Writer's Workshop: Meeting Indiana Standards with Writer's Workshop

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Meeting Indiana Standards with Writer's Workshop

Using Writer's Workshop as an instructional approach for writing does meet the Indiana Standards of Learning. One approach for organizing Writer's Workshop is by genre studies.  In the first month of school, have the students learn the structure and procedures of the writers workshop thus making this a free choice time.  In subsequent months or grading periods focus on one particular genre of writing including but not limited to: fiction, non-fiction/inquiries, poetry, memoir, and media (newspaper, magazine, TV, news, and radio).

In mini-lessons at the beginning of the writers workshop, show students a particular technique or "skill," share a strategy either you as the instructional leader or another student has found successful (by modeling or example), or read aloud examples of the genre you are currently studying.  In order to meet all of the standards in your classroom, also use literature logs and class inquiry studies.

Below is an example of how the Language Arts Academic Standards in 5th grade have been met with the combination of Writer's Workshop, literature logs and class inquiry studies. Slight modifications can be made at all grade levels to meet those academic standards, too:

Helpful Hints

1. To best meet these standards, teachers must carefully plan mini-lessons.
2. Students might want to keep a writing notebook or journal.
3. Literature logs are wonderful counterparts to the writers workshop.  Include the book title, author, summary, and response for each book read.  The response could be anything which illustrated a deep understanding or connection with the piece.  Students can mention literary techniques they learned from a piece and intend to use in their next piece.
4. Inspiration (http://www.inspiration.com) is a great tool for prewriting and research planning!
5. Inquiries are basically research projects that go further than the traditional topical research paper.  Students must do something with the gathered research.  
6. Try to integrate the writing process with other content areas.  A good example might be to send a science fair report through the process.
7. Reading good literature to the class as a mini-lesson can demonstrate a literary technique and give inspiration.  
8. Teachers should structure the writing process for the entire year, incorporating different genres and subject areas. 
9. Be sure each writers workshop session is structured in a predictable manner--kids will spend more time on task and less wondering what will happen next. One uninterrupted hour per day works best.  
10. Teachers should allow some pieces to be free choice for the student, other pieces can be “suggested”/assigned by teacher.  
11. Also, remember that ALL pieces may not need to go through the entire writing process.
12. Author’s Circles should include no more than 5 students at a time.
13. Student editors can work in pairs.
14. Students must be encouraged to refine ideas before attempting editing.
15. Give students opportunities to read appropriate pieces to other students/classes/audiences. This can be done on a given day with an Author's Chair.
16. Clip art and font variations should be the finishing touches to the piece…not the whole piece!
17. Perhaps get the art and music teacher involved in publishing.
18. Using word processing allows students to focus on clarification of ideas.
19. Be sure to demonstrate how to effectively use spell-check. This is a good mini-lesson which can be repeated several times.

Next visit a brief description with downloadable posters explaining the steps in the Writer's Workshop: 5 Steps in the Writer's Workshop.