Written by Rachel Wild, Instructional Coach
I recently had the opportunity to attend
Ruth Culham’s creatively named session “Burning the Worksheets” at the Summit
15 literacy conference in Calgary.
Culham is best known for her work with the 6+1 Traits of Writing and her
session demonstrated a method for working on writing conventions, called
Writing Wallets.
Writing Wallets take the place of
traditional worksheet practice for writing conventions. They provide a place
for students to work at their own level, practicing and integrating the rules
and conventions of writing into their own pieces. It requires little to no
management or grading by the teacher and nudges students’ writing skills
forward in a non-threatening and independent way.
Writing Wallets begin with a plain letter
size folder for each student. The wallets could be personalized and decorated
by students or left as they are. Each wallet should contain 2-4 of the
students’ own writing pieces. The writing examples may include: quick writes,
responses to literature, journal entries, self-reflection, “problem pieces” or
any other short examples of raw writing. It is important that they are short
writing pieces so students don’t get overwhelmed and that you limit the number
to speed up the process. Teachers model the chosen convention in a brief
mini-lesson and then students practice on their own writing. As students practice the teacher circulates
checking in with students to provide feedback and guidance. After they have
practiced the convention, students can share with a writing partner how they
edited or revised their own writing. Periodically
(Culham suggest every four weeks or so), a piece could be revised and finalized
or students simply clear out the contents of the folder and begin again with
2-4 fresh pieces. The goal is of this
method is transference of these skills into student writing versus the isolated
practice that emphasizes quantity over quality.
Ruth Culham’s website:
