WEBVTT

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Welcome to There Is a Larger Audience.

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My name is Melinda Walsh, and I teach fourth
grade at Fall Creek Elementary in East Bend,

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North Carolina.

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My name is Eric Sorrell. I teach fifth grade
at Fall Creek School in East Bend, North Carolina.

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Walsh: I think it's a must for children to
be a community of writers and to be actively

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engaged in writing and to feel like they're
part of a writing community because they can

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have a comfort factor with their writing.

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Walsh: My students love to do Author's Chair.
I would define Author's Chair as just an

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opportunity where we all come together and
we sit in a circular format, and we have a

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defined Author's Chair labeled A, for example.
Sometimes it's decorated; sometimes the students

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decorate it, sometimes I decorate it or just
point it out: This is the Author's Chair.

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And the students get to come up and sit there,
and they have selected from their portfolios

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of writing, writing that they feel very confident
about, writing that they feel a good autonomy

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and ownership with. And then they get to share
that with their classmates. I think that the

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Author's Chair really helps students because
it gives them that opportunity to become the

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author. They own their writing. Not only is
it written on paper but the teachers, the

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students are all listening to me and they
think that it's really important what I have

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to share here.

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Sorrell: I think it's important for them to
feel safe. Keeping a safe environment where

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you are helped constructively is essential
so that you will not feel burdened by putting

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something down on the paper and worrying what
other people say about it.

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Sorrell: After getting to the end of the writing
process, it's always important to have a little

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bit of a celebration with the children. We
always have a publishing party at the end

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to celebrate their accomplishments. They put
their published piece on their desk and leave

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it there. What happens then is they are armed
with sticky notes, and what they do is they

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journey around the room with a snack and just
look at other people's writing. A lot of

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times I might give them something to look
for in specific, maybe onomatopoeia or where

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they have taken some sort of detail and really
drawn it out.

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The kids write down what they think about
the writing, what is done well. And I kind

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of frame it as two stars and a wish: two things
that they've done real well and one thing

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that you wish they would have worked on. What
they do is they just mingle around the room

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quietly, there is no talking so it's only
written communication. They write what they

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think on the sticky note, leave it right on
the published piece of the kid that they're

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looking at. And when that's all done, everybody
goes back to their seat, gathers up their

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sticky notes, I give them some time to reflect
about what the audience has written, and we

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kind of share as to what could be done for
the next draft.

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Sorrell: In inviting other people in, I think
it always reiterates the fact that there is

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a larger audience than just yourself for this.
Your writing is about you, but it's something

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to be shared with an audience. We always have
an audience. Somebody is always going to pick

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up what you create and read it.

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Walsh: I think that when students have the
opportunity to actively share their writing,

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in an engaged format, for example, having
the publishing parties or Author's Chair,

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is the very essence of being able to share
that with someone and having the opportunity

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to feel like they're involved in a community
of writers.

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To learn more about engaged communities, please
explore the additional resources on the Doing

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What Works website.