Teaching students to be independent during writing workshop is a common goal for most writing teachers at the beginning of the year. We can teach students to keep pushing through on their writing, even when they aren’t so sure of themselves. Learn how I foster independence in my writers with:

a digital picture dictionary to inspire writing.
googly eyes to improve writing,
personal word wall to spell independently.

These Tools Changed My Writing Workshop Forever

Use a Digital Picture Dictionary

Use a picture dictionary to inspire your student’s writing in more ways than one! Your students can use the pictures for each letter of the alphabet to help them think of ideas to write about.

The digital picture dictionary is perfect for students that are learning the independent process of writing workshop. This writing workshop tool has sound for students to listen to and learn new words.

Once your students have identified the perfect words for their writing piece, they can use their dictionary to spell the words correctly.

Use Googly Eyes To Fix up Writing

Once your students begin writing independently, it can be difficult for them to understand that they should go back to improve their writing.

Most times, students are already proud of the hard work that they put in to complete their book, and they are ready to be writing the next book topic.

A fun way that I promote editing during writing workshop, is by using googly eye pointers. When my students tell me that they are finished with a book, they know that it is time to go back and look at their writing with a “new set of eyes.”

Use googly eyes to increase student engagement during writing workshop

I remind my students about small writing lessons that we learned throughout the unit. I encourage them to use their extra eyes to make sure they see those features. If something is missing, they spend some time going back to make their story even better.

Using this special writing tool has been amazing to slow my students down in their writing process. Before they are quick to start their next story, they are sure that their current project is their best work!

Try a Personal Word Wall

Although a personal word wall doesn’t have sound, it’s great for writers that are confident in their abilities and ready to take their writing to the next level!

A word wall can be differentiated for student’s varying abilities. You can add different sight words for your students to use during writing time.

Students can use a personal word wall folder to gain independence during writing time.

My favorite feature of the personal word wall is the back portion, where I can add my students names and different locations in our community.

When students have this information, it helps them write about true events that happened to them. When students write about true events in their lives, they are able to add more details and bring their writing to life.