The Writer's Process and Writer's Workshop


Effective writing instruction pays close attention to the writing process through routine and frequent opportunities for practice (3+ times per week). 

Writing workshop is a general way of organizing writing instruction that emphasizes the process of writing.  Through frequent mini-lessons and conferences with the teacher, in the context of students’ own writing, students learn grammar, mechanics, editing skills, and the craft of writing.   Students develop their writing skills by choosing their own topics or responding to given writing assignments and then following a process that includes:

Prewriting

  • Brainstorming and free writing
  • Setting goals in view of audience and purpose
  • Choosing an appropriate mode of writing and organizing ideas accordingly
  • Making and outline

Drafting

  • Exploring and understanding the content that needs to be communicated
  • Focusing on the clarity and organization of ideas over mechanics and formal aspects of writing.
  • Number of drafts depends on complexity of task

Teacher and Peer Conferencing

  • Reading and reviewing each other’s work
  • Reading aloud to see if what was said is what was meant
  • Meeting with a teacher for suggestions and assistance 
  • Responding to questions and comments from an audience of one or more

Revising

  • Refining and clarifying content
  • Making structural changes to the text organization
  • Improving use of language and vocabulary

Editing

  • Checking mechanics, spelling, punctuation, and writing conventions
  • Preparing a piece for publication

Sharing/Publishing/Celebrating

  • Presenting a composition to an authentic audience through a class anthology, school newsletter, poetry reading, a real letter, a peer review of a science investigation, and the like
  • Recognizing that the product is as important as the process

How is writing workshop structured?

Reading workshop consists of three parts:

  1. Mini-lesson (5-10 minutes)
  2. Independent Writing(30-35 minutes)
  3. Sharing (10-15 minutes)

When students are first introduced to writing workshop, the total time for the workshop may be about 20 -25 minutes, with the time gradually increasing as students become more familiar with procedures.

What happens during the mini-lesson portion of writing workshop?

Mini-lessons are short (five to ten minutes) focused lessons about how authors write books, specific strategies students can use to create meaning, and how to compose ideas and use language well. The teacher may read a book or a part of a book that illustrates the topic of the mini-lesson or demonstrate the difference between effective/ineffective mechanics, vocabulary, style, or organization. Mini-lessons are generally given to the whole group.  As always, spelling rules and word families are also routinely taught and reinforced through small groups, games, dictations, and writing assignments.

Examples of mini-lesson topics:
•    Knowing your audience
•    Choosing an appropriate mode of writing
•    Coming up with an idea
•    Strategies good writers use.
•    Finding point of view.
•    What makes a good beginning to a story.
•    What makes a good ending to a story.
•    How to find the mood of a story.
•    Using punctuation
•    Writing a complete sentence or a coherent paragraph
•    Proper grammar and usage
•    Organizing an essay
•    Research process
•    Parts of a complete narrative