Would a workshop model help students become engaged and confident writers?
As I considered switching from a more traditional approach to the workshop model, I began extensive research. I read Atwell, Graves, Murray, Calkins, Fletcher, Spandel, and more. They are all brilliant and offer practical and thoughtful suggestions for helping our students learn to write. I incorporated their advice into what we call Writer’s Workshop. Perhaps some of my learning, as seen through our workshop, will help you. Though my workshop experience is with third graders, I am certain that this model works quite well with grades 2-8. Initially the workshop can be daunting for you, the teacher, but I hope you will persist to find its plentiful rewards. My ultimate goal is for my students to learn the joy of expressing themselves through their writing, but there have been innumerable bonuses along the way, like the student who explained that he had begun the piece he read to me as narrative writing, but decided it really needed to be a poem, or the girl who stated, “I like third gra
