Childrens Literature and Literacy

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====== Definition ======

Writers Workshop is an instructional routine that focuses on student agency, strategy instruction through mini-lessons, just in time teaching, assessment through conferencing, and dialectical reflection on the writing process (Calkins, 1994; Graves, 1984; Hindley, 1996; Routman, 2005).

==== What does the Research Say ====   
==== Instructional Steps ====   

=== Level of Choice ===
The writers workshop will vary on the level of choice students are given over prompt and genre. In many classrooms, especially content subjects, the genre and prompt maybe more restrictive. In the elementary classroom grade specific assessments may determine genres taught through writers workshop. 

In classes where student design their writing curriculum a teacher may track genres and allow students to choose genre and topic. The elements of writing covered in the Common Core State Standard focus on purpose, producing multimodal texts, and remixing knowledge. A teacher would identify common writing lessons to focus on across the genres.

Another form of limited choice could be providing students with groups either based on genre, topics or prompts. This affords some instructional control as you can focus instruction on content knowledge and how this gets expressed in writing.

Once you determine the level of choice you can begin the lessons.

Writers workshop follows a pattern of:
-mini lessons
-independent writing time
-conferencing
-sharing

=== Mini-Lesson ===

The mini-lesson is a 10-15 minute lesson on one specific writing strategy, a step in the writing process, or objective. It follows a process of
  * Explicitly define the objective 
  * Model the use of the writing tip being taught
  * Provide opportunities for Guided Practice
  * Have students utilize the writing tip during independent writing.

During a writing workshop mini-lesson you may model using medial words to tell a story in the early childhood classroom. In 4th grade you may focus on sensory writing to expand memoir narratives.In each case explain what you arw teaching in why.

A major goal of writer's workshop is to enculturate students into the writing process (Browns, Colins, and Dugiud) but also to find meaning in the time spent on makings meaning. You want student to take hold of time as writer's ,  structure, organize and represent time in the methods of the writing process. The time spent as a writer must be given meanings and social significance, and experience (Bloome et al., 2009) through the process of writing. 

The writers workshop is about building a community.  Goal setting must occur individually and collectively in terms of social significance (Kuby,Rucker,& Kirchhofer, 2015). You want your students to see themselves as writers and reflect on the process of writing.

Dialectical reflection drives assessment in Writers workshop through conferring. When students go to work on pieces individually you as a teacher will confer with small groups of students or individual students. Writing conference can reinforce learning when you see common skill areas to address or just to get to know each student as a writer.

The conferring and the discussions need to be just as much about the writing process (brainstorm, plan, draft, revise, edit, publish) as the material being covered.

Rubrics are often used for both summative and formative assessments. 


==== In the Classroom ====   
==== In the Home ====