The Writer's Workshop and Ringwood School

The Writer's Workshop and Ringwood School

By Allison Thompson

    Teachers are often asked: What is your favorite subject to teach? It is not as often we are asked what is our least favorite subject to teach but we all have one. For me, it is writing. Writing has never come easy to me, so how was I supposed to teach others how to do it. Writing is a task that takes work. When reading, you are being entertained, escaping to a new world, and learning without as much effort. In writing, you are the one that is responsible for entertaining or teaching and it takes effort. Imagine my excitement (and my colleagues) when our school adopted a new reading program that would include writing instruction. As we sat in a training to get the layout of the new program and understand the components we were excited to have a researched-based approach to literacy. We discussed phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, sight words, and phonemic awareness. Huh, not writing?

    The school year started and armed with a new reading program we excitedly started teaching our new curriculum. As we worked our way through the school day we all came to writing and we were stumped. I recall having a conversation with a colleague about writing. I asked her, "Do you know what we are supposed to be doing this week? How are we supposed to teach this?" She did not have an answer. She was just as lost as I was. That was until our team sat and looked at the curriculum closely. What we started to notice was that the curriculum was set up as a writer's workshop. While we all had heard of a writer's workshop, we had not taught in a writer's workshop format. We had created the writing that was being taught before we adopted the new curriculum. We mostly taught writing by modeling and writing with our students. A writer's workshop is set up differently. In a writer's workshop, the teacher demonstrates the skill in a mini-lesson and then the students apply the lesson to independent writing. In the allowed time the teacher conferences with students to offer support.

    As I have progressed through my Master’s program I have often carried with me this writing struggle and how I could support my colleagues and our students. While many of the staff requested professional development in the writer's workshop this year provided other distractions. However, teachers are problem solvers and perfectionists so in preparation for the next school year it was time to tackle the writer’s workshop and provide some support for the staff.

    First, it should be acknowledged that there are often two terms that are used interchangeably that are not interchangeable, writer’s workshop and writing workshop (Kissel, 2017). Writer’s workshop focuses on the writer. In the writer's workshop teachers focus on supporting the writer. In a writing workshop, the teacher provides a space for writing and focuses on honing what is on the page (Kissel, 2017). So what are the pros and cons of focusing on the writer or the writing? Kissel (2017), “In a writers' workshop we work to foster the habits young writers need to form so writing is a routine. And through this daily routine, we work to help writers obtain the cumulative knowledge they need to continuously develop and hone their craft. The focus is entirely on the writer. We help writers develop the skills that will sustain them across multiple pieces of writing.” As a primary school, our staff should foster the development of our young writers. We need to encourage and support them to keep them motivated to write. While we have standards we must connect to our teaching we should make sure that our young students feel excited to write.

    Most can agree that writing is a process. Teachers like to talk about brainstorming, a purpose for writing, and mechanics. However, three key elements stand the test of time for student success. These three key elements are supported in the writer’s workshop format. Choice, protected writing time, and feedback (Calkins and Ehrenworth, 2016). The staff at Ringwood needs time for our grade levels to participate in horizontal and vertical planning. Before we can instruct our students in writing we need to determine what is quality writing, which strategies will be explicitly taught, and how we will track growth (Calkins and Ehrenworth, 2016). The teacher is also an important component in the writer’s workshop. Building a student’s confidence so they see themselves as a writer is the key goal for teachers. Even struggling students should feel supported enough to want to write. Authorship is not something that all students come by naturally but instead, it is grown each day by positive reinforcement from the teacher (Leung and Hicks, 2014). Additionally, for teachers to be successful writing instructors we must understand our writing identities and be willing to grow our writing skills (Rhodes et al, 2016).

     As mentioned previously, we often wrote with our students or provided them sentence starters which we did with good intentions. However, this is not the best way to support growth. According to Rhodes et al (2016), “Explaining the developmental stages of writing, the synchrony between reading and writing development and discussing the benefits of phonetic spelling and word walls began to shift some teachers’ paradigms” (p. 72). Teachers need to let students write on their own. We need to allow students to apply skills that they have learned rather than holding them back by giving them a sentence starter or having them copy what others share. Skills will not grow unless given the opportunity to apply, fail, and think critically.

     We need to trust the process in the writer’s workshop. One negative feeling that teachers have towards writer’s workshop is that you are giving up some control. By sending kids off to write there is a greater chance for mistakes. Teachers feel a sense of control when giving sentence starters and a higher level of support. Writer’s workshop makes the writing more child-centered rather than teacher-centered. Teachers will present a mini-lesson on a skill that is presented in the MyView curriculum. The curriculum does a nice job connecting to the standards, providing cross-curricular opportunities, and gives a logical scope and sequence. Next, we need to give students time to write. This time needs to be the biggest chunk in the writing block. Then, there needs to be a short time for students to share their work with the class. By following this plan each day teachers build consistency in the day that helps students to know when they are going to write and how they are going to write (Rhodes et al, 2016).

    Now that we have this perfect plan in place how do we encourage students that are less enthused to write? According to Rhodes et al (2016), “Before independent writing time begins, teachers can tell students their pencils “have been transformed” into magical writing instruments, which write wonderful stories. This ritual ensures all children are in their seats, in possession of a sharpened pencil and ready to launch their writing. A “no walk and no talk” rule at the start of independent writing, accompanied by some soft music, can also set the tone for a productive start to Writing Workshop” (p. 73). Through conferences, teachers can support off-task students as well. Ideally, the teacher would meet with each student once a week and offer constructive feedback. If a student is off task due to low self-confidence in writing the teacher can help support that student with feedback. By establishing a routine and setting expectations from the beginning students learn that this time of day is important and will follow through in the writing process. Finally, assessment of student writing will help determine the next steps in the writer's workshop and support student growth. Through the weekly conferences, notes, and assessment of final products teachers will be able to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the students (Rhodes et al, 2016). To help students understand what the teacher will be looking for it is important to set clear expectations and goals of the writing and skills taught. It was suggested that anchor charts would support students' understanding of the key concepts that will be assessed in the writing (Rhodes et al, 2016).

    What are the next steps for our staff? Our staff needs to have an opportunity for horizontal and vertical planning. We need to determine what our expectations for student writing are at various points in the year. Most likely these points would be at the mid-quarter and the end of each quarter. The grade levels need to agree on what skills would be appropriate for the students to have when they leave or enter each grade level. A consistent rubric should be developed between the grade levels for the various types of writing so that the assessment is consistent. The rubric should be connected to the standards. MyView does provide very simple rubrics but as staff, we need to determine our goals and expectations. Next, we need to look at the MyView curriculum and practice through staff development. We have not taught any of the MyView writing lessons in a writer’s workshop format. Staff could first work through lessons with staff. Then teams could practice with students. One teacher could teach and the rest of the team could observe with the purpose to connect the MyView curriculum to the writer's workshop and offer support to the teacher. Finally, there should be an opportunity for all staff to reflect and share ideas in a staff meeting. Staff should share tips, tricks, things that worked, and things that went wrong when they practiced. The student progress should be recorded and if there is not an increase in student writing progress then staff should revisit the process to see where the issues lie. 

References

Calkins, L., & Ehrenworth, M. (2016). Growing Extraordinary Writers: Leadership Decisions to Raise the Level of Writing Across a School and a District. Reading Teacher, 70(1), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.149

 Kissel, B., (2017). In other words: Writing workshop vs. writer's workshop. Literacy Now.  https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2017/08/22/writing-workshop-vs.-writers'-workshop

Leung, C. B., & Hicks, J. (2014). Writer Identity and Writing Workshop. Writing & Pedagogy, 6(3), 583–605. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.v6i3.583

Rhodes, J. A., McFarlane, E. P., Campbell, A., & Milby, T. M. (2016). An Instructional Leader’s Guide to Writing Workshop: Beginning Professional Development to Build Change. Reading in Virginia, 39, 71–76.