During this portion of the workshop, the teacher tells the class what the mini-lesson is about, demonstrates how to use a particular skill, and tells why this skill is important to use. See Lesson Ideas for a variety of mini-lesson topics you could use with your class. Writing Time During Activity Time, students are involved with various stages of the writing process. Many teachers use charts to track student progress through the writing stages. The charts can be posted on a bulletin board or chalkboard, or on a clipboard.
Students can move their names to the appropriate stage as they work.
During Writing Time, teachers conference with individual students about their writing. Conferences may be impromptu or scheduled. For impromptu conferences, a teacher uses a management form with her students' names listed and visits with several students a day to talk about their writing. By the end of one or two weeks, the goal is to visit with each student. As you conference with various students, it will be easy to see which students need a follow-up conference for individual guidance.