Writers Workshop in
Middle and High
School
NESA Spring Educators Conference
Bangkok, Thailand
April 2, 2011
Janine A. King
What is Workshop?
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Not a curriculum, but a set of structures and
practices
An environment that gives students the
opportunity to bring their reading and writing
lives into the classroom for the purpose of
stretching themselves in the company of others
A format that allows teachers to explicitly
demonstrate the strategies and habits of mind
employed by critical readers and writers
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Teaching the writer instead of ‘fixing’ the piece
of writing
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The Importance of
Environment
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Meeting Area
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Focus
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Tone
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Community of readers and writers
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Teacher as mentor (vs someone who is going to
tell us what to do now)
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Collaborative Seating
Arrangement
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Anchor Charts
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What - the skill or strategy being taught
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Why it is important
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How - an example
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The Mini-Lesson
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Short
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Direct
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One teaching point (posted)
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Explanation
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Modeling/demonstration/examples
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Notebooks: Writers Workshop
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Volume
Growth
Evidence of
Generating and collecting ideas
 “Test Drives”
 Experimenting with craft
 Planning for drafting
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Partnerships
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Partners…
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Encourage each other
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Push each other
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Generate and develop ideas with each other
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Provide a constant audience
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Engage in active listening and learning
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Conferring
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Individualized instruction
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Differentiation
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Accountability
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Writers Workshop
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Why Writers Workshop?
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Choice
Notebooks
Explicit instruction
Teacher demonstration
Volume of writing
Conferring
Differentiation
Independence
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The Writing Process
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The Features of a Personal Narrative
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Generating
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People/Places/Moments
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Writing Partners
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Encourage each other
“Please read it to me.”
“I like that part.”
“I’d love to hear more about…”
Push each other
“I hear you saying…”
“Why does this matter?”
Generate ideas with each other
“Wait! I need to add to my list.”
“You just reminded me…”
Practice Active Listening
Face each other
Make eye contact
Sit up straight
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Generating
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People/Places/Moments
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People/Remarks/Emotions
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First Time/Last Time
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Musical Timeline
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Planning
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Drafting
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Out of the notebook
On loose leaf paper
Skip every other line
Write about one event only
Keep the issue/message in mind
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Why is this important?
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Revising
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What does it look like to add significant,
specific detail?
Include:
 Seasons, months, days of the week
 Weather
 Real names of streets, parks, stores
 Colors
 People’s appearances
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What are they wearing?
How does it look on them?
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Hair, facial features and expressions
Smiles, movements, brand names
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Editing
Teach two or three lessons based on observations
of students’ writing.
Examples:
 Punctuating dialogue
 Paragraphs
 Commas
 Pronouns
 Verb tense
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Publish & Celebrate
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Read-around
Whole grade or across grade levels
Whole school
Blogs
‘Coffee house’
Parent/community invitations
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Feedback
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Self-Reflection
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Where did the idea for this piece come from?
How did the story/essay change from your
original idea?
What revision strategy had the biggest impact on
this piece?
What specific feedback was most
meaningful/helpful? Why?
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Structure of a Workshop
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The Architecture of a
Mini-lesson
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Teaching Point
Connection
Teach
Active Engagement
Link
Share
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Personal Essay
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Generating
“Issues”
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Generating
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Pulling ideas and issues
from previous narrative
entries in your
notebooks
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Writing to Think
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Possible Thesis Statement
because…
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For example…
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Another example is…
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This is important because…
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On the other hand…
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This makes me realize…
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Planning
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Developing and revising a thesis statement
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Boxes and bullets
(Main idea and supporting details)
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Collecting evidence
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Evidence
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Personal anecdotes
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Books, movies
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A friend’s experience
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Interviews, quotes
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Facts from articles
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Statistics
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Drafting
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Synthesis of evidence for each bullet
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Use all you’ve learned about good writing
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Incorporate transitions
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Revising
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Make sure your subtopics are parallel but not
repetitive
Each paragraph focuses on one supporting idea
Transitions are smooth and logical
Lead is powerful (mentor texts)
Conclusion leaves reader with a sense of closure
(mentor texts)
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Editing
Examples:
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Punctuating quotes
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Use of academic language
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Celebrating
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Students group essays by
topic to invite readers
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Sample Units of Study
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Personal Narrative
Raising the Level of Personal Narrative
Personal Essay
Fiction
Literary Essay
Memoir
Poetry
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Fringe Benefits
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Increased student engagement
Stronger student/teacher relationships
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Through sharing your own writing and conferring
Teachers as writers
Teacher collaboration
More intentional planning
Cohesive school community
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Resources
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The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts
(and They’re All Hard Parts)
by Katie Wood Ray and Lester L. Laminack
Assessing Writers by Carl Anderson
Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook by
Aimee Buckner
Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 by Lucy
Calkins
Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and
Writing Workshops Grades 4-12 by Heather Lattimer
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Resources (continued)
Personal Narrative
 Marshfield Dreams by Ralph Fletcher
 The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells
 Knots in My Yo-yo String by Jerry Spinelli
Personal Essay
 Starting With “I”: Personal Essays by Teenagers by Youth
Communication, Andrea Estepa, and Phillip Kay
 This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men
and Women by James Allison, Dan Gediman, and Studs
Terkel
Janine A. King