Why is writers workshop important

All three are necessary and impactful elements of an exceptional, gratifying Writing Workshop. Purpose First, as teachers, we must consider the purpose of the workshop.

Our purpose, then, is to provide daily, momentum-building opportunities for writers to experience something new so they may extend their repertoire of generative tools related to craft and conventions. For our writers, their work only becomes relevant when there is a purpose for writing. Writing provides an outlet for writers to share thinking that is meaningful to them in some way.

Purpose increases the level of investment. Therefore, writers need to have freedom and flexibility, along with guidance, to make choices about their topics, the genre and structure that best communicates their message, their audience, the research necessary to plan for their writing, the details they include, the paper, graphics, text features, font, and decision to publish.

If a goal is for students to become lifelong writers, their writing should fit them personally, with ties to their own lives, experiences, and interests. As members of a writerly community, students learn about one another and more readily share what is personally meaningful as well. Within this context, writers engage with purpose each day as they work on creating that which is meaningful to them.

Power Within the Writing Workshop, students gain power as their writing process is strengthened. Daily, whole-group writing minilessons provide explicit strategies for writers to extend their understanding about craft and conventions.

Craft minilessons may be related to organization, idea development, language use, word choice, and voice, and all serve in making writing better and more captivating. Conventions minilessons may include any aspect of writing mechanics and grammar, allowing for writing to be understood and appreciated by an audience.

Mentor texts enable authentic, meaningful demonstrations of craft and conventions. As writers take on new learning about craft and conventions, they add to their repertoire of possibilities to potentially try out with every piece of writing. Check out some examples I share in chapter 18 of the text Responsive Literacy Sheets, Writing conferences support the thinking of each writer as instruction is differentiated during a writer-to-writer conversation.

With opportunities to provide feedback, teach something new, coach as the writer gives it a go, and make explicit links to ways the writer may apply the learning to independent work, the instructional possibilities are endless. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Calkins, L. A curricular plan for the writing workshop: Grade K. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Growing extraordinary writers: Leadership decisions to raise the level of writing across a school and a District. The Reading Teacher, 70 1 , 7 Our website uses a free tool to translate into other languages. This tool is a guide and may not be accurate. For more, see: Information in your language. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server.

Please enable scripts and reload this page. Skip to content. Page Content. Have I explained two interesting ideas from the book? Have I included two extended descriptive phrases? Is my meaning clear? What is the best thing about my draft? Can you suggest any improvements? Some options are: illustrations or photos artefacts, e. Literacy Teaching Toolkit. Revising is about making a good piece of writing even stronger. Devote a number of mini-lessons to revision. Through shared writing, co-create a text.

Spend two or three sessions revising it better opener, vivid verbs, awesome adjectives, no tired words, etc. Compare the first draft to the finished piece. Try devoting one workshop session a week to revision Revision Wednesday? For share time, pre-select children who made a special effort to revise their writing. You can also help children by having them brainstorm a list of topics and display it, so the children can refer to the list. Ask the children who exhibit exceptional difficulty coming up with ideas to stay on the rug for an extra minute or two.

Check in with each of the children to make sure they have decided upon an idea. You might even ask them to tell the first sentence of their piece.

Writing Workshop lends itself to the teaching of spelling and grammar because these lessons are taught within the context of actual writing for an authentic purpose rather than through isolated skill practice.

Identify which lessons your children need by examining their writing. Co-create anchor charts with the children to help them remember high utility grammar and spelling strategies and concepts. Teach children to use the resources in the room to check their spelling.

It sounds like your children are in the pre-emergent and emergent stages of writing. One of the things that helps them to grow as writers is many experiences with writing.

In your mini-lessons and your daily Message Time Plus lessons, explicitly teach lessons like directionality, word boundaries, and matching sounds with symbols. Be sure to have individual-sized alphabet charts for the children to refer to while they are writing. Encourage them to draw a picture and label it. Many children will start out by labeling their picture with a single letter, but their labels will become more advanced over time.

Have one-on-one conferences to zero in on individual needs. Consider providing each child with a writing folder. Have the children keep all of their writing from Writing Workshop in their folders. Create a schedule that allows you to examine writing folders at regular intervals.

The number of papers in a folder indicates the volume of writing that the child is producing. Select one piece to assess with a rubric. Be sure to share the rubric with the children, so they will know how they are being assessed. Using this method, you should be able to assess one piece of writing a week for each child. You can also try asking the children to select one piece from their writing folders to submit for assessment.

Clear out the writing folders after each unit or once a month. Make sure to preserve the pieces that you assessed with the rubric. To ensure a productive independent writing time, the children must know the routines and procedures of Writing Workshop. Teach procedural lessons, practice and rehearse, and co-create anchor charts. Resist attempting conferences or convening small writing groups until the children know the routines. This is simple to assess.

Have them write, and note the starting time. Note how long they were able to write. Be assured that their stamina will increase over time. Nevertheless, the amount of time you allocate for independent writing must always be appropriate for their current level of stamina for writing. Walk around between conferences to be aware of what is happening.

Make adjustments and offer options for children who need extra support. Finally, have the children self-assess and make goals or plans for improving their productivity during independent writing time. The architecture of the writing conference is research, decide, compliment, teach Calkins, During the research part of the conference, you will need to find out what the writer needs.

This can be discovered by having the child read their writing to you and have a conversation with the child. Then find something to compliment i. Remember to teach only one thing. Try to find a concept that the child has partially mastered, and teach that concept. It is really a great way to interact with the children and share what we think about the stories…..