Reaffirming th Writing Workshop

Reaffirming the Writing Workshop for Young Adolescents
By Sheryl Lain
This article offers a very practical overview of writing workshop. The introduction did just what the title claimed, it reaffirmed the reason I clear the space for a writer’s workshop every day even though other teachers in my building don’t think that it is worth the time ‘sacrificed.’ Writer’s workshop is good teaching and its process has bled into other content areas during my instructional day. One could evaluate the structure of either my math or my reading block and determine that these two subjects are also workshops in form. I love that Lain calls the blank spiral notebook the textbook for her class. Really, that is what writer’s workshop does. It allows students in on the planning process of their learning. The curriculum is based solely on their needs. They are each writing their own version of the textbook. Talk about differentiation.

Admittedly, I don’t use very much poetry in my classroom. After my experiences so far in this class, I am changing my mind. I don’t know, but somewhere, I lost the appreciation, the mystery and magic, of good poetry. Maybe I overlook poetry because, as the author concludes, the emphasis on state, district and grade level test scores makes me crazy. Lain makes a good case for poetry increasing student scores. It is one element I plan to make a conscience effort to include more of, in part because I read this article.
Another thing that I really appreciated was the author’s attention on what goes on in her writing conferences. I know what happens in my own writing conferences with students, but I have never been given the opportunity to listen in to other teachers with their students. I needed the validation that her words sound much like my own. Sometimes it feels like, by focusing on only one area, I am not giving enough. But now I realize that by giving students timely one on one feedback and joint problem-solving , they are getting more feedback from me than they have from many other teachers in their past.