"It is terribly important for kids to read and write for the reasons that people the world over read and write, which is to communicate, to be delighted, to laugh."
- Lucy Calkins
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| Lucy Calkins |
Writers' Workshop is an instructional model that views writing as an ongoing process. Students follow a given set of procedures for planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their writing. This framework allows students to be at various stages of the writing process at one time. Collaboration with peers and teacher is inherent in this model. Main Focus: Students as WRITERS.
Elements of Lucy Calkins' Writers' Workshop:
- Students keep a notebook or folder to organize their writing.
- Class members are all at different points in their writing. Some may be prewriting while others are at an editing stage.
- The teacher's role is: facilitator (monitoring, encouraging, conferencing, and providing help as needed).
- Students seek response to their writing from response partners or response groups for the purpose of improving their writing.
- Students have time to verbally share their written products.
- Teachers meet with individual students to conference their writing throughout the process.
- The workshop follows a predictable pattern: 5-10 minute mini-lesson, status of the class check, 30 minutes for independent writing and conferring, and a concluding group share.
Benefits of the Writing Workshop:
- There is no time wasted with students waiting for others to finish. Each student continues on to the next task.
- Students develop an independence and motivation to be writers.
- Students learn to write by writing. The stages of writing (prewriting, drafting, response, revision, proofreading, and publishing) occur naturally as students work towards completion of their projects.
- The more children write - and write about what matters to them - the greater their chance of growing into critical thinkers.
Problems to consider with the Writing Workshop:
- Some students might take advantage of the organizational structure to use time inefficiently.
- The workshop offers freedom, and some classes/students may become unruly.
- Some students need substantial direct instruction on the forms and mechanics of writing.
