Writing Workshop is Hard Work

In the book, The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts), Katie Wood Ray (with Lester Laminack) shares much wisdom, but one of my favorite quotes is this: “…Having a writing workshop is such complex, hard work that the best writing teachers I know sometimes spend their whole careers never feeling like they’ve got quite a handle on it- feeling like it’s just slightly out of their control…I think that may be how it’s supposed to feel.” What a relief to know that even Katie Wood Ray thinks that writing workshop can sometimes leave a teacher with more questions than answers.

Last Thursday, I endeavored to explain writing workshop to parents at my district’s Parent University.  I slightly modified The Parent’s Guide to Writing Workshop that I shared here in early September.  My goals included inviting parents to write, reflect on the process, and introduce them to the philosophy and terminology of writing workshop.  I prepared notebooks for them, inspired by Dana’s post on Family Literacy Night.  I also included a QR code to the presentation on the notebooks and the slide presentation. After a brief introduction, I read an excerpt from What a Writer Needs, by Ralph Fletcher.  The story I read was the one Ralph shared about his first grade teacher, Mrs. Damon, and how she branded him as having a sloppy personality because of his penmanship.  I invited the parents to write about an early experience they had with writing, modeled after a lesson frequently shared at the Long Island Writing Project’s Summer Invitational.  Part of the lesson involves reflecting on your process- what did you think and do from the moment you knew you had to write? I shared with them that knowing and understanding the process that writers go through is so crucial, and teachers and parents who write, too, will have a better sense of what the students are experiencing.

This part of the presentation went well, as parents were game for the writing and even shared their pieces.  I had 40 minutes for the entire presentation, and I spent the rest of the time trying to explain the philosophy behind creating a community of writers, how a workshop looks and runs, the words and phrases you might hear (minilesson, mentor text, writer’s notebook, etc.)  When I got to spelling and conventions, this was where I felt it went awry.  I could tell that the parents were looking for more concrete ways to help their child to be a better speller while drafting, or to help their student write a more effective thesis sentence, or how to help their child to write a better paragraph.  I didn’t deliver that, partly because it wasn’t what I had planned for the session and partly because I’m not sure I have those answers.  I drove home from Parent University feeling unsettled- like despite my best efforts, I struck out. There had been a gap in what the parents expected and what I delivered, and I felt badly that I let them down.

What’s a teacher to do when she feels unsure and needs feedback? For me, it’s my PLN to the rescue.  I shared my experiences and my feelings with my literacy Voxer friends and the TWT Learning from Classmates Voxer book club.  I also shared with my friends at the Long Island Writing Project.  Everyone was so encouraging and reassuring but also gave me great ideas for ways I could make the experience more practical and concrete for parents next time. Here are some of the ideas:

• Bring samples of student writing from different genres so parents can see what these pieces look like, across the different stages of the writing process.
• Provide a checklist of what is expected for a specific genre of writing.
• Emphasize that we are teaching the writer and not the specific piece of writing- process over product.
• Deconstruct a piece of writing so parents can see the components.
• Bring copies of the interactive spelling dictionary that students can use as a resource and personalize for words they need to learn.
• Actually teach a minilesson so they can see how it looks.
• Share anchor charts with parents so they understand the strategies being taught.
• Have students keep a running list of minilessons taught in their notebook as a reference and then share that with the parents.
• Ask parents at the start of the workshop what they are hoping to get out of the experience.

Parent University took place in the evening, but earlier that day, I had one of my best writing workshop moments of the year.  Teaching about repeating lines after reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, I did a quick, on the fly model in front of the class, using a repeating line.

As I was conferring with a student, another student came up to me with her paper.  Scanning her words, my heart leapt with joy! She tried the repeating line and hit it out of the ballpark.  In our Voxer book club for Learning from Classmates, the conversations are around using student work as mentor text.  This was the perfect moment to share how a student took the minilesson and made it her own, forever owning the craft move of repeating line. A few days later, another student used a repeating line in her blog post, crediting the other student for the idea.  (A writing teacher’s dream come true.)

If there had been more time before Parent University, I would have shared this example via SeeSaw to show the power of models, mentors, choice, expectations, and independence.  Maybe the parents would have felt more confident with the writing process if they had seen this example of writer’s workshop in action.

I wish I knew all the answers for how to help each student grow as a writer.  The truth is, being a student IS hard work, being a teacher IS hard work and writing workshop IS hard work, too.  There are no easy answers, quick fixes, silver bullets or magical formulas to make a person a strong writer. There are, however, better ways to deconstruct the process for parents and provide more detailed examples and resources. I am truly grateful to all the wise and encouraging teachers and coaches who helped me process my presentation to the parents. If I have the opportunity to do it again, thanks to their help, I know I’ll do better.

Please join the conversation! What would you be sure to include in a presentation to parents on writing workshop?