Lucy Caulkins, Launching The Writer's Workshop

I've been reading Launching The Writer's Workshop, by Lucy Caulkins.  Tough sledding.  I spent several hours just reading the initial rubric, and developing a spreadsheet based on the rubric so that I can easily track any factor for each student on any day.  Maybe it will help, but not an efficient approach.  I need to change.  Today, I'm making better progress, because I know that  I'll be at a staff meeting tomorrow at 9am, where I'll be introduced as a guest teacher in a Kindergarten class.  I haven't even read the sub plans yet, and I have a pile of materials that I need to plow through today!  No wonder I feel fear in the pit of my stomach.

Here's a portion of my notes:

According to Lucy Caulkins, I'll need to model stories that are personal with details from my own life.  She often repeats, "I'm telling you this because authors do this and you can do the same thing!"

In her insistence on representational drawings, here's something Caulkins stresses that teachers need to watch for, because our illustrations should tell stories.  Tulips and rainbows indicate that the child is not representing meaningful details from his own life.

Here is a story I came up with today as a model that might be appropriate in a mini-lesson

I was reading, but Mabel wanted to play.

by Daniel Kurland

September 2, 2010