The+Writing+Workshop

//The Writing Workshop: What Writers Need﻿//

**﻿Time**
=Sustained effort and craftsmanship are essential in writing well,. . . Our society allows little time for sustained effort (Calkins, 1986). =

Predictable Structures
=I have finally realized that the most creative environments in our society are not the kaleidoscopic envioronments in which everything is always changing and complex. They are, instead, the predictable and consistent ones: the scholar's library, the researcher's laboratory, the artist's studio. Each of these environments is deliberately kept predictable and simple because the work at hand and the changing interactions around that work are so unpredictable and complex (Calkins, 1983). = = =
 * =Workshop Structure =
 * =Writing Every Day =

Ownership
=In the writing workshop, moments of personal connection are the matrix out of which everything else develops. Children write about what is alive and vital and real for them--their writing becomes the curriculum (Calkins, 1986). =

Response
=We need to write, but we also need to be heard. As Francois Mauriac says, "Each of us is like a desert, and a literary work is like a cry from the desert, or like a pigeon let loose with a message in its claws, or like a bottle thrown into the sea. The point is: to be heard--even if by one single person." Listening to children--taking lessons from them--is essential to the teaching of writing. Archibald MacLeish points out that the "whole situation in a writing course is a reversal of the usual academic pattern. Not only is there no subject, there is no content either. Or, more precisely, the content is the work produced by the students. And the relation of the teacher to his [her] students is thus the opposite of the relationship one would expect to find. Ordinarily it is the teacher who knows, the student who learns. Here it is the student who knows, or should, and the teacher who learns, or tries to" (MacLeish, 1959). MacLeish is right: the teacher of writing must be a listener, a coach. But it oversimplifies things to suggest that the classroom teacher is the only one to play the role of the listening teacher. The writing classroom as a whole must become a learning community, and everyone in it must be both a teacher and a student (Calkins, 1986). =

=Two Thoughts: //1. The elements and basic structure of the Writing Workshop remains the same from the third grade writing classrooms through university/college composition classrooms. The complexity of knowledge and skills deepen; the complexity of text deepens; the complexity of task deepens. But the fundamental elements of the workshop remain the same. //= //**__CCRS__: Writing: A. Compose a variety of texts that demonstrate clear focus, the logical development of ideas in well-organized paragraphs, and the use of appropriate language that advances the author's purpose.**// ||
 * ==**//2. The Writing Process standard for __TEKS__ and the Writing standard __CCRS__ can be fully realized in the WRITING WORKSHOP structure. //**== ||
 * __**Writing/Writing Process**__. //Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. **ENG I.16. A-E; ENG II. 16. A-E; ENG III. 16. A-E; ENG IV. 16. A-E.**//

=So...What is it? = = = =Here are <span style="background-color: #fffd00; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">TWO videos <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">that <span style="background-color: #fffd00; color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">illustrate <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">the componenets of a <span style="background-color: #fffd00; color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">Writing Workshop <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">. =

media type="youtube" key="zPRM2ZXyrS0" height="412" width="702"

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">media type="youtube" key="ttlKQAoWBKk" height="420" width="709"

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 200%;">Based on those two videos, what are the <span style="background-color: #fffd00; color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">CHARACTERISTICS <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 200%;"> of a <span style="background-color: #fffd00; color: #000000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;">Writer's Workshop? <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Build a working definition. . ..