The First Goal of Writing Workshop

     In their book Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi provide caution teachers against using the first month of writing workshop on "trying to improve the quality of the writing, or getting students to make substantial revisions. These are appropriate long-term goals, but they will sink the workshop if they become the focal point too early in the year" (22). Instead, the authors suggest focusing on the following short-term goals:

• get students to love writing time
• establish a safe environment so that kids can take risks in their writing
• set up a workable management system to handle the flow of writing

Love and Safety

The first two goals go together hand-in-hand. If kids feel safe taking risks with their writing, chances are they're engaged and "lovin'" it. The authors remind us that the quickest way to engage students is to offer them choice. As writers, students can have choice in topic, length, audience, and pace. To encourage students to take risks, Fletcher and Portalupi suggest giving specific praise about each student's writing, reading aloud from powerful texts that serve as models of the kind of writing you hope they might do, and writing alongside of them. 

Management System

    Google Drive replaces the two-pocket folders and hanging files of yesteryear. I envision my students creating folders within their Writing folder, labeled Unfinished Writing Folder, Finished Writing Folder, and Reflection Folder. 

     The Unfinished Writing Folder will contain the student's work(s) in progress while the Finished Writing Folder will serve as a portfolio. Within the Finished Writing Folder, have all students make a copy of a shared Google Doc that will serve as a table of contents. In the table of contents, students will list the title of the finished piece, the date it was finished, and with whom the published writing was shared.

      It's imperative that students reflect upon their learning, and I will require that students complete a reflection form upon the completion of each published writing. Students will also conduct grander reflections at the end of each semester. 

     Students will also keep Writer's Notebooks which will serve as another component of the management system. I constantly change the sections of my students' notebooks, but I plan to use the following sections for the upcoming school year: (1) Grammar Minilessons, (2) Mechanics Minilessons, (3) Craft Minilessons, (4) Pre-Writing, (5) Revision/Editing. Students will keep a table of contents on the first two pages of each section to make the notes more user-friendly. 

Questions

• I'm still unsure how to provide students meaningful choice while still adhering to the Common Core State Standards. For example, if students need to show proficiency in argumentative writing, then should I ask them all to write a 5-paragraph argument yet choose their own topic? Or should I allow them to choose their own genres within the mode of argument/persuasion and apply the same rubric to all the different modes since all will be expected to consist of the elements of argument? The connection between writing workshop and standards-based assessment is still not clear to me.