Mrs. Richter’s mini-lesson today is about adding details to help the reader create a picture in their mind.   She moves around the room, quietly conferencing with students.   She listens with seriousness to each of them, as they share the narratives they’ve been laboring over.  She responds with an easy and genuine smile when she spots progress and success . . .

The students visit softly with each other about their writing from time to time, but for the most part the room is very quiet.  There is lots of uninterrupted “space” for individual thinking and the hard work of getting their thoughts down.

As I move around the room, I marvel at the quality of the work kindergarten students are producing in the second week of January.  When I was in kindergarten myself, we drew the pictures and the teacher came around and wrote the words for us.  But here, the students do the work.  They are independent and deep thinking. 

About 10 minutes in to writing time, something really important happens.   .  .  Mrs. Richter interrupts the students momentarily for what Lucy Calkins refers to as a “mid-lesson teaching point”.   Mrs. Richter has spotted a strong example of the point she emphasized in her mini-lesson.  She wants to draw attention to it and use it to remind students of their focus.   She shares the description of a pink jewelry box, with flowers on top, and bracelets and necklaces on the inside. Then she publicly celebrates the success of this young writer.  

I’m excited.   Not only does a clearly targeted mini-lesson help students to focus their efforts, but it helps the adults to narrow feedback  from an infinite number of possibilities, to just one important nugget.  “Add details.  Help the reader make a picture in their mind.”

When writing time ends, she asks them to put their supplies away and stack their writing folders in a pile.  “I’m going to take your writing folders home with me again, tonight.  When I read each of them, I’ll be making a movie in my mind about your story.”  Her students are visibly pleased to hear this.  One of her students says to me excitedly, as if I need convincing, “She really takes them to her real house!”

Then, as if she is putting a bookend on the experience, she ends the workshop just as she had begun it, by gathering the group on the risers.   She tells the children she has selected Lily to share her narrative.   Why Lily?  Lily has successfully added the kinds of details to her story that allow the reader to picture it in their mind, of course.  Again, Mrs. Richter sticks cleanly to the teaching point of the day.

One focused teaching point throughout the workshop. Clear, clean, and connected.   A thing of beauty.