by Wendy Sheets

Writing Workshop is a context that has the potential to help students develop as writers within a literate community. As students learn to live as writers, building a repertoire of tools and strategies, teachers have a role in cultivating purpose, power, and passion in meaningful ways. All three are necessary and impactful elements of an exceptional, gratifying Writing Workshop.

Purpose
First, as teachers, we must consider the purpose of the workshop. Let’s face it: Our hope is for students to become increasingly better writers who create thoughtful, interesting, well-crafted pieces of writing, and who love doing it. Our purpose, then, is to provide daily, momentum-building opportunities for writers to experience something new so they may extend their repertoire of generative tools related to craft and conventions.

For our writers, their work only becomes relevant when there is a purpose for writing. Writing provides an outlet for writers to share thinking that is meaningful to them in some way. Purpose increases the level of investment. Therefore, writers need to have freedom and flexibility, along with guidance, to make choices about their topics, the genre and structure that best communicates their message, their audience, the research necessary to plan for their writing, the details they include, the paper, graphics, text features, font, and decision to publish. If a goal is for students to become lifelong writers, their writing should fit them personally, with ties to their own lives, experiences, and interests. As members of a writerly community, students learn about one another and more readily share what is personally meaningful as well. Within this context, writers engage with purpose each day as they work on creating that which is meaningful to them.

Power
Within the Writing Workshop, students gain power as their writing process is strengthened. This happens through experiences that include daily writing minilessons, independent writing and the use of a writer’s notebook, writing conferences, and share time.

Daily, whole-group writing minilessons provide explicit strategies for writers to extend their understanding about craft and conventions. Craft minilessons may be related to organization, idea development, language use, word choice, and voice, and all serve in making writing better and more captivating. Conventions minilessons may include any aspect of writing mechanics and grammar, allowing for writing to be understood and appreciated by an audience. Mentor texts enable authentic, meaningful demonstrations of craft and conventions. As writers take on new learning about craft and conventions, they add to their repertoire of possibilities to potentially try out with every piece of writing. Check out some examples I share in chapter 18 of the text Responsive Literacy (Sheets, 2018).

When writers plant seeds within their writer’s notebooks or apply new learning from minilessons to their own pieces of writing, they gain power and agency in constructing their work. Writing conferences support the thinking of each writer as instruction is differentiated during a writer-to-writer conversation. With opportunities to provide feedback, teach something new, coach as the writer gives it a go, and make explicit links to ways the writer may apply the learning to independent work, the instructional possibilities are endless. While writers gain power as their teacher comes alongside them to lift their thinking about one focus at a time, conferences offer additional benefits. According to Carl Anderson (2018), ““The relationships that grow out of writing conferences are not the by-product of conferring – they are one of the important goals, since these relationships are so central to students’ growth as writers” (p. 10). As students gain power as learners and also find meaning in discussing their work with you, their teacher, they are positioned as writers who have agency in making important decisions. The share time at the end of the workshop offers another opportunity for writers to share their work, learn from others, and for you to glean important insights that further inform your instructional decisions.

Passion
When writers engage with purpose and continue to develop in powerful ways, they often find themselves passionate about their work. Writing should be a joyful occasion. When it is viewed as drudgery or simply a school task that must be completed for the teacher, it is difficult for students to feel invested. I find that the reciprocal nature of reading and writing is important to tap into for many reasons, including building passion. When sharing and discussing a variety of high quality texts during Interactive Read-Aloud or Guided Reading, learners begin to engage differently. As they think deeply about texts – literally, inferentially, and critically – they may read with the eye of a writer. For instance, if I appreciate the way Ralph Fletcher uses the craft of metaphor in Twilight Comes Twice, I can try it out in my own writing. That’s exciting!

Passion develops when writers have choice, share the stories that are meaningful to them, and explore options for improving the craft of their writing. All of this is in service of communicating their message to their audience with purpose and power. Remember that hope I mentioned earlier in this article? Writing Workshop as a time and space where purpose, power, and passion are cultivated does offer the potential for students to become increasingly better writers who create thoughtful, interesting, well-crafted pieces of writing, and who love doing it. It’s up to us to cultivate – fertilize, plant, sow, grow, develop, and foster – that purpose, power, and passion. Think of the possibilities you’ll reap!

Anderson, C. (2018). A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences: Classroom Essentials. Heinemann: Cambridge, MA.

Fletcher, R. (1997). Twilight Comes Twice. Clarion Books.

Sheets, W. (2018). Writing workshop for grades 3-6. In P. L. Scharer (Ed.), Responsive literacy: A comprehensive framework (pp. 262-280). New York: Scholastic.

Wendy Sheets is an Intermediate & Middle Level University Trainer with Literacy Collaborative at The Ohio State University.  She will present two sessions during the upcoming 2019 National Reading Recovery & K-6 Literacy Conference in Columbus, OH: Coaching Around the Reading Process on Sunday at 1:30 pm and Literate Identities: The Power of Classroom Interactions on Monday at 3:00 pm

by Maria Nichols

Henry: No!! They gotta go the other way!

Ella: To the waves!

Teacher: Angel? You have that look …

Angel: [nodding] Yeah – I’m trying to – like, why do they go all wrong?

Sara: Yeah – they get all confused. It’s really, really sad.

Angel: But – like, why?

Teacher: What are you all thinking?

Marceline: It said the lights – I think they’re all glowy. Sorta like stars or something.

Josue: Oh – maybe …

This bit of talk comes from a class of second graders engaged with Philippe Cousteau’s Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles. The children were wrestling with the perils that await the newly hatched turtles, including confusion caused by the lights of beachfront homes. Their talk is understandably tentative as they construct, and their teacher’s actively leaning in, watching, listening, and nudging.

Brian Cambourne speaks to the critical nature of engaging children in thinking and talking together in this very way, reminding us that “… learning, thinking, knowing, and understanding are significantly enhanced when one is provided with opportunities for ‘talking one’s way to meaning’…” (1995). This process actually shifts children from passively, compliantly absorbing the teacher’s thinking to actively constructing ideas that are bigger and bolder than possible inside a single mind alone.  And, when children construct in this way, they truly own the learning.

In Comprehension Through Conversation (Nichols, 2006), I explored specific talk behaviors – drawing in a range of voices, growing ideas and negotiating meaning – that are foundational to engaging children through talk. But, there’s another critical piece to the process—one that involves a deliberate shift in our own instructional stance.

In the bit of talk about Follow the Moon Home, you may have noticed that the teacher’s interjections were brief, yet powerful. She’s not leading the talk – she’s facilitating the talk. A facilitative stance differs from traditional, teacher-driven instruction in that it doesn’t funnel children’s thinking or attempt to corral their process. Rather, facilitation opens space for children to engage in an honest flow of talk and meaning making.

Thoughtful facilitation has four overarching qualities (Nichols, 2019):

Facilitation Is Invitational
Our facilitation should invite all children’s voices into the meaning making process. We hear an invitation from our 2^nd grade teacher when she uses the signs of thinking on Angel’s face to draw him into the conversation, and when she creates space for others to respond to his question. Invitational facilitative moves may sound like this:

• What are you thinking?
• Is anyone wondering ___?
• I’m noticing a look on your face …

Facilitation Is Responsive
As we facilitate, we listen intently to the flow of children’s talk, alert for constructive possibilities. We may nudge specific lines of thinking to deepen and broaden them, or we may nudge towards new lines of thinking – but always in ways that honor the children’s process. Notice that our teacher responds to Angel’s question and Sara’s thinking, nudging for thoughts about their noticing and wondering as opposed to layering in her own predetermined questions. Responsive facilitation may sound like this:

• That’s interesting. Why do you think … ?
• Can you say a little more about that?
• What do others think about this? 

Facilitation Is Agentive
Our facilitative language speaks to relationships in the meaning making process, and lays bare our beliefs about children’s capabilities. Language such as, “Now, who can tell me…?” positions us as central to the process, while language such as, “What are you all thinking?” positions children as capable thinkers and collaborators who are central to the process. Agentive facilitation may sound like this:

• What are you thinking?
• Have you considered…?
• How is that thought settling with you?

Facilitation Is Meaning Driven
To support children as they construct understanding together, we attend to the ebb and flow of meaning making, tailoring our facilitation to their needs. We lightly support when meaning is flowing and nudge a bit more if it’s faltering. We might refocus children on a confusing part of the text, encourage them to notice more in a particular passage, or support them as they connect bits of thinking— but always remembering that the meaning needs to be their own. Our teacher’s move to position Angel’s question as a springboard for the children’s thinking communicates exactly this. Meaning-driven facilitation may sound like this:

• Does this thinking seem to make sense…?
• Let’s reread a bit, and see if …
• How do these thoughts fit together …?

When facilitative support is invitational, responsive, agentive, and meaning centered, children come to realize the power and potential of their voice—both individually and collectively. In these classrooms, children truly own their learning.

References
Cambourne, B. (1995). Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry. The Reading Teacher, 49(3),182-190.
Costeau, P. (2016). Follow the moon home: A tale of one idea, twenty kids, and a hundred sea turtles. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Nichols, M. (2006). Comprehension through conversation. Portsmouth, NH:   Heinemann.
Nichols, M.  (2019). Building bigger ideas: A process for teaching purposeful talk. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Maria Nichols is a literacy consultant and Director of School Innovation for the San Diego Unified School District. She is the author of Comprehension Through Conversation. Maria will be a featured speaker at the 2019 National Reading Recovery & K-6 Literacy Conference, February 9-12, in Columbus, OH. Her session entitled “Talk Matters! Supporting English Learners in the Dialogic Classroom”  will be presented on Sunday 3:30-5:00 pm and Tuesday 8:30-10:00 am

by LeeAnn Lewellen

As an instructional coach, I hear so many “buzzwords” when administrators and district personnel discuss teacher effectiveness after a brief classroom observation. Engagement, rigor, cultural responsiveness, high yield strategies, assessment… the list goes on. But as a teacher, how do I attack ALL of these things right now?! I feel the sense of urgency to improve in all areas right away, or I will witness the failure of the students and the demise of the education system. How can I attack ALL of these things right now? The answer – I can’t. It brings to mind the leader of the Roman Empire, Augustus, and his phrase, “Festina Lente…” – make haste, or go slow, to go fast.

What if, instead of fixing every little thing that needs attention in the classroom, I choose one area to improve?  Just one. What one thing could I change about my teaching to improve student learning? Isn’t that what I would do to help grow my students? As a Reading Recovery teacher, when I hear a struggling reader read a text, I make a mental note of all the problems I hear and see. In one reading, I might notice visual errors, lapses in meaning, incorrect structures, and more. But if I try to address ALL of those things, I will have confused my reader! I think about what will move the child forward in his or her processing, and I pick one thing to address.  As a teacher, I need to afford the same opportunity for learning to myself.

So that is what I will do. I will think of one way to improve my craft that could make a positive, lasting impact on my students. Does the day seem long and monotonous to me? Then I need to improve my engagement strategies! Could nearly every student finish every activity with 100% accuracy before I even began instruction? Then I need to improve the rigor of the activities. (or move on to a new topic!)

I will cease the practice of rushing through everything without mastering anything; I will go slow to go fast. I will develop a proper balance between urgency and diligence; I will go slow to go fast.

Join me, colleagues. Choose a path, work hard to improve, take a little at a time, and watch you AND your students flourish.

LeeAnn has 17 years of experience in the field of education. She is a Reading Recovery teacher and an instructional coach for her building. LeeAnn, along with Shawna Wilkins and Kelsey Wharton will present a session during the 2019 National Reading Recovery & K-6 Literacy Conference entitled “Deconstructing the Data: What Your Readers Need Now”.