The Workshop

"If it is a workshop, then all kinds of things need to be in that "shop" that students can work with as they go about their writing" (Ray, 2001, p. 98).

What I particularly love about the idea of a writing workshop is that it redefines what it means to teach. Too often, individuals often believe that if a teacher is not standing at the front of the class delivering a message or lecture to students, then teaching is not occurring. However, this is not the case and the writing workshop is a prime example of this fact. In writing workshop, direct instruction for the whole class only occurs for about five to ten minutes and yet, teaching still continues to occur once this direct instruction has ended as students gain experience from writing every single day. Many might interpret this to mean that during writing workshop, the teacher can just sit in the corner and disregard what his or her students are doing. Once again, however, this is not teaching. As Ray and Laminack state, the teacher's role during this time should be to help create and enforce daily routines and to constantly sustain a classroom community which is supportive and accepting in which students would feel willing and comfortable to share their pieces. I think I am drawn to the concept of writing workshop because I believe that the student-teacher dynamic which characterizes the workshop should be one that characterizes the teaching and learning which should occur in the classroom the entire day everyday. Just as in writing workshop, I feel that students should be in charge and be active in their own learning and investigations for all eight hours of the day, no matter what subject, and teachers should teach through guiding students through these investigations and through setting up activities which will let students learn through engagement. The classroom should be a workshop in which students should be the ones in charge of the products which they work on and produce.

One issue in which I have an interest in is in relation to conferences. Ray and Laminack contend that the teacher should be conferring with students as students move on to their independent writing work for the day. But, I do not know whether or not I would want to hold conferences during this time of independent writing in fear of such conferences distracting or disturbing other writers. Because I would want to hold conferences at some point with my students, would there be any other possible time which I could use to hold such conferences during the day or during writing workshop?

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.