You know how important it is to show authentic examples of student work to your class, but keeping track of why you kept a certain piece is tricky.  We’ve all collected piles of papers from one year, and then wondered why in the world we wanted a particular piece when we looked at it the next year.

Finding a system that worked for me meant sticky notes — one of my favorite ways to organize anything!  I created a Writing Skills in Action sticky note that lets me keep track of the title of the writing, the genre, the grade level, and, more importantly, the level of the paper (high, medium, or low).  A line for each of the 6-traits helps me keep track of the specific reason(s) I kept the piece and possible mini-lesson topics for each writing (e.g. shows great beginning or has good word choice, especially paragraph 3).

Keep in mind that as you begin collecting, you’ll realize that one paper might act as an anchor for several different reasons.  It’s better to have a smaller collection of papers than to try to keep track of too many.  That said, take a look at my Writing Skills in Action sticky notes to see how they might help you get organized.  Remember to hang on to those potential anchor papers and keep track of why so you can pull them out and use them next year to teach the traits.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 11:24 am and is filed under Anchor Papers, Writer’s workshop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.