Writer's Workshops

I was excited after reading about Writer’s Workshops, because I see great examples of this in my placement. My CT heavily stresses the importance of reflection of a lesson or reading through composition. After lunch, each student takes out a book and reads silently for forty-five minutes. During this time, they are actively engaging in the text by writing down words they are not familiar with. After reading, they each use a dictionary and look up this unknown word and then write down the definition in their own words. To go beyond this, they also use the word in a sentence and record antonyms of the word. Once they finish this task, each student takes out their notebook and writes a reflection about what they have just finished reading. After recording their thoughts, students share their writings with their peers in groups. This not only holds them accountable to write well, but it also gets students to help and learn from one another. Sometimes, my CT will ask random students to share with the entire class.

Another way my CT used Writer’s Workshops in her class was by having each child create their own printed book. This was a long process that I was glad to be a part of. To begin, students brainstormed what they could write a great story about. After they chose an idea, they drafted it. The students then shared their stories with their peers in groups to get more ideas from each other for revisions. Once my CT and I checked them all over and had them edit, we gave the students different paper for them to re-write their stories and add pictures. My CT then had them sent away to be made into real books that each child could take home. They loved that they could create ‘real books’ as they called them. Each of their books will be shared with their parents at conferences. I think that Writer’s Workshops and sharing go hand-in-hand.