Readers and Writers Workshop at Middle Schools

The Alliance for Education has granted money to train teachers and support the implementation of the Readers and Writers Workshop at middle schools. (see Stanford Grant Press Release)

I'm pleased to hear this news because Pathfinder K-8 already uses Readers and Writers Workshop, and from what I have observed, I think this is absolutely the way more schools should go.

Carla Santorno is quoted as saying "This is an approach to teaching from which all students—from those not meeting standards to those exceeding them—can benefit," and I agree. This method encourages students to push themselves to their full potential, and works well with groups of students at varied skill levels in reading and writing.

I'd be interested to know if there are other elementary and/or middle schools in Seattle that were already using Readers and Writers Workshop before the grant and, if the district staff and the Alliance for Education even knows about them. Seems like this would be an excellent chance to build on the knowledge already present at Pathfinder (and perhaps other schools) and give the teachers already using Readers and Writers Workshop a chance to earn some extra money and/or recognition as trainers for other teachers around Seattle.

Visit the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project page to learn more about this instructional approach, and check out this elementary teacher's website from California that details how she uses the method in her classroom.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The sixth grade at Salmon Bay is using this Readers/Writers Workshop model (at least I'm assuming it's the same one - from Columbia Teacher's College?), and I know we have two teachers who have been participating in the training for the past year. I think they said there were 12-14 middle school teachers in their cohort in SPS, so I'd assume several schools are somewhere in the process of implementing it.
Anonymous said…
I don't know if it's the same writer's workshop curriculum, or just a generic term, but the teachers at Whittier were certainly teaching writing as a process involving brainstorming, drafting, and editing, and calling it writer's workshop. I think it began in second grade, but am no longer sure.

Helen Schinske
anonymous said…
Salmon Bay 6th grade uses writers workshop. The curriculum, out of Columba Teachers College, from what I understand focuses mainly on creative writing and the multiple draft process. We love it, but his teacher puts all of the focus on creativity, and does not instruct, correct or address composition, grammar, spelling etc. It doesn't feel well rounded on its own, and seems like it would be better suited as a supplement or enrichment to a more comprehensive Language Arts program.
anonymous said…
What exactly is Writers Workshop? I have not heard of it before
Anonymous said…
My daughter is in Kindergarten and they have as part of their daily schedule something they call "writers workshop" but I'm not sure if is more a generalized term as opposed to what you are discussing as a more specialized curriculum.
Anonymous said…
I am a Language Arts teacher in Seattle. Writers Workshop is a term that is used for basically the same thing: teachers act as mentors and coaches to support writers in becoming strong and powerful independent writers. Its heart is process writing.
Seattle bought this particular program from Columbia University Teachers College for its scope and sequence, something that was sorely lacking in the Language Arts curriculum. Most well known writing programs such as Puget Sound Writing Project and the National Writing Project teach using the writers workshop model.
It is false that it does not address grammar. Every teacher uses Mary Ehrenworth's text The Power of Grammar. And it is false that it's only based on creative writing. By the year's end, students should have completed a variety of narrative and expository pieces.
All middle schools and most elementary schools are required to use writers workshop. It's a pretty good curriculum but, as you know, one size does not fit all. Teachers in middle schools assigned to 150 students per day are really struggling with the program as are all teachers who are teaching full inclusion programs.
If you have more questions, ask you child's Language Arts teacher.

ps. My daughter did writers workshop as a kindergartener at Salmon Bay last year and loved it.
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