What is the best way to help your students grow as writers? For me, the answer to that question is simple, a writers' workshop. Writers’ workshop is my favorite instructional system to help my students move mountains in their writing skills and practice. But what even is a writers’ workshop? How do I set up a successful writers’ workshop that will help my students capture the most lightbulb moments possible? Believe it or not, launching a rock star-worthy writing workshop doesn’t have to be that hard. Read more below to explore my top three tips for launching your best writers’ workshop now!

Tip #1 in My 3 Tips to Launching Your Best Writers' Workshop: Have a Plan

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? You may be wondering, what exactly is a writers’ workshop? A Writers' workshop is a way to structure your writing block. The standard writers' workshop will have the following components: mini-lesson, writing time, and a share. Your mini-lesson is a short 5-15 minute teacher lead instruction. During this time you will gather students to your lesson area in the classroom and deliver a brief but impactful mini-lesson for their current writing skills. Next, You will release students from the mini-lesson area to return to their writing spaces and work on their assigned tasks (ex. writing prompts, working in their writing journals, etc.). While the students are working independently, you will be holding writing conferences to check in with students and help them grow in their craft and skills. Be sure to record all of your notes in your conferring binder or notebook. (CLICK HERE to read all about the easiest conferencing notes you’ll ever take). Finally, you will wrap up your writers’ workshop block by calling students back to the gathering area and giving them time to share their writing work from class today with a peer.

Now that we’ve gone over the basic components of a writers’ workshop, let’s talk about making a plan to launch those components into your best writers’ workshop! The very first thing you will need to do is to set up a writing station in your classroom. This will be a space where you house all your current skill anchor charts, a breakdown of the writers’ workshop schedule, and your clearly labeled writers’ workshop student tools (extra paper, erasers, etc). You can read more about setting up your best writing station by CLICKING HERE.

The next step you will need to take is to teach the new routine to your students. What does the timeframe look like for each part of this new writing block routine? Where will they physically go during each component (ex. Gathering area, conferencing area, independent writing spot). Finally and most importantly, take time to actively model the expectations for each area. DO NOT SKIP THIS PART! I promise you if you take the time to physically act out the expected and unexpected behaviors in each spot you will thank me twenty times over in the long run. For example, show the students what it will look, see, and sound like during mini-lesson time each day. Then be sure to show them what it will NOT look, see, and sound like and discuss the differences and their importance. Pro tip: when active modeling, be sure the students are always acting out the correct or desired behavior and you are the only one acting out / modeling the “wrong” behaviors. Students will love seeing you as the adult act poorly and in ways that they know are not correct for the classroom. This visual will help the expectations and desired behaviors for the writers’ workshop sink in for your students. Hold on, you’re almost done! When you break down each section and active model what each time will look, see, and sound like, be sure to write and post them on an anchor chart! This will be immensely helpful to remind students of the new writers’ workshop routine and expectations as you roll out the new routine. Finally, be sure to plan on practicing and repeating the writers’ workshop expectations. This is not a one-and-done thing, with all expectations, they will hold longevity when you practice, practice, practice them. I know that this can be a pain when you just want to hit the ground running! But take it from me, teacher friend, if you do not take the time to thoroughly teach and practice the routines, your writers’ workshop structure will crumble.

Tip #2 in My 3 Tips to Launching Your Best Writers' Workshop: Writers Notebooks

Now that you have your writers’ workshop routine rolled out, let's talk about instruction. As you guide your students through their targeted skills and writing instruction how will you keep them organized? What tools can you use to help your students capture those coveted lightbulb moments and thrive as writers this year? I always use writers’ notebooks as my tool of choice to keep my kiddos organized and help them thrive. A writer's notebook is a one-stop-shop that contains everything my students will need for each writing unit I will teach them during our writers’ workshop this year. You can set up a writer's notebook in three different ways: a three-ring binder, a composition notebook, or using plastic binding combs. Writing notebooks are KEY to my student's success in my writers’ workshop! Inside each writer's notebook, my students will have a growing student dictionary, suggested words to expand their vocabulary, a commonly misspelled word list, dividers for easy access and organization, and graphic organizers that will lead us through the entire writing process, final copy paper, and more. These tools are crucial to have in the palms of my student's hands every single day. The more I give them access to, the more they will grow! Additionally, my students always know where their writing work is located, inside their writer's notebook. This rockin’ writing tool is easy to transport to teacher conferences as well. Win-win! If you want to explore my favorite writers’ workshop writing tool, then CLICK THIS LINK NOW.

Tip #3 in My 3 Tips to Launching Your Best Writers' Workshop: Build a Love of Writing

My final tip for launching your best writers’ workshop ever is to help your students build a love of writing. As teachers, we want to foster a passion for curiosity and a desire for knowledge in our student's hearts. How can a writers’ workshop help you to fan that writing flame? Through your share time. The share component of the writers’ workshop is when students get to shine. Here they will have time carved out to share their hard work each day. This is so important because students will feel a sense of pride when sharing their writing work with others. This pride will help them begin to love writing and believe the truth that they are good writers. I love to use our daily writing prompts for our share time. I choose this because these writing prompts are always “gotta talk about it” topics that get my kiddos talking and sharing. Whether you have kiddos share from their writer's notebook or their daily writing prompts make sure to save time for that powerful share time and watch your students begin to soar.

There you have it, my top three tips for launching your best writers’ workshop. Are you ready to get rocking, rolling, and writing with your own writers’ workshop? Then be sure to download my writing workshop checklist and launch your best writers’ workshop now! CLICK HERE to download.