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WritingFix Projects: Post-its® & Writer's Workshop
how a simple office supply can build a community of revisers and editors
A brief bit of history. I had an hour to kill at my desk between after school meetings one day in 2006. Someone had put two birthday cards in my chair, with instructions to sign them and move them on to the next teacher. I dislike signing birthday cards; no matter what I write, it always feels trite and uninspired. I thought, "You know, if I just had my face on a sticker, I could start sticking those in birthday cards instead of having to write anything. What time I could save!" But I didn't have any sticker templates. I only had a pack of Post-It Notes®. Originally created for colleagues' birthday cards, the Post-it templates--this suddenly occurred to me--could be filled with more educational tasks--things that might actually benefit and inspire my students during writers workshop. Since then, I have been using the Post-its in all my trainings for teachers and whenever I am presenting a lesson to students. The Post-its serve as a miniature "script" in the hands of those who use them, reminding them to use trait language when discussing the writing they are responding to. When I use the Post-its, I find my learners begin to "own" six trait language must faster. I eavesdrop as they talk about each other's writing, and I am amazed how much my students talk like writers with the simple addition of the Post-it notes to my workshop.
Want to participate in this WritingFix project? If you have an original idea for using this page's Post-Its while teaching your students to revise or edit that you would be willing to let us post here, we will send you one of the NNWP Print Publications in exchange for us being allowed to feature it. Contact us at webmaster@writingfix.com for details or to send us a blurb on how you have used/adapted this page's resources. See the two example blurbs at the bottom of the page to see what kind of ideas we're looking for. |
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My name is 
Further Inspiration? In the marvelous collection of essays by writing teachers published through the National Writing Project--Breakthroughs--teacher Kathleen O'Shaughnessy shares multiple uses of Post-It Notes® from her classroom. Kathleen's essay is called "
NNWP Tips for these Post-its! |
The Original 6-Trait Post-its Posted at WritingFix |
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How can I print WritingFix's Post-It templates on actual Post-It Notes®?If you've an above-average relationship with your printer, you can do this! Click here (or on the image below) to open our PDF instructions on how to print the templates on 3 x 3 Post-It Notes®.
If you print the instructions in color, they are easier to use. Revitalizing Response with Trait-Specific Post-Its Great ideas often come to those who least expect them. So was the case for Spencer Silver and Arthur Fry whose accidental invention in 1974 created one of the most widely used office products in history. The distribution of the Post-It note in 1980 revolutionized the way Americans marked their places and kept track of things. Just as this remarkable office product changed our lives, the trait-specific Post-It note will change the way you and your students see peer response in your classroom. As a teacher, I have always valued the writing process and wanted my students to engage in all aspects of the process. But like most teachers, I found response to be the most frustrating and difficult part of the process. I didn’t want to be my students’ sole responder, and I really wanted students to engage in meaningful conversations about their writing and the writing of their peers. I have tried all sorts of response techniques over the years, from very structured to completely unstructured peer response, and nothing ever seemed to really get students into the kind of dialogue I wanted to see happening. Even my honors students would rather rush through peer response and give the cursory, “It’s great. I like it.” Even good writers are stuck on what to say and how to really help their peers improve a piece of writing. Most teachers I have talked to over the years have had similar problems with response, and in fact, many (including myself at times) forgo that part of the process altogether because it becomes wasted instructional time...(Click here to print and read Kim's entire essay.) |
Below, find the original six, 6-Trait Post-its created for the WritingFix website: |
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More Ideas from Teachers: |
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Using WritingFix's Post-Its
during Independent Reading Time Last spring, I had the pleasure of attending a teacher in-service course offered by the Northern Nevada Writing Project. Corbett [Harrison] and the other presenters taught us how to open the Post-it files on-line and print them on actual Post-It Notes®, which was great fun. One of the other attending teachers didn't care for the Post-Its being printed on real Post-Its. She reported to our class that all the Post-Its fell off as soon as the drafts went into her students' messy desks. We all laughed, because that made a lot of sense to us. Corbett suggested that, if we have similar student desk conditions, instead of printing on sticky Post-Its, we print the sheet on colored Xerox paper, cut the Post-It Notes® out, and staple one to our students' drafts. A good compromise. But I didn't want to lose the idea of having them on real Post-It Notes®. My kids like real Post-Its. They got excited when I passed them out with printing on them already. An idea occurred to me. It was my own compromise! What if, during my students' independent reading time, they attached a [trait] Post-It to their library books, and at the end of reading time, they had to rank their authors' use of one of the traits?... (Click here to print and read Alice's entire testimonial.) |
Ranking versus Rating with the Post-its I had a huge "ah-ha" last week when using your Post-it templates. I realized that I had never thought carefully about the word "rank" on the instructions. I guess I am a little slow! I had been allowing my students to "rate" the five skills, which gave them permission to give themselves all 3's or 4's, which I noticed were the numbers they used the most. I realized that "rank" meant that each student should only have one 1, one 2, one 3, one 4, and one 5. This is what the verb "rank" was actually asking them to do. My students and I had a great discussion about the difference between "rank" and "rate," and when I asked them to start ranking their skills instead of rating them, they found it much harder to do. But it was a good kind of difficulty for them; I think they had become lazy about applying the language of the Post-its to their own writing. My students had to decide which skill (of the five) was their strongest and which was their weakest and where the others fell in between. My best writers and my writers who struggle had to go through the same process. This "ah-ha" has made me re-think how I'll use these Post-its again next year. Thanks! |
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