R/W post #2

  Thinking back on my K-12 experience I do not remember formally doing a writer’s workshop but I definitely did components of a writers workshop. I remember in younger grades that we would do a lot of independent free writing. This did not happen every day but happened quite often. I specifically remember that in 4th grade we had poetry time where we would grab our poetry anthologies and take that time to look at other authors and create our own work. Having the freedom to write any sort of poetry about any topic I liked created a sense of pride in my writing. This helped me grow as a writer because I was writing often and finding a love for the writing process. Later on in my education I remember more mini lessons that led into a long period of independent writing. These projects would take a while and we would create drafts, edit, revise, get feedback, and create a final copy. This helped me grow as a writer because it went into more depth of how the writing process actually works. Rarely though in my K-12 experience do I remember sharing my own work with the class. 

    Although I haven't had much experience in the classroom as the teacher, I have had some opportunities to implement some of these elements. One element that I enjoy teaching and that I believe helps students succeed is mini lessons. I love creating and teaching mini lessons that guide students but still allow for their own self-discovery. One mini lesson I did in my last student teaching placement was about figurative language and in this lesson the students had the chance to pick out the figurative language in some common sayings like "I'm as hungry as a horse!". After this they engaged in further practice identifying figurative language and then were able to incorporate some figurative language into their own writing. I found that this mini lesson gave them a good idea of how other authors use figurative language and gave them guidance to try it in their own writing. 

    I have not had the opportunity to implement a writer’s workshop in my experience but I think an element that is truly important in a writers workshop is explicit teaching of how revising and editing work. This is something I wish I was taught because I still struggle with it now. This can be implemented with minilessons along with partner and independent work time. Along with teaching these skills comes scaffolding your students to monitor their own writing. This is also a very important skill because "students are working on different projects and moving through the writing process at different speeds" (Tompkins, 2014, p. 29). It is important to remember that the writing process will be different for each student so providing them with the skills and knowledge to monitor their own writing is crucial to implementing a writing workshop.