Entry #2 What Does a Successful Writing Program Look Like?

Writing is a form of literacy where learning and growth are on a continuous cycle. In a classroom learning environment writing is an essential tool that brings a community of writers to life. In a writers' community, Tompkins (2017) explains that the writing workshop is an essential tool that allows for "Self-selection, ownership, self-monitoring, feedback, and individualized instruction" (p. 17). Writing workshop encompasses various stages where writers are able to grow throughout the process. Students need opportunities to engage in independent writing, sharing, mini lessons, and read alouds with mentor texts (Tompkins, 2017, p. 17). Each of these stages support developing writers as they are able to be exposed to the writing process, collaborate with peers, redefine their writing strategies, and explore mentor texts that provide the base of what 'good writing' looks and sounds like.

When reflecting upon my own grade school writing experiences, I was able to engage with the five stages of the writing workshop including, prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Calkins and Ehrenworth (2016) explain that even our earliest writers learn to collect and organize, draft, revise and edit their writing pieces (p. 7). I believe each of these stages build off one another which supports developing writers in making their writing pieces come to life. Prewriting, the first stage, allows writers to brainstorm and organize their ideas. We all have that one student we can name by heart who has so many ideas they would love to write about, and I was definitely that inspiring young artist as a child. Therefore, pre-writing provided me the opportunity to write all my ideas down, organize them into categories of interests and prevalence, and to narrow in on what I wanted to write about the most. During drafting, the second stage, writers are able to begin putting all their ideas down about a given topic not focused on the details (e.g., grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.). As a child, drafting was the essential first step in making my story come to life. It was the stage where we were given line paper and a sharpened pencil with no eraser to begin the writing process. Revising, the third stage, and editing, the fourth stage, provides writers the opportunity to come together and learn from one another on how to improve their working pieces. As a child, I remember this stage of the writing workshop, as a 1:1 conference with my teacher. It was an opportunity for me to show my teacher what I have drafted and where I was given feedback to begin editing (e.g., capitalize, grammar, punctuation, and spelling) in the writing process. However, overtime, this process has evolved into collaboration with the teacher and fellow classmates which I believe can relieve stress of early writers. In the final step of the writing workshop, publishing, students are able to polish their writing and publish their work. I believe it is important that educators find a way to make the publishing component of the writing workshop a 'memorable' experience for our students. Still to this day, I remember young Lauren and how exciting publishing was for me. As a struggling reader and writer, writing workshops were not always the easiest experience for me. However, having the opportunity to celebrate, present, and have my work hung in the classroom or in the hallway was a true highlight for me as a student. I cannot stress enough how vital celebrating growth is for our extraordinary learners.

Though I have not had the opportunity yet to experience teaching writing workshops, through my previous experiences in the classroom and in addition, articles that I have had the opportunity to read overtime, I believe there are many elements that should be considered when implementing this experience into a classroom learning environment. Calkins and Ehrenworth (2016) explore three essential elements including time to write, choice, and feedback (p. 8). In order for students to grow as developing literate individuals they need time to write, the opportunity to choose what is most meaningful to them to write about and have frequent times for feedback. Kucer (2014) emphasizes that as educators we have to be the mediators to our students' literacy events (p. 314). “Learners need crystal-clear vision of what it is that they want to achieve” (Caulkins & Ehrenworth, 2016, p. 10). Therefore, I believe it is essential that educators focus on establishing a classroom writing community who share similar goals, find mentor texts that support writers' ideas, provide guidance and feedback throughout the writing process, and most importantly establish a growth mindset when implementing a writing workshop into their learning environments.

 

References 

Calkins, L. & Ehrenworth, M. (2016). Growing extraordinary writers: Leadership decisions to

raise the level of writing across a school and a district. The Reading Teacher, 70(1), 7-

18.

Kucer, S. B. (2014). Dimensions of literacy: A conceptual base for teaching reading and writing in school settings (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.