How Writers’ Workshop Can Promote Literacy

by Laura Johnson: Writers’ Workshop in the classroom is something that a teacher can utilize when deciding to engage students in an original writing activity. With a little planning, Writers’ Workshop can be incorporated into the daily classroom routine as a means of fostering creativity and motivation among students. Writers’ Workshop can promote literacy development in any classroom when it meets the needs of all learners and is based on the successful ideas from other experts. A Writers’ Workshop has clear purposes. It provides many opportunities for students in the classroom. First of all, students begin to examine other literature and examples of good writing. Gee’s principle pertaining to acquisition indicates that discourses, whether primary or secondary, are acquired. Therefore, children can acquire much knowledge about writing simply through being exposed to these models of good writing. Students also learn to write about different genres. Kress emphasizes the importance of genre in the classroom due to the fact that we ultimately would like students to be both competent and creative when using language in society. On a regular basis, students meet with peers and the teacher for conferencing and editing. According to Vygotsky, social interaction with others is the key to learning. Children learn when they receive the correct social support from others, such as scaffolding from the teacher. Bruner believes that the teacher should first introduce the writing prompt and model an example of the type of writing. He or she should then provide help to students through guided practice, using specific and general prompts, and finally encouraging independence. Other important purposes of the Writers’ Workshop include learning to make connections between reading and writing, observing skill and strategy instruction, utilizing the option of choice when choosing writing topics, developing responsibility and independence, and learning to feel good about their work through publishing and sharing. Certain conditions need to be met in order to deem a Writers’ Workshop successful. Cambourne’s Conditions for Learning correlate nicely with such a workshop. Teachers need to do certain things in order to ensure that students are completely engaged in an activity and have successfully met all objectives. Students should be immersed in different types of written language in the classroom so they can see examples of what good writing looks like. Demonstration is a very important role of the teacher, as he or she should be constantly modeling the processes of writing. The teacher should also have great expectations for students’ success during the entire process. The responsibility should also be taken to provide students with many choices and to help them develop confidence. A teacher should employ plenty of time in the classroom for students to practice their skills. The writing teacher should also encourage and accept approximations and give appropriate constructive criticism when needed. According to Pinnell, students should be exposed to and experience many types of language at home and in school. These types of language, as determined by Halliday, serve many functions and are instructional, regulatory, interactional, personal, imaginative, heuristic, and informative. Writers’ Workshop incorporates all of these functions. Planning and discussing topics can serve as instructional. Students will observe the teacher using regulatory language when listening to instructions and lessons. He or she may also be the one using this language when working in groups. Interactional language occurs when students share what they have written in small groups. Personal language is employed when students share their writing with the whole class. Heuristic language arises as students ask questions about steps they are to be following, etc. Imaginative language may occur if a student chooses to read an original writing through a dramatization of the piece. Expressive language occurs through writing and sharing journals and conferencing with peers and teacher. Writers’ Workshop can meet the needs of all learners and can embrace diversity in the classroom. Students read and write at many different levels in a single classroom. Teachers can adjust to this by giving students enough time to work at a pace that suits them. For example, students should be encouraged to move to the next step only when he or she feels comfortable, not because other students seem to be moving ahead. Teachers should also strive to choose writing assignments that are interesting to all groups of students within a classroom. He or she may want to research family backgrounds and interests of the students. Oftentimes students are not interested in a topic because it doesn’t pertain to them. The teacher should try to avoid causing students to be uninterested at all costs. For example, a teacher can ask students to choose topics based on what they like to do outside of school. If they are confident about the topic they have chosen, they will be more likely to enjoy writing in the future. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences revolves around the idea that people may be good in certain areas and not in others. These eight intelligences are bodily-kinesthetic, musical, mathematical, verbal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, and naturalistic. These areas should be incorporated into a Writers’ Workshop in order to help children feel they are good at something. For example, one student may feel that he or she is not good at verbal expression and may be more comfortable through musical expression. The teacher could easily accommodate to his or her needs by incorporating some aspect of music into the Writers’ Workshop. Overall, Writers’ Workshop is a useful tool for teachers to implement in the classroom. If the teacher takes the time to utilize some of the useful theories that various experts have derived, Writers’ Workshop will ensure success for every student. Teachers should define clear purposes for including it in the classroom. They should recognize the opportunities it will provide for students’ learning. All conditions for learning and engagement should be met. Writers’ Workshop should also assimilate all functions of language together to ensure students become skilled at using different types. Lastly, Writers’ Workshop should be tailored to meet the needs of all students, whether academic, social status, gender, or culturally based. If teachers choose to meet these conditions, Writers’ Workshop will successfully promote literacy development among students. Works Cited Gee, James Paul. Becoming Political, Too. “What is Literacy?”. (6). Kress, Gunther. Becoming Political, Too. “Genre and the Changing Contexts for English Language Arts”. (54). Pinnel, Gay Su. Packet. “Ways to Look at the Functions of Children’s Language”. (146-147). Rowe, Fitch, Bass. Packet. “Power, Identity, and Instructional Stance in Writers’ Workshop”. (154, 159).