Long Lake Writing Program
Traverse City Area Public Schools sent two staff members, Terri Sheldon, currently Long Lake principal and Kathi Dean, TCAPS’ Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, to the Summer Writing Institute at Columbia University’s Teachers’ Reading and Writing Project in July 2007. This began a formal relationship between TCAPS and the Reading and Writing Project.
TCAPS hosted a Homegrown Institute during July 2008. Twelve Long Lake educators attended this 4-day conference learning about effective writing instruction and becoming better writers themselves.
Our district began using Calkins' K-2 Units of Study four years ago and now are in our third year of implementing the grades 3-5 units. These units use a Writers’ Workshop format (see below) that presents a lesson on a specific concept of writing such as developing a lead (or beginning) to a piece of writing. Kids come up with their own topics for writing as opposed to being given a specific writing prompt.
All Long Lake teachers are involved in Professional Learning Communities and are using Calkins’ units as the basis for their discussions in order to improve writing instruction in our classrooms.
All teachers use the Writers’ Workshop format for a period of at least 45 minutes each day. The workshop uses the following format:
- Mini-lesson focused on specific writing strategy 10 minutes
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Student writing/teacher conferencing 20 - 30 minutes
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Sharing 10 minutes
Seven Writing Celebrations have been planned throughout this year at Long Lake. The format for sharing student writing is determined by each classroom teacher. Students are excited both to share their own writing and enjoy each other’s efforts.