When Reggio Meets Writing Workshop

Estimated Reading time: 754 words, 4 minutes.

Audience: Elementary Classroom teachers, administrators.

A Backstory

In August, I saw a group of third graders walking around the third floor, holding their open notebooks, and scanning every space. Their teacher stopped every so often. It was a quiet invitation to pause and capture small moments happening around them: a preschooler waving goodbye to mom, a kindergartener holding a large block for their friend’s tower. Stories happen all around us, the teacher reminded them before moving on.

Watching this made me think about the perfect match between the writing workshop and our school’s unique philosophy. When I joined in 2021, I brought with me years of experience teaching writing, but I didn’t yet understand what it meant to teach through a Reggio Emilia-inspired lens. As I observed children’s curiosity and how they interacted with teachers, I began to see how naturally the writing workshop could blend into that setting. The school had yet to adopt a writing program, so suggesting writing workshop was a no-brainer to me.

Reggio Principles in Writing Workshop

The Reggio Emilia approach, developed in northern Italy after World War II, emerged from the belief that children are capable, curious, and driven by a desire to make sense of the world. Reggio-Emilia schools value inquiry, collaboration, and documentation as ways to make learning visible. These same ideas live at the heart of writing workshop.

Here’s how Reggio-Emilia principles can bring new depth to writing instruction:

1. Conferring

Learning occurs through conversations, questioning, trying things out, and receiving feedback. It’s not just a matter of sitting down next to a student each week and coaching them through a new strategy; it’s about presenting layers of analysis of one’s work: we read it through multiple lenses, we study it against checklists and other samples, we ask questions, and learn to articulate next steps. Writing is not an isolated event; we need others to consider perspectives, learn different ways, and cultivate the necessary risk-taking mindset for continuous growth. When I walk past classrooms and see teachers conferring, I see two writers exploring possibilities.

2. Documentation

Making learning visible isn’t just about posting things on a wall; it’s about making sense of what we’re seeing. Students need help identifying and naming that thinking process, which is why the practice of documenting learning is at the center of any Reggio-Emilia school. Those walls speak the language of process. For writing workshop, we think beyond anchor charts and writing posted on walls. We tell stories through multiple photos, conversations, timeline, and quotes that bring to life each step in the writing process. Our teachers’ thinking is also posted to model the school’s mindset of constant reflection.

3. Mentor Texts as Co-Teachers

One thing I love about how Reggio-Emilia educators talk about learning spaces is the idea of the environment as the third teacher. In the writing workshop, that environment includes the tools writers use (on the walls, in folders), and how they learn to use them with purpose. When writers study mentor texts, they learn to “talk with authors,” noticing craft moves, naming them, and experimenting with them in their own writing. In a Reggio-inspired classroom, mentor texts become another voice in the room.

4. Learning on Stage

Student-led projects are a staple of Reggio-inspired classrooms. Students’ interests drive learning. Because workshops do so well at honoring students’ voices and identities, teachers have facilitated the representation of writing through other forms of expression, such as performances. Poetry slams, a literary essay cafe, debates based on opinion pieces, and realistic fiction stories performed by the authors are just a few examples. Writing is more than just words on paper; it becomes a venue for our thinking about the world.

The Bottom Line

Educators carry a heavy load of the content students have to cover and the skills they should develop in a school year. This becomes even more complex when you prioritize the many approaches to meaningful learning. One thing I have re-learned working at a Reggio-Emilia-inspired school is that purpose goes above anything. As teachers, we must be learners alongside our students, writing with them, questioning techniques together, and asking, “How can this be better?”

Thinking back on those third graders, eagerly writing about stories they’d seen, I was reminded of the importance of harnessing that novelty, because writing isn’t always easy or magical. It requires a mindset of always learning, constantly rethinking, and being willing to take a detour and go at it a different way.