What is Writer's Workshop?

As in a professional writer’s workshop, each student in the class is a working author. The teacher is a writing professional and peer coach, guiding authors as they explore their craft. Instead of spending the majority of class time on spelling tests, grammar worksheets, handwriting practice, and other isolated sub-skills of writing, Writer’s Workshop is designed to emphasize the act of writing itself—students spend most of their time putting pencil to paper, not just learning about it. Over time, students learn to choose their own topics and to manage their own development as they work through a wide variety of writing projects in a sustained and self-directed way.

In Writer’s Workshop classrooms, full class lessons are short and tightly focused on practical real-world issues. Emphasis is placed on sharing work with the class, on peer conferencing and editing, and on the collection of a wide variety of work in a writing folder, and eventually in a portfolio. Teachers write with their students and share their own work as well. The workshop setting encourages students to think of themselves as writers, and to take their writing seriously.

Writer’s Workshop works because it is based on the idea that students learn to write best when they write frequently, for extended periods of time, on topics of their own choosing. 

Here are some links to resources and videos on Writer's Workshop:

Videos:

A Day in the Life of a Writer's Workshop Classroom Video (4mins)

Articles:

Welcome to Writer's Workshop by Steve Peha

The Writing Teacher's Strategy Guide by Steve Peha

Websites:

The Reading and Writing Project