Writer’s Workshop

At both the district, as well as the site level, writing is a curricular area of focus for the school year.  Classroom teachers have begun implementing Lucy Calkins Units of Studies, the district adopted writing program.

Our work in the area of writing begins with a commitment to structuring our schedules so that students have time to write. Students work as professional authors do, cycling through the stages of the writing process and receiving feedback that is essential to growth, and they write, too, as a tool for learning across the curriculum.  During the writing workshop, students are invited to live, work and learn as writers. They observe their lives and the world around them while collecting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing well-crafted narrative and expository texts.

The structure of the writing block begins with the mini-lesson.  During this time, students receive direct instruction where the teacher explicitly names a skill proficient writers use that is within reach for most of the class.  The skill is then demonstrated by the teacher, followed by students working on this strategy during a brief interval of guided practice. The largest block of the workshop model is where students are engaged in the act of writing at least four days a week for 45 minutes or longer.  During this time, students are applying the repertoire of skills and strategies they’ve learned, while receiving feedback through one-to-one conferences and small group instruction designed to move them along trajectories of development.  Each workshop block concludes with a student shares.  This is the last opportunity the teacher has to reiterate the teaching point from the mini-lesson.