Classroom Inquiry - Writers Workshop PowerPoint

Increasing 1st and 2nd grade Student Interest in Reading and Writing
by Supplementing the Open Court Curriculum with Reader’s Theater,
Writer’s Workshop, and Video Production
Mathew Needleman at Saturn Elementary

Mathew Needleman’s 1st and 2nd grade students at Saturn Street Elementary School from 2003-2007 had a unique opportunity to benefit from his film production experience, when Mathew used video and narrative storytelling to increase his students’ English language development. The following project description was adapted from a presentation given at the Office of English Language Acquisition’s 2007 Summit in Washington D.C.

For a more detailed description of this classroom inquiry project, download Needlman's Classroom Inquiry - Writers Workshop PowerPoint presentation.

In 2004, Needleman began the TLC project by studying the Readers’ Theater project that he was implementing in his classroom, in which students did repeated readings of a script, and eventually acted in and recorded a video of the performance. These videos may be viewed on Needleman’s website, along with other work that he has accomplished using technology to promote literacy: www.videointheclassroom.com.

His goals were to:

• engage students in repeated reading with an authentic purpose
• increase reading fluency
• increase students interest in reading for pleasure
• teach media literacy
• promote higher level thinking

As a result of the innovative work Mathew did with his students, they showed increased enthusiasm for reading and increased fluency scores by the end of the year. The following year in the TLC project, Mathew sought to implement strategies that would increase students’ enthusiasm for writing as well as reading.

“Students are normally taught to write because the teacher says so, and not to reach audiences, express feelings, communicate, or to entertain.”

In the writer’s workshop described in the Open Court Reading manual, students write on an assigned Open Court unit topic, they move at the same pace (all students write a story one day, edit it the next, revise and publish the next, etc.). There is little room for them to change their mind about the focus of their essay, try new things, or explore different genres.

Needleman noted some disadvantages to this process.  Students not only have to learn English, but also the unit content, and the instructional vocabulary used by Open Court. Not surprisingly, the process decreases student engagement, and leaves many English learners behind.

Needleman modified the writer’s workshop and allowed students to choose their own topics, move at their own pace within decided upon deadlines, and explore different genres and topics without commitment, as long as they had a piece ready to “publish” by an agreed upon deadline.

The research question became:  Can student participation in writer’s workshop positively affect writing on Open Court unit topics?

Needleman noted that his students soon became more engaged in writing when they wrote on topics of their own choosing. Their familiarity with the subject matter meant that they only had to learn the writing process, and the English needed to express their stories.

Writer’s workshop began with pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming and storyboarding:

And was followed by drafting:

Revising and proofing:

And finally, publishing:

Mr. Needleman found time to for writing workshop by sticking to a schedule of daily writing and moving through directed instruction lessons as quickly as the manual suggested.  Rather than abandon Open Court writing prompts, Mr. Needleman taught students to write on those unit themes separately from writer’s workshop and found that students were able to complete the prompts more quickly and successfully because they approached them with prior knowledge of the writing process and as themselves as authors.  In terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Mr. Needleman noted that the thinking required to select one’s own topic and choose interesting and focused details was higher than simply recalling facts about a particular unit’s theme and putting those facts on paper.  While both skills are necessary, without implementing a writer’s workshop, Mr. Needleman felt his students were not getting to higher level thinking and were even unable to successfully reach lower levels.

• For those students who remained unmotivated to write even in this new model, Mr. Needleman began to integrate the film making process once again, this time putting the tools in the hands of students and asking them to plan, write, and edit their own short narrative films.  Students wrote scripts, brought in photographs to illustrate it, and narrated the script to animated still photos.

Students became more engaged in writing on topics of their own choosing; they were already familiarity with the topic and only had to learn the writing process.

Jonathan, a reluctant and uninterested writer created his best piece of writing of the year when he wrote a short movie rather than for a traditional assignment.  Another student who had expressed that she did not enjoy writing suggested that it would be easier if she were to write out a script before narrating her film, demonstrating the link students saw between verbalizing, writing, and understanding writing as a form of authentic communication. This was one of the first pieces of writing that Jonathan was able to complete, and it was self-initiated.  Here is his movie:  

According to Needleman, it is especially important to use technology with English learners.

• Audio and visual aids assist English learners with constructing meaning.
• Technology such as movie making provides students with an authentic audience beyond the classroom.
• The process of using technology often requires higher-level thinking.
• Students need 21st century skills to close the digital divide whereby lower income students have unequal access to technology in ways that promote higher-level thinking and creativity.

See more of Needleman’s projects on his website:  www.videointheclassroom.com