writer's workshop overview

This is a brief description of how you can create a Writer's Workshop in your classroom. Teachers can introduce Writer's Workshop at any grade level, but it is best to begin this at the kindergarten level.

Preparation

With this step, you will find how the Writer's Workshop meets the standards of learning as well as tips for introducing this to your students:

1. Indiana Standards of Learning/Writer's Workshop - how the Writer's Workshop meets our state's standards.
2. Introducing Writer's Workshop to Students - this page explains the five steps for creating a writer's workshop. Included on this page are posters, which can be downloaded for displaying the five steps in your classroom.

Writer's Workshop

With this step, you will find how the Writer's Workshop meets the standards of learning as well as tips for introducing this to your students:

1. Prewriting: This is the very first step. It is in this step that you decide what you will write, who will be your audience, your purpose for writing, and what form you will choose to convey your ideas. You will be doing a lot of brainstorming at this point.
2. Drafting: In this step students will put their ideas into written form. The main focus in this step is content … NOT grammar mechanics and spelling.
3. Revising: The main concern in this step is clarifying content, organization, and style. Author’s Circles are a valuable resource during this step of the workshop. A one page handout that students and/or teachers can use to record notes on material created in the Writer's Workshop during the revising step is included.
4. Editing: This is the step that deals with the grammar mechanics and spelling. The piece should first be self-edited. The next step is turning it into the Editing Center where your peers will edit the piece. An Editing Form will be filled out, clipped to your piece and returned to you. I am going to require each student to work at the Editing Center for a one-week period each quarter. This work will be graded.
5. Publishing: This is when you finish your piece and share it with an audience. Included on this page is a rubric that can be used by students, teachers, or parents to assess the written work.

Resources Used for this Tutorial

Calkins, Lucy McCormick,

The Art of Teaching Writing, Heinemann, 1994.

Short, Kathy, Harste, Jerome, Carolyn Burke,

Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers, Heinemann, 1996.

Wilde, Sandra, You Kan Red This, Heinemann, 1992.

Begin by visiting how the Writer's Workshop meets our state's standards: Standards