The Best October Writing Center
If you’ve been here a little while, you know that I’m a big fan of keeping things simple.
This includes all centers. Especially your writing center.
I just don’t believe that students need a new writing center activity every week. It doesn’t give them time to engage deeply with the task. I also don’t believe that everyone needs to (or should) work on the same activities at the same time. Choice is your friend when it comes to making centers last!
I actually believe that you can leave the same activities out for 4-6 weeks at a time, and your students will be engaged, and have the time they need to actually grow as writers!
Today, I have my formula for the ULTIMATE writing center. One that pushes your students, gives them some autonomy, and takes a whole lot of prep work off of your plate.
CREATE YOUR ULTIMATE WRITING CENTER
Set a Writing Focus
Begin by choosing a writing focus for the month. This can be something you’ve been working on in writing or in language arts. I really like to reinforce grammar skills through the writing focus.
Hang a poster that defines the focus, and remind students to highlight every time they use that skill in their writing that month. The writing focus can be anything from subjects and predicates, expanding on details, to forming a hook, and so much more. This is a great way to get students thinking about the things that they have been learning in your writing block every time they write.
Create Toolkits to Foster Independence
Along with the poster that defines a writing focus for the month, I also love to have writing tool kits on hand in my writing center. You can make these individually for each student, but I think it’s simpler to make four or five for everyone to share.
It’s a little less prep, and everyone has one of their own when they come to the center. Having these tools available fosters independence and boosts my students’ writing ability. And that’s a sanity saver when I’m trying to teach small groups.
Choose Three Activities
Here’s the part where things become super simple. Choose three writing activities to put out at the same time. Students will choose the order that they complete them in, and you won’t even check in on this unitl the end of the month. What? How? Am I crazy?
No. This works. Trust me.
The complexity of the activities is simpler at the beginning of the year and then ramps up as the year goes on. Students must be able to access the content independently for any of this to work, so don’t let things get too hard too soon!
Students do not turn in the activities as they finish them (unless you really want all of those loose papers floating around but…why?) Instead, I have my students complete their monthly tasks in a monthly writing journal. You can grab a copy of the September journal for FREE by signing up below!
At the end of the month, all students turn in their writing journals. I flip through and I do. not. grade. anything. Grading writing is for formal units that we all worked on together. Writing centers are formative feedback, not summative grades. I flip through, draw smiley faces on a few places where I noticed the monthly focus being used correctly, and give a couple of other fun comments. I choose one thing to ask them to focus on next month, and I jot it down inside the front cover.
That’s it. :)
October Center Picks
So, now that you know what my ultimate writing center includes, which activities should you use for October? I have a few suggestions!
Halloween photo prompt cards. These fun writing prompts are fall-themed and lend themselves well to any of the writing focuses!
Write Your Own Spooky Story. Students use the planning pages to create their own spooky story for the season!
October Paragraph Puzzles. 6 Paragraphs that are September-themed. Cut them apart and place them in a large plastic sleeve or bag. Students pull them out, sort them, and write the complete paragraphs. You can differentiate this activity by asking students to expand on the paragraphs with added details!
Halloween Build-a-Story. Students pick character, setting, and spooky object cards to build a narrative!
Click any of the links in this post to shop products, and don’t forget to grab your FREE October writing journal below!
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