That Workshop Book - Reflection #3

As I reread the first chapter in, That Workshop Book by Samantha Bennett, this jumped out at me tonight.

"In a workshop, as students are busy doing the work of learning, it frees teachers to do their work as learners. As students read, write, think and talk, teachers do the work of learning about their students: what students know, what they can do, and what they need to be successful adults."

The word adult seems very big in my every day kindergarten world. However, I know all the little and small things we do daily will help them grow and get to be an adult. In writing workshop, we are transitioning from writing small ideas in our Drawing and Writing Notebooks to writing ideas with many ideas in small booklets. As my students were reading, writing, thinking, and talking during writing workshop last week I was learning about them. I was reminded our time recently had been fragmented. I was reminded we needed to write daily and no matter what our day grew into. I was reminded one general introduction was probably needed to get us started but we need more information in smaller doses. Last week I was learning about my students through observation, conferring, and reading. I saw what they can do and celebrated. I also learned we need to do these things this week at a slower pace with more intentional talk and guidance.

-Books have titles
-Books have authors and illustrators, write your name on the cover
-How to write on lines below your illustration
-How to add pages
-How to take away pages
-How to write on the front of the pages only
-How to write the text in pencil and illustrate in color
-We need some mini lessons on drawing to enhance illustrations