Why a writer’s workshop?

Students learn to write best when they write frequently, for extended periods.

Besides, Writer’s Workshop can help students get more motivated to write and express their ideas. Because it allows them to select their topics. It guides them throughout their selection and writing and also encourages sharing work with peers and others.

It can also support you in building the writing habits of students, mainly those who lack familiarity, confidence with, or enthusiasm for writing.

So, they’ll feel comfortable as writers and more willing to participate in creative and extended writing activities.

Because it has a structured order of events, this framework for teaching writing will make your writing classes more organized.

No matter what grade levels you’re teaching, writing goals, and strategies you’re targeting, you can use Writer’s Workshop and get your students to practise writing in the classroom.

Yet, to use this framework students need to have already developed certain ability to write.

So, how to use Writer’s Workshop?

Structure of writer’s workshop

Writer’s Workshop follows the following basic format:

1. The mini-Lesson (approx. 10 mins.)

The Writing Workshop begins with a mini-lesson. A mini-lesson is a short lesson focused on one aspect of writing (one specific craft, convention, process, or organisational technique) in which the teacher provides explicit instruction.

A mini-lesson should be :

Brief: Your mini-lesson should be short so that the majority of each writing period will be available to the students for writing.

Focused: Each mini-lesson covers a single, narrowly defined topic. So, you need to note down the specific difficulties your students are having in writing and focus on them in your mini-lessons.

Authentic: Good mini-lessons are based on practical and immediately useful things real writers really need to know. They are targeted to address, in a timely way, the specific challenges writers face as they explore new writing tasks and genres.

For example, if your students need help with writing business emails, you can focus on how to organize your email, the way to express inquiries, email etiquette, and devote a mini-lesson for each of these writing aspects.

But, how to do it?

• Begin your mini-lesson by activating students’ prior knowledge: reminding them of previous content or revising an area that relates to your mini-lesson topic ;

• explain the objective of your mini-lesson and what your students are expected to do ;

• provide explicit instruction on one aspect of writing by using illustrations and modelling.

It’s important to note that you are not expected to give a mini-lesson every day; twice a week is usually fine. Focus more on the writing time, asking students to write regularly.

2. Independent writing and conferencing (approx. 30 mins.)

In Writer’s Workshop, students work on different pieces of writing at different rates. They determine first the topics they will write about, talk or discuss ideas with their peers, and start to write.

It’s a good idea to ask each student what he/she is going to write about once the mini-lesson is over. This can help you track students’ writing progress over time.

To support them with the writing process, provide a variety of graphic organizers for brainstorming and planning, samples of the genre they are to be creating, writing and highlighting utensils, scraps of papers for recording questions or ideas, and a writing process checklist.

What should you do during students’ writing time?

It was found that students get more excited about writing when their teacher is writing too. So, try to do so at least once a week.

You can start conferring with individual writers after 10 minutes of assigning the writing task.

How can you conduct writing conferences?

Writing conferences can be approached from two perspectives: teacher-led or student-led.

When it is teacher-led, you interact with individual students to nudge details from them, to understand what they are working on, what ideas they want to express, what they are going to do next, and the kind of support they need to accomplish the work.

When students lead writing conferences, they spend one-on-one time with the teacher to discuss their writing, address questions, and possible obstacles, and provide an accountability check of goals and progress.

Whether they’re teacher or student-led, writing conferences aim to encourage students to write, to listen to them and provide help as needed, and not to interfere with the task at hand.

Be sure to take anecdotal notes during the writing conference to use in the assessment of students’ writing skills and strategies.

How often should you conference with each student?

You need to interact individually with every student in the class at least twice a week to help him with the specific writing issue he has.

3. Sharing (10-15 mins.)

This is the most important stage of the writer’s workshop. When students share their ideas and their peers comment and address questions, they are more likely to learn from each other and improve their writing.

Providing students with opportunities to share their writing pieces can also motivate them to write more to make their voices heard.

Here are some tips for better sharing :

• Teach students how to make constructive comments to their peers by modelling that kind of commenting yourself.
• Ask students to use the vocabulary of the Six Traits criteria when making comments.
• Make sure that everyone knows that all comments are only suggestions. Authors do not have to make the changes their readers request (even if the teacher is doing the request). This makes authors more willing to listen and keeps readers from getting too insistent.
• Make sharing voluntary. No one should ever be forced to share their writing with the class. This reduces anxiety about sharing.
• Conduct periodic small group share sessions. This lets more students share and practice making constructive comments.
• Ask students to consider creating informal “revision plans” based on the feedback they get from sharing. This helps students connect reader response with the act of revision.
• Share your writing often and be a good listener. This shows students how to take and how to use good constructive criticism. (Peha,2003)

But, how can you give each student this sharing opportunity?

You may not have time for every student to share his work. So, you can either limit authors to reading just a small section or ask prompting questions so that students focus their audience’s attention on one specific aspect of their work.

You can, for instance, ask them to share: What’s the main point they want to communicate? Why? What they’re expecting from others?

This is the structure of Writer’s Workshop.

Yet, it’s not necessary to complete the above stages in that order. You can get more flexible with your Writer’s Workshop.

Focus more on students’ writing and try to devote time to that regularly. Give a mini-lesson twice a week. You need not conclude each class with sharing, but do it as often as possible because your students will love it.

So, don’t think of Writer’s Workshop as a rigid teaching framework that can take a lot of your time. Rather, consider it as a tool to help students overcome any writing deficiencies.

Remember that, unlike a traditional writing classroom, in Writer’s Workshop you don’t have to test your students on every new concept presented. That learning is supposed to come through their writing.

The more you use this teaching framework, the more likely you’ll make the most of it. So, don’t stress out and try to reflect on such an experience to improve things.

So, if you are concerned about your students’ writing development, Writer’s Workshop can help you bring the change you have always longed for.