Writer's Workshop in the Classroom

    From our course readings thus far, I have encountered many helpful strategies for teaching writer's workshop in the classroom. Two strategies I particularly like are mini-lessons and rereading. As a future educator, I know how important it is to be an effective teacher. With that, I often wonder, how do you know when your students are learning? Mini-lessons can be used in the classroom to gain an understanding of where your students are struggling or excelling. In chapter three of Teaching that Makes Sense, Steve Peha writes, "If the mini-lessons are delivered in a thoughtful and entertaining way that addresses legitimate student needs, and students are given encouragement and ample writing time to try out the new things they’ve learned, the concepts will begin to show up in their writing". Rather than give students an assessment, you can utilize class time by taking advantage of mini-lessons and focusing on the student's needs. In addition, we know some students do not do well taking formal assessments, this would give students ease knowing they are not being graded and it is for their benefit. One drawback I can see to this approach is that because students work at different paces, you may have a few students who feel they do not need a mini-lesson and may be uninterested. 

    Secondly, I found Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them (2008) to be very insightful. When it comes to rereading your work, many students skip past this part because they find it to be useless or boring. "Christine tells me she tried to reread her research paper, but she got bored and quit. She ran the spell checker. “It’s a modern age; let technology find the errors,” she says smugly." However, technology is not always the best option. Rereading your work aloud may help you find simple mistakes that your computer didn't catch. Kittle shows an example of this as she read her work aloud in front of the class and noticed a mistake within the first few sentences. Because most students do not reread their work, I believe it would make for a great mini-lesson. You can have students work in pairs as they read their work aloud to a partner, or read something together as a class and work to find mistakes. As rereading is usually supposed to be done outside of the classroom and many students look past it, if you have students do their rereading in class as an activity, they will be more inclined to participate. I think this mini-lesson would benefit all students because they are taking part in collaborative learning. 

Questions to consider:

As a student did you prefer rereading your work or using spell check? Did your teacher make use of mini-lessons in the classroom? 

References

Kittle, P. (2008). Write beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing. Heinemann.

Peha, S. (2010). Welcome to Writer's Workshop. Teaching that Makes Sense Inc.