
Christopher-Gordon Publishers, 2003
Description
 This
book serves as a resource to primary teachers as they begin and sustain
writing workshop. It explains in practical terms the theoretical underpinnings
to writing workshop, and then describes how the two authors have helped
their young students develop fiction and nonfiction writing skills
and strategies. Readers will learn how to initiate writing workshop,
identify and teach targeted skills, and use children’s literature
to enhance writing. In addition, the authors share their experiences
with writing conferences, assessment, and small group instruction.
Unique to this book are the explanations of five-page books (an organizational
strategy for first and second grade writers) and VOICES (an acronym
used to extend writing instruction beyond the fundamentals).
 With
this text, we support primary teachers as they implement writing workshop.
In our experience, teachers often have difficulty successfully sustaining
writing workshop because, while they understand the theory and know
some of the necessary elements, they have difficulty layering those
elements sequentially based upon the needs of their students. This
text gives specific information about writing workshop including step-by-step
instructions and day-by-day plans.
This book was born from the requests of teachers who have heard about
our writing program. We have field-tested all components of our writing
program.
 Features
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practical and in-depth mini-lessons with teacher and student
samples,
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literature, chants, rhymes, visual aids, and kinesthetic movements
to reinforce concepts,
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the use of the acronym VOICES, and accompanying mini-lessons,
that successfully teach even the youngest writers to use vivid
language, comparisons, and other craft elements in their writing,
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a five-page book format as an instructional scaffold,
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a built-in revision model;
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a sequential organization for sharing, which then leads to successful
peer conferences, and
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‘Consult an Expert,’ a comprehensive list of children’s
literature to be used for teaching writing concepts.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: Raising Young Writers
This chapter introduces the reader to writing workshop, presents components
of writing workshop, identifies the teacher’s role, and shares
other opportunities for writing throughout the school day.
Chapter 2: Introducing Writing Workshop in Grades 1 and 2
This chapter tells teachers how to begin writing workshop. It gives
a day-by-day account of the mini-lessons and students’ tasks
as writing workshop is introduced. We introduce a concept called “five-page
books” that provides a structure for primary grade writers to
be successful.
Chapter 3: Target Skills
This chapter argues for the use of target skills as teachers plan
for writing instruction. It describes how we have utilized target
skills and explains how students practice their target skills. A road
map for kindergarten through grades 2 is given. Additionally, this
chapter explains to readers how to utilize children’s literature
in writing workshop in what we call “Consult an Expert.”
We can help our students become more thoughtful writers by helping
them see how published authors can teach them more about different
aspects of a writer’s craft. An extensive list of titles and
correlating skills is presented in the appendix.
Chapter 4: Moving Beyond Competence to Excellence
This chapter shows teachers how to expand their writing program once
they’ve mastered the basics. We introduce the acronym VOICES,
an instructional plan based on vivid word choice, onomatopoeia, interjection,
comparison, elaboration, and specificity. Specific directions for
using this acronym are explained. A companion book which expands on
our VOICES concept will be available from Christopher-Gordon in March,
2003.
Chapter 5: Adaptations and Support Structures
We explain how writers and writing instruction differ for kindergartners
and struggling writers. Characteristics of kindergarten writers are
shared, and instructional techniques are explained. We describe some
of the structures in our classrooms that support young writers. In
addition, we share some of the difficulties that we’ve experienced
during writing workshop and help teachers anticipate and troubleshoot
if these problems occur in their classrooms.
Chapter 5: Nonfiction
This chapter explains how teachers can help students read and understand
the features of nonfiction and use these features in their writing.
Chapter 7: Conferences and Sharing Opportunities
This chapter explains how we conduct teacher-led and peer conferences.
It includes step-by-step instructions for sharing during Author’s
Chair.
Chapter 8: Assessment and Small Group Instruction
This chapter shares developmental writing levels and rubrics for writing
assessment and discusses how to utilize these rubrics for grading
purposes. It also explains to readers how to use the rubrics to plan
for small group instruction and for students to conduct self-assessments.
Appendices
The appendices will include the forms necessary for beginning and
sustaining writing workshop. The forms are also available on this
Web site.
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