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What Is Writing Workshop?

An essential part of the responsive classroom.

What Is Writing Workshop?

If you’re new to teaching writing, you may have heard discussion about writing workshop but not be entirely sure about what it is or how to use it in your classroom. WeAreTeachers is here with the answer.

What is writing workshop?

Writing workshop is a student-centered framework for teaching writing that is based on the idea that students learn to write best when they write frequently, for extended periods of time, on topics of their own choosing. 

To develop skills as a writer, students need three things: ownership of their own writing, guidance from an experienced writer, and support from a community of fellow learners. The writing workshop framework meets these needs and streamlines instruction in order to meet the most important objective: giving kids time to write. The workshop setting supports children in taking their writing seriously and viewing themselves as writers. 

The four main components of writing workshop are the mini-lesson, status of the class, writing/conferring time, and sharing. There is not a prescribed time limit for each component, rather they are meant to be flexible and determined by students’ needs on any given day. 

1. Mini-lesson (5 – 15 minutes)

This is the teacher-directed portion of writing workshop. Mini-lessons should be assessment-based, explicit instruction. They should be brief and focused on a single, narrowly defined topic that all writers can implement regardless of skill level. According to writing guru Lucy Calkins , mini-lessons are a time to “gather the whole class in the meeting area to raise a concern, explore an issue, model a technique, or reinforce a strategy.” 

Sources for mini-lessons can come from many places. Many teachers follow the scope and sequence of a prepared curriculum or use the state or national standards as a guide. Ideally, topics for mini-lessons come from your observations as you conference with your students and become aware of their needs. 

The four parts of a mini-lesson:

  • Connection (activating students’ prior knowledge)
  • Teaching (presentation of the actual skill or topic)
  • Active engagement (giving students time for supported practice of the skill)
  • Link (helping students figure out how the topic pertains to their individual writing piece).

For a helpful description of the mini-lesson process, read Writing Workshop Fundamentals by Two Writing Teachers.

2. Status update (3 – 5 minutes)

Meant to be a quick check-in, status update is a way to find out where your students are in the writing process— pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, evaluating, or publishing.

Status of the class doesn’t have to happen every day and it needn’t take up much class time. It can be a quick verbal check-in or “whip” around the classroom. Or you may want to use a clip chart, notebook, or a magnet chart.

what is writer's workshop

SOURCE: Polka Dots and Pencils

Another great idea is to use a pocket chart. Students show which step they are on by putting the appropriately colored card in their pocket.  

what is writer's workshop

SOURCE: Teaching My Friends

Status update lets you as the teacher evaluate how your students are progressing. It also creates accountability for the students and motivates your community of learners.

3. Writing (20 – 45 minutes)  

The majority of writing workshop is devoted to simply giving students time to write. During this time, teachers can either be modeling the process by working on their own writing or conferencing with individual students. In all reality, the majority of your time will be observing and helping students. A good goal during a typical week of writing workshop is to aim to work individually with every student in the class at least once.  

Remember, the main priority of conferencing is to listen, not to talk. But to prompt your students to share their progress with you, here are a few questions to ask from Teaching That Makes Sense . 

What is Writer's Workshop?

Once your students get the hang of what a helpful conference looks and feels like, they can use peer conferencing to help one another. 

4. Sharing (5–15 minutes)

It can be tempting, when time is running short, to skip this last element of writing workshop, but don’t!  It can be the most instructionally valuable part of the class, other than the writing time itself. When students grow comfortable seeing themselves as part of a writing community, they are willing to take more risks and dive deeper into the process. In addition, kids often get their best ideas and are most influenced by one another. 

Some tips to keep sharing time manageable: 

  • For whole-class sharing, keep a running list of who has shared and when, and h ave students share only a portion of their writing—maybe what they consider their best work, or a part they need help with.
  • Let students share in pairs—one reads aloud and one listens. 
  • Have students swap work and read silently to themselves. 

At first the concept of writing workshop may seem overwhelming. But once you establish your routine, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to implement. Because writing workshop gives students so much time to write, their writing skills will improve dramatically. And hopefully, being part of such a dynamic writing community will instill in your students a lifelong love for writing.

Got any hot tips for using writing workshop in your classroom? We’d love to hear about them in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out 5 Peer Conferencing Strategies that Actually Work .

writing workshops definition

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Writers.com

Writing workshops are a wonderful way to grow and expand your writing skills—provided you know how to workshop creative writing. There are different writing workshop models, both online and in person, each with their own particular ways of benefiting your writing journey. What are those models, and how do you engage in proper critique writing?

This article is all about making the most of your writing workshops. Whether you’re taking a course with Writers.com, entering your first workshop in undergrad, or putting together your own private writing group, the tips and models in this article will help you learn how to workshop creative writing.

There are a couple of different definitions of writing workshops. For the purposes of this article, we will examine writing workshop models under the university definition, which is the process of sharing your work in a setting where you receive writing feedback and suggestions for improvement. 

If you’re looking for the best multi-week creative writing workshops, here are some tips for finding the best on the internet:

The Best Online Writing Workshops: How to Succeed in Creative Writing Workshops

Different Creative Writing Workshop Models

There is no singular way to workshop a piece of writing. Different schools, universities, and institutions have developed different models over time. Even at Writers.com, some of our classes use different writing workshop models.

Here are a few common models you might see employed around the web. Note: this list only applies to adult writing workshops. Youth-focused writing spaces tend to use some form of the model developed by Lucy Calkins .

1. The Iowa Writers’ Workshop Model

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is one of the most prestigious writing programs in the United States, having produced dozens of Pulitzer winners, National Book Award finalists, and poet laureates. It also developed the standard writing workshop model for universities, specifically under the directorship of poet Paul Engle.

The writing workshop rules are pretty simple: the writer’s work is distributed to every workshop attendee in advance. Each writer then comes to the workshop with their thoughts on the work. The attendees have a conversation about the piece—how they interpret it, aspects they like, what can be improved, etc.

Most importantly, the author cannot speak at any time. This is the “gag rule” of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and it’s the aspect that’s both the most recognizable, and the most criticized, of this workshopping model.

Pros: The argument for keeping the author silent is that the author should not have to explain anything in the work. If the author is allowed to speak, they will most likely interrupt the conversation to defend the writing, rather than pay attention to what does and doesn’t work, and what readers failed to grasp.

Cons: This writing workshop model has been routinely criticized for the ways it silences the author . While authors certainly shouldn’t commandeer the conversation to defend their work, they also deserve space to explain what doesn’t seem to be clicking for the readers. Writing workshops have historically catered to privileged groups; if you’re the only Asian author in a room of non-Asian writers, and the conversation gets stuck on dim sum , shouldn’t you be allowed to correct course?

Workshops should privilege the author and provide useful feedback to all attendees. The “gag rule” has some merit, but as workshops become more diverse—both in identity and in genre—there have to be better ways to run productive creative writing workshops.

These next models all, in some way or another, correct the deficits of the Iowa Writers’ model.

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2. Liz Lerman’s Writing Workshop Model

Choreographer Liz Lerman developed a feedback model that has been adapted to a variety of settings, including creative writing workshops. It’s a 4 step process that runs as follows:

  • Statement of meaning: Each group member tells the writer what aspects of the piece resonated for them. This allows the session to lead with what’s working, which is important because an author often doesn’t know what’s good about their writing, and an author usually revises based on the best parts of their work.
  • Questions by the writer to the group: The writer asks questions they have in mind about craft elements in the piece. Did this work? Do you understand this? Typically, these are yes/no questions, and the group members shouldn’t elucidate unless asked to.
  • Questions to the group by the writer: Group members then ask questions about the work, including aspects of it they didn’t understand. This is a much more empathetic way to approach creative writing critique, because it uses questions to point to improvements in the writing, rather than stating “X needs to improve because Y.”
  • Opinions: If there’s time, group members then share their overall opinions of the work, highlighting more of what they liked and wish to see improved.

3. The Playwriting Writing Workshop Model

Although this model is specifically used in playwriting workshops, it can be adapted to poetry, nonfiction, and fiction writing workshops, too.

In this model, participants do not read the work ahead of time. Copies are distributed to everyone, and roles are assigned to the participants. (If there aren’t many characters, participants might be assigned pages; for poetry, only one person might be assigned to read the poem.)

After the reading, the workshop leader will host a general discussion of the work.

This model can prove super beneficial, as it allows the author to hear their work spoken aloud. Where did the reader stumble? What did or didn’t sound natural? Engaging with the work from a distance helps the writer see it more clearly, and they might come away from this reading already with new ideas and opportunities for revision.

And, rather than have students prepare thoughts in advance, a general discussion in the moment reveals how readers will engage with the work in the moment. When you have a book, story, or poem published, the reader probably won’t write out all their thoughts afterwards; eschewing this model gives the writer direct, unadulterated insight into how people engage with their writing.

4. Wild Writing / Writing Circles

The Wild Writing model was developed by Laurie Wagner, and it encourages writers, particularly poets, to produce as much material as they can from their own unconscious minds.

Our instructor Susan Vespoli bases her writing circles off of the Wild Writing workshop model. In these Zoom-based poetry writing workshops, participants do the following:

  • Each participant verbally shares an image with the group. It is an image that has sat on their minds for a few days. They should share it without qualifying it—as in, keeping to visual language, not using words like “beautiful” or “interesting.”
  • The group leader reads a poem twice. They then highlight some striking lines in the poem, which can be used as starting points for the writing session.
  • For 12-15 minutes, each writer free writes, without editing themselves or eschewing certain thoughts. Writers should not cross out words, and they should keep the pen moving. (When they run out of things to say, they can try putting in transition phrases, like “What I mean to say is…)
  • At the end of this, each writer goes around reading from their journals. Writers do not comment on one another’s journal entry . The point is to write and share what’s on the mind in a supportive, encouraging environment.
  • Typically, a Zoom call will repeat this process twice, for 3 sessions in total.

Unlike other workshops where participants give each other writing feedback, this model produces work in a supportive community space. The opportunity to read work aloud allows writers to have deeper insights into their own writing and thinking. In this model, writers grow as writers not by giving feedback, but by being vulnerable in a safe writing space and encountering new ideas from both their brains and the minds of other writers.

When paired with lectures and written feedback outside of the Zoom call, writers come away with rich material for their own work, as well as a new, generative writing practice.

5. Other Modifications on Writing Workshop Models

Writers love to tinker with form, and this includes the form of writing workshops. This article by Jim Nelson offers one such way to modify the workshopping space so that each writer is treated with respect, dignity, curiosity, and encouragement.

How to Workshop Creative Writing: 15 Tips for Success

If you’re participating in online writing workshops, you will be presented with opportunities to give and receive writing feedback. Regardless of genre and the writing workshop model, here are some tips to get the most out of every workshop you attend online.

How to Workshop Creative Writing: Giving Writing Critique

  • Share your own experience. How the work is impacting you as a reader. Readers are very different, so how the piece is landing for you is more helpful than general statements. “I read this as X,” not simply “this is X.”
  • Praise what’s working in the piece. Writers need to know what resonates and where to build from. Every piece of writing has something working well.
  • Keep all writing feedback constructive. Use encouraging language to frame your suggestions, such as “simpler dialogue tags might help this passage flow more smoothly.”
  • Be specific in your feedback. For example, “I love this” is less helpful than “I love how your description of the character’s clothing gives a sense of his personality.”
  • Consider the author’s intent with the piece. Don’t try to shape the work into something you would write; try to advise the writer based on their vision for the piece. If it’s unclear, ask!
  • Consider asking questions when you have them. Instead of “X’s decision doesn’t make sense,” try “Why does X make Y decision?” Talking through ideas in this way can help writers consider new possibilities for the work, without making them feel like they’re doing something wrong.

How to Workshop Creative Writing: Receiving Writing Feedback

  • Ask questions. The best writing workshops give you the space to work through what you don’t know how to do. Come prepared with questions about your work, and don’t be afraid to follow up with the suggestions people give you.
  • Consider your ideal reader. Is the person giving you feedback the person you intend to read this piece? Ideal readers will probably give you the most useful creative writing feedback. That said, readers who have different backgrounds than your ideal reader will also have ideas you might not have considered, which can be useful for both your current project and future ones.
  • Leave your ego at the door. All writers are protective of their work. It’s understandable! But if you enter the workshop space with walls up, you will prevent yourself from seeing the work through other points of view. Don’t let your pride, your vision, or your sense of artistic value prevent you from seeing ways to improve your writing. And remember, we’re all insecure in some way about our work. Workshops give us the chance to improve together, in both our craft and confidence.
  • Know what you want to achieve. At the same time, it’s good to have a vision for what you want your piece to be. Coming into a writing workshop with this vision will help you ask questions and lead a more productive workshop session. It will also help you filter through the writing feedback you receive.
  • Advocate for yourself. It is rare for a workshop to go south, but it happens. When the conversation doesn’t seem to be helping you (for example: non-Asian writers getting stuck on dim sum), you should be able to correct course and make the workshop work for you.
  • File it away. After workshop, file the feedback away for a little while, and don’t try to fix your piece all at once. Rushing into revision is a recipe for regret, as it takes time to absorb and incorporate feedback into your writing. Be slow, methodical, and careful. Above all, don’t let workshop change your vision for the piece—creative writing workshops are stepping stones, not boulders, to your ideal work.

How to Workshop Creative Writing: Improving as a Writer

  • Pay attention to other workshops. The workshop space isn’t yours alone. Often, engaging with other writers’ work and listening to other writers’ critiques will help you grow as a writer yourself. You will encounter dozens of ideas in one workshopping session. File these ideas for later, and pay close attention to everyone’s craft so you can later steal like an artist .
  • Experiment. Writers who experiment with ideas often achieve the most. While it’s good to have an ideal sense of where your piece is headed, it doesn’t hurt to copy your work into a new document and try using ideas you disagree with. What happens when you try writer B’s suggestion over writer A’s? How about vice versa? The more time you spend tinkering with your work and experimenting with ideas, the more insights you have into the craft and into your own vision as an artist.
  • Be patient. Writing is a craft that takes a lifetime to master—and even the masters want to write better. Most writers hate the work they wrote a year ago, and that’s good—it means they’ve grown, sharpened their skills, refined their tastes, and gotten closer to the kind of work they want to achieve. Above all, be diligent and consistent in your writing. It might not be this month, or even this year, but you will one day write stories and poems you feel genuinely proud of.

Find Useful Creative Writing Feedback at Writers.com!

The courses at Writers.com are designed to give you useful creative writing critique. Whether you write poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, you’ll receive expert creative writing feedback from all of our instructors, and learn how to workshop creative writing in the process. Take a look at our upcoming course calendar !

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Sean Glatch

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This is such a valuable article! The advice here has made me much less nervous about signing up for workshops in the future. Thank you so much!

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Writing Workshop

Writing Workshop in a First Grade Classroom - How We Plan Our Stories

Writing Workshop in a First Grade Classroom - How We Plan Our Stories Director’s Cut

The teacher introduces her class to a new strategy they can use to help them plan out the events of their stories before they start writing

This version of the How We Plan Our Stories lesson for additional "look fors" and tips.

Writing Workshop is an instructional practice designed to help children become confident and capable writers. During Writing Workshop, children have time to work independently and with their peers. They engage in the writing process by selecting topics, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their original work. They receive explicit instruction in the craft of writing from exploring genre, to organizing their pieces, to word choice, style, and mechanics.

The workshop structure encourages children to think of themselves as writers and take their writing seriously. It gives children the skills to express their important thoughts and celebrates the fact that their stories and ideas matter and are worth expressing.

Young Child Writing in Class

What is Writing Workshop?

Writing Workshop is an organizational framework for teaching writing. The framework consists of three components: the mini-lesson, work time, and share time . The Writing Workshop structure is an efficient and effective way to deliver writing instruction to meet the needs of all learners.

Each Writing Workshop session begins with a mini-lesson, during which you explicitly teach the children a specific writing skill or strategy over the course of five to 15 minutes. Use the mini-lesson to address the writing needs of your children as determined by your curriculum, state and local standards, and most importantly, formative assessment. Your conference notes and the children’s writing help you identify a primary literacy objective for the mini-lesson. During the mini-lesson, explain what you are teaching and how it will help the children become better writers. Model and demonstrate the use of the skill or strategy, thinking aloud throughout the process. Give the children a chance to try out the skill or strategy right there on the carpet.

The mini-lesson is immediately followed by work time, the component that is the heart of Writing Workshop and occupies its largest block of time. During work time, the children write – both independently and with partners. They apply what they’ve learned from the current and past mini-lessons to their writing. It is during work time that you can differentiate your writing instruction. To do this, conduct one-to-one writing conferences with children, taking careful notes throughout each conference. You might also work with small groups of children who have similar instructional needs in writing. Increase the amount of writing time as the children’s stamina increases.

Share time comes at the end of the workshop. During share time, two or three children share their writing with the class. Writing deserves an audience, and share time is one of the ways to provide it. The “authors” might show how they’ve applied the day’s mini lesson to their own writing. They might show what they’ve learned about writing or about themselves as writers. Usually only a few sentences will be shared, but sometimes a child will share a completed piece of writing. Share time is motivating for the children, and it provides peer models for them.

Why Writing Workshop?

Being a capable, confident writer is a necessary skill for children to be successful in school and in life. As they progress through the grades, they’ll need to write summaries, reports, critiques, and essays. To be functioning adults, they’ll need to write in both their working lives (e.g., letters, memoranda, and reports) and their daily lives outside of the workplace (e.g., shopping lists, emails, and notes). Through daily writing in a workshop, children can learn to effectively communicate in writing.

Writing Workshop is uniquely structured to help children develop positive attitudes about writing and progress as writers. Through writing, children have voice and agency – a way to express their ideas. This can be a deep source of satisfaction. The Writing Workshop structure provides manageable amounts of direct, explicit instruction that meets the developmental needs of our K-3 children: a lot of support, targeted feedback, and an audience for the children’s writing. Most importantly, the Writing Workshop gives children plenty of writing time. Children can only grow as writers if they have repeated practice and opportunities to write independently.

Child writing during Writing Workshop

Children are often eager to express their thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Sharing what we know and telling stories is an important part of learning and living in a community. Writing provides a suitable venue for children to share their thinking and ideas. As an additional bonus, writing helps children make sense of, clarify, and develop new learning and thinking. Our carefully planned lessons can facilitate children’s ability to have the voice that they crave. In a Writing Workshop, unlike in settings where K-3 children often copy the teacher’s writing, the children are the authors.

Finally, audience is a critical component of writing. That is, writing is meant to be read. An audience is often found for some of the children during work time, when pairs or small groups of children will read their writing to each other. But most of all, this is the primary focus of share time, the final component of the Writing Workshop. Each day during share time, two to three children have an opportunity to sit in the “author’s chair” and share what they’ve written with others. In classrooms not using the workshop model, the teacher is often the only one who is an audience for writing, sharply reducing the opportunities for children to read their writing to others. This turns writing into a “written assignment” rather than a true mode of communication.

Writing and Reading Connection

Writing and reading are reciprocal processes: reading affects writing, and writing affects reading.

When children read a lot, they become better writers. Each reading experience represents another encounter with writing, which builds knowledge of writing and helps children to understand what good writing looks like and sounds like. This in turn helps to make them more critical readers of their own writing. Reading books across genres helps children learn story grammar, narrative structures, and informational text structures. Then they apply this knowledge to their own writing. Favorite books that are read and reread become mentors for children’s writing.

Writing helps to build and develop reading skills. Our kindergarten and first grade children are actively involved in developing phonemic awareness and phonics skills. When they are working through the spelling of a word during their writing, often using developmental spelling, they are actively applying phonics skills. This has a powerful impact and is much more effective than isolated practice using worksheets. When children access the word wall to use a high frequency word in their writing, they are getting additional exposure to the word. The act of writing the word, which gets reinforced when they encounter it again while rereading their writing, helps the word become part of their sight word vocabulary.

Leverage the reading-writing connection in your read alouds, Reading and Writing Workshop mini-lessons, and shared writing. During read alouds, make a point of talking about the author’s craft and the characteristics of different genres. Draw children’s attention to word choice, style, and the structure of different texts you read and create together. Gradually build anchor charts to capture what you are discovering about writing together and connect the ideas you are learning about to children’s own writing. Highlight the efforts of children who are experimenting with different writing styles and genres during share time.

Find books to use in your mini-lessons to support children’s instructional needs in writing. For example, if your children are ready for a lesson in punctuation, read Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka. If the children are overusing the same words in their writing, read aloud Come On Rain! by Karen Hesse. Explicitly teach children to chunk words for both reading and writing by using a book like One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root.

Collaboratively write a text with the children using the shared writing approach. You are doing the actual writing, but the children are contributing ideas and “helping” with the spelling and conventions to the extent of their abilities. Shared writing produces readable text for all children. Display the text of your completed shared writing lesson and encourage the children to read it when they “read the room.”

Different Types of Writing Instruction

The components of a balanced writing program include modeled writing, shared or interactive writing, guided writing, and independent writing. These four components are based on the principal of the gradual release of responsibility developed by Pearson and Gallagher in 1993.

During modeled writing, you are demonstrating how writing works. You write in front of the children, thinking aloud throughout the entire process. Be sure that all the children can see the writing. Modeled writing is likely to occur in mini-lessons and, of course, Message Time Plus. Shared writing is a practice in which the teacher and the children share the responsibility for writing a text. The children’s role is to verbalize the ideas in the text and to contribute to the spelling and writing conventions to the extent of their abilities. The teacher holds the pen and does the physical writing. The writing is usually done on chart paper and written large enough for all the children to see. The level of child responsibility in shared writing can be increased by employing interactive writing instead. Interactive writing follows the same structure as shared writing, except that the children and the teacher “share the pen.” The teacher selects individual children to come up to write a word or even a letter in the message. When shared writing or interactive writing is completed, the teacher and children usually do a shared reading of the text.

Child writing during Writing Workshop

Guided writing is a notable shift in teacher/child responsibility. In guided writing, the child “holds the pen” and is responsible for doing all of the writing. The teacher’s role is that of support. Teachers coach, scaffold, and support children while they are writing. Guided writing usually occurs during one-on-one writing conferences and small group writing sessions.

Finally, independent writing is when children apply all of the important lessons that we have taught them to their own writing. The teacher’s role in independent writing is just to supply time and resources for writing. Independent writing occurs during the work time component of Writing Workshop, in class writing centers, and during journal writing.

Reflect on Your Writing Workshop

Like any instructional practice, Writing Workshop will benefit from your reflection. Take some time to think about your current writing instruction. What are you doing that is effective? Where do you want to improve your practice?

Reflect on your Writing Workshop

Use this printable version to reflect on your current practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

My children don’t like to go back and revise their work. how do i help them improve their pieces.

Children who can write narratives with beginnings, middles, and ends (transitional writers) are ready to add revision to their writing process. Make sure children understand the difference between editing and revision. Explain that editing is about making sure a reader can understand the piece by reviewing the mechanics and conventions. Revising is about making a good piece of writing even stronger. Devote a number of mini-lessons to revision. Through shared writing, co-create a text. Spend two or three sessions revising it (better opener, vivid verbs, awesome adjectives, no tired words, etc.). Compare the first draft to the finished piece. Try devoting one workshop session a week to revision (Revision Wednesday?). For share time, pre-select children who made a special effort to revise their writing. Have them share the “before” and “after” of their pieces.

I model my writing for my children, and then they just copy what I wrote. How can I help them come up with their own ideas?

It’s normal for children to copy writing. It’s part of how they learn! As they gain confidence in their own abilities, and become eager to share their own ideas, they will branch out from the “safety” of copying. You can help children gain confidence by celebrating children’s attempts, showing interest in their lives, and encouraging them to use their own invented spelling.

You can also help children by having them brainstorm a list of topics and display it, so the children can refer to the list. Have the children “turn and talk” to tell their partners what they plan to write. Ask the children who exhibit exceptional difficulty coming up with ideas to stay on the rug for an extra minute or two. Check in with each of the children to make sure they have decided upon an idea. You might even ask them to tell the first sentence of their piece.

How does spelling and grammar instruction fit into Writing Workshop?

Writing Workshop lends itself to the teaching of spelling and grammar because these lessons are taught within the context of actual writing for an authentic purpose rather than through isolated skill practice. Identify which lessons your children need by examining their writing. Then teach mini-lessons to target and address the children’s instructional needs. Co-create anchor charts with the children to help them remember high utility grammar and spelling strategies and concepts. Teach children to use the resources in the room to check their spelling.

My children are still working on forming letters and writing their names. Can I still do Writing Workshop?

Absolutely! It sounds like your children are in the pre-emergent and emergent stages of writing. One of the things that helps them to grow as writers is many experiences with writing. In your mini-lessons and your daily Message Time Plus lessons, explicitly teach lessons like directionality, word boundaries, and matching sounds with symbols. Be sure to have individual-sized alphabet charts for the children to refer to while they are writing. Encourage them to draw a picture and label it. Many children will start out by labeling their picture with a single letter, but their labels will become more advanced over time. Have one-on-one conferences to zero in on individual needs. Don’t forget share time, an opportunity for the children to show each other what they have accomplished.

Do I need to review and grade everything that my children produce?

Looking at children’s writing is going to give you the information that you need to provide targeted instruction. So, although you don’t need to grade everything, you really do have to find a way to see as much of their writing as you can. Consider providing each child with a writing folder. Have the children keep all of their writing from Writing Workshop in their folders. Create a schedule that allows you to examine writing folders at regular intervals. The number of papers in a folder indicates the volume of writing that the child is producing. Select one piece to assess with a rubric. Be sure to share the rubric with the children, so they will know how they are being assessed. Using this method, you should be able to assess one piece of writing a week for each child. That is usually enough to document the children’s growth over time. You can also try asking the children to select one piece from their writing folders to submit for assessment. Clear out the writing folders after each unit or once a month. Make sure to preserve the pieces that you assessed with the rubric.

How do I manage independent writing time so that everyone is “on task”?

To ensure a productive independent writing time, the children must know the routines and procedures of Writing Workshop. Teach procedural lessons, practice and rehearse, and co-create anchor charts. Resist attempting conferences or convening small writing groups until the children know the routines. You must also be aware of the children’s stamina for writing. This is simple to assess. Have them write, and note the starting time. When they become distracted, begin looking around, or start asking to go to the drinking fountain, they’ve reached their limit. Note how long they were able to write. Be assured that their stamina will increase over time. Nevertheless, the amount of time you allocate for independent writing must always be appropriate for their current level of stamina for writing. Walk around between conferences to be aware of what is happening. Make adjustments and offer options for children who need extra support. Finally, have the children self-assess and make goals or plans for improving their productivity during independent writing time.

What do I do with children when I meet with them one-on-one in a writing conference?

The architecture of the writing conference is research, decide, compliment, teach (Calkins, 2006). During the research part of the conference, you will need to find out what the writer needs. This can be discovered by having the child read their writing to you and have a conversation with the child. Then find something to compliment (i.e., point out something that the child is doing well) and decide what you are going to teach. Remember to teach only one thing. Try to find a concept that the child has partially mastered, and teach that concept. Close the conference by reiterating the teaching point and linking it to the child’s ongoing work.

Comments (10)

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It is really a great way to interact with the children and share what we think about the stories…..The workshop structure encourages children to think of themselves as writers and take their writing seriously. It gives children the skills to express their important thoughts and celebrates the fact that their stories and ideas matter and are worth expressing. This is so true and I enjoyed using these methods to help me to teach them…..Thank you so much Cli3 and my coaches for their instruction and hard work to help our school, community and class!

Angelique Darcy-McGuire 

I teach Language Arts/Writing to EVERY student in our K-6 school (including ELL and SPED) and I am constricted to only one 40 minute period every 4 days with each classroom. I am seeking ways to most effectively implement the philosophies outlined in the CLI research which will best serve the students I teach. I am open to suggestions. I am also interested to see if anyone else has a position such as mine. Thanks so much.

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Video styles and samples, celebrating educators – the whole hearted school counseling teacher appreciation giveaway, pick of the week: robot turtles – a fun and educational board game, we found all the best classroom deals in prime early access sale, the ultimate digital pen tablet giveaway: a dream come true for creatives, win a trip to orlando for carnegie learning’s teaching excellence institute, should i transfer to another grade level weighing the pros and cons, the teacher report: at-home activities that keep students learning, principal helpline: “everyone wants answers immediately, what is writing workshop.

writing workshops definition

Writing Workshop is a collaborative learning approach that focuses on improving students’ writing skills through various activities and exercises. It is designed to create a supportive environment where students can develop their writing abilities, receive constructive feedback, and engage in meaningful writing discussions.

During a Writing Workshop, students typically engage in a structured process that includes pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The workshop model allows students to explore various genres, styles, and topics while receiving guidance and support from their peers and the teacher.

One of the key features of a Writing Workshop is the use of mini-lessons. These short instructional sessions are tailored to address specific writing skills or techniques, such as developing strong thesis statements, using descriptive language, or organizing ideas. Mini-lessons are typically followed by guided practice, where students apply what they have learned to their own writing.

Another important aspect of Writing Workshop is peer feedback. Students are encouraged to share their work with their classmates and provide constructive criticism. This helps them develop their editing and revising skills, as well as learn from their peers’ strengths and weaknesses.

The teacher plays a crucial role in facilitating a Writing Workshop. They provide guidance, scaffolding, and support throughout the writing process. They also give individualized feedback and monitor students’ progress, ensuring that they are meeting the desired learning outcomes.

Overall, Writing Workshop is an effective approach to teach and improve writing skills. It promotes student agency and collaboration while focusing on meaningful and authentic writing experiences.

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How to Run a Writing Workshop

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Participating in a writing workshop can be one of the most rewarding, and frightening, experiences of your writing career. A writer’s workshop is a chance for authors to learn from each other through receiving and giving critiques. A successful writer’s workshop will provide a supportive environment for developing one’s skills. This article explores how to run a writing workshop and make it a success.

What is a writing workshop?

A writer’s workshop is a collaborative environment where participants have a chance to create one or several pieces of work on a theme. The participants then get to critique others on their work and have their writing critiqued, too. One of the challenges of a writer’s workshop is that writers are told not to take the comments personally, but that is a difficult challenge for many because we are always intimately connected to the work we produce. A good writer’s workshop facilitator will make sure that all criticism is taken in the right way and in a way that encourages growth in the craft.

Why should I hold a workshop?

Writer’s workshops help create an environment where writers can see their work through a reader’s eyes. The reason for holding one might seem to be to help others, but the facilitator will often gain as much as everyone else when it comes to practical ways to improve their work. Usually, one thinks about creative writing when they think about a workshop, but you can hold a workshop for any other type of writers, such as bloggers, copywriters, nonfiction writers, or any other niche.

One of the challenges that almost any writer faces is that we tend to work in a vacuum. We create our work, publish it, and then wait to see if anyone buys it, clicks on it, or shares it. If our pieces are not performing the way we would like, or if we simply want to get better at what we do, we often lack insight into why our piece worked or did not work.

A writer’s workshop gives you a rare chance to get to see your work as your audience does. What’s more, they are a tool for fostering community among writers of the same type of work. You can share secrets, tips, challenges, and a few laughs. Receiving this type of honest criticism and feedback of your work can be intimidating, but knowing that everyone else in the room has the same feeling can help to ease the process a bit. After a few times, it becomes easy.

Components and Frameworks

Most writing workshops seem to follow a similar framework and structure. Here are some examples of how to run a writing workshop. The first thing you need is a list of good prompts that will challenge participants and help them grow. Some workshops for authors have participants submit something they are already working on, such as a short story or chapter of a book. In the latter case, you need to give participants lead time to prepare the work.

When it comes time for the workshop to begin, you can open by letting your audience know why you have something valuable to contribute. You do not have to be a best-selling author or anything of the sort. All you need to do is simply state your credentials, such as the number of years you have been writing or how many works you have written. It is not necessary to rattle off a long list of degrees and certifications because, in the writing business, it is your work that counts.

The second tip for your workshop is to make sure you establish clear goals and have some type of introduction that lets your audience know what to expect. Of course, you will want to start out with the information that you have learned from your writing career, but be sure to break it up with visuals and short activities. Your audience wants to do more than hear you talk or look at a wall of words in front of them. Make it engaging, and get to the meat of the workshop, which is the writing and feedback.

Participating and Engaging

The most important component of the workshop is the ability of participants to ask questions and engage with each other. It is not a lecture, so you should encourage interaction with you and with other participants. When it comes time for critique, it should be obvious that people should be nice and provide helpful advice, but this is not always a skill that everyone has mastered. One pro tip is that if you hear someone stating something in a way that is not helpful or that might be hurtful, you can try to rephrase the key points of what they have to say and restate it in a way that is positive and affirming.

As a facilitator, you should also participate as much as possible by sharing your own work and inviting critique. Also remember to keep sharing tips, from how to find a literary agent to how a thesaurus can improve your writing . Another tip: if it seems like the person giving the critique missed the point, don’t be afraid to break in and ask the author what his or her intent was in the piece. This can clear up quite a bit of confusion on everyone’s part.

One of the most common challenges new writers face is a lack of variety in their work. Our speech patterns are developed from early childhood, and our old habits can be our worst pitfall as a writer. If you feel like you are just rehashing the same ideas and structure, a writing workshop can help break you out of your daily grind.

Online Version

You might be thinking, is it possible to have an online writing workshop? If you know how to run a writing workshop, the answer to this is absolutely. People do it all the time. In today’s world, it is entirely possible to have a successful writing workshop online using web conferencing software. Webinar software can help you create an experience that is just as engaging, if not more so, than holding it in a physical location.

Participants can join from the comfort of their own homes, and this can encourage participation. This takes away the element of reading your work in an unfamiliar environment to a room full of strangers. Also, you can screen share and add visuals that might take more technical skill when you are using standard audio-visual equipment. A webinar workshop can add depth to the experience that face-to-face workshops might not be able to do. You still get peer feedback, only participants can work from the space where they do most of their work, which means they are more likely to transfer the skills learned into their daily writing practice.

Wrapping it Up

Now, you know how to run a writing workshop and make it a success. Writing workshops can be a lot of fun if you approach them with the right attitude. Learning to take helpful criticism is humbling, but it also offers the greatest opportunity for growth and mentorship. If you have been writing for some time, there is no reason why you should not plan to hold a writing workshop, either in person or as a webinar.

writing workshops definition

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The Write Practice

Writing Workshop: Can a Writing Workshop Help You Become a Better Writer?

by Joe Bunting | 0 comments

How do you write beautiful, award-winning novels, memoirs, and short stories? One tried-and-true way is through a writing workshop, a program with other writers who can give encouragement, feedback, and support as you write, edit, and publish your writing.

Writing Workshop: Can a Writing Workshop Help You Become a Better Writer?

But maybe you don't know how to join a writing workshop, can't afford the steep admission fee a masters-level creative writing program costs, or you don't live near one.

That's where an online writing workshop like The Write Practice Pro can help in.

In this post, I’m going to share what a creative writing workshop is and how you can use it to improve your writing habits, get feedback on your creative writing, and go on to publish award-winning writing. Then we’ll talk about how to find a writing workshop, whether online or locally, and how to get the most out of it.

What Is a Creative Writing Workshop?

Writing workshop is a method of guiding people through the creative writing process with a focus on publishing and/or sharing their writing.

The Six Elements of a Writing Workshop

There are six parts to writing workshops:

  • Lessons on the creative writing process.
  • Structured time to plan your writing piece and brainstorm story ideas
  • Structured writing time
  • Getting feedback from editors/teachers and other students/writers
  • Revision time based on content/grammar/flow
  • Publishing or sharing

The Limitations of Most Creative Writing Workshops

In the past, creative writing workshops haven’t been accessible to everyone. Here’s why:

1. Location Dependent

Generally creative writing workshops are done in school settings, from a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) creative writing program to a middle school creative writing unit.

For example, one of the most famous workshops is the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, which is in Iowa City, Iowa. Hundreds of award-winning novelists and memoirists have either graduated from or taught at this program, including Pulitzer Prize winners Marilyn Robinson, Michael Cunningham, John Cheever, and more.

The problem is if you’re going to participate, you need to be in a specific location, namely Iowa.

Iowa isn’t the only excellent creative writing program (Poets and Writers has a full list of MFA programs ), and there are low-residency programs, where you can go in-person for just a few weeks per semester. But all creative writing programs require you to be in a specific location for at least several weeks and often several years.

If you can’t move your life to Iowa or some other city with a program, that rules out the possibility of improving your writing through this method.

2. High Cost

The average cost at an MFA creative writing workshop for a single class is over $3,300. The total cost can be as low as $27,000 and up to $108,000. That’s a lot!

If you don’t have an extra $50k lying around (and if you do, call me!), participating in a creative writing workshop is probably not possible.

3. Lack of Focus on Publishing

Writers write for readers. One drawback of some creative writing workshops is they spend so much time focusing on writing for other writers, professors, and a handful of university-funded literary magazines that they forget who their real audience is.

Without a strong focus on publishing, a creative writing workshop can get lost in the weeds of craft that sounds good in theory but doesn’t serve readers.

Can Regular People Participate in Creative Writing Workshops? Yes, in 3 Ways

There is huge value to the creative writing workshop process for all writers and aspiring writers, regardless of whether they’re in a formal school setting or not.

The great news is that now anyone can participate in this process and use it to improve their writing and get published.

There are three main ways that people can get involved with creative writing workshops, apart from local school settings:

  • Local writing critique groups
  • Online writing classes
  • Online writing critique groups

Let’s look at two of those, local writing groups and online writing groups.

Pros and Cons of Local Writing Groups and How to Find Them

Local writing groups are groups of people interested in writing who meet regularly (often weekly) to critique each other’s chapters and short stories and talk about the writing process.

Sometimes these groups are filled with amateur writers working on their first books and pieces, but established writers often belong to writers’ groups too.

Famous examples of local writers’ groups include the Inklings , J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’s writing group in Oxford; the Bloomsbury Group , Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot’s group in London; and the more informal Lost Generation , Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s group in Paris.

The benefit of local writers’ groups is that they give you a great chance to build relationships with other writers, and these writing friends can help you with more than just improving your chapters, but also how to get published and how to market your writing.

Here are some ways you can find a local writers’ groups:

  • Google for local writing groups in your area
  • Ask other writers you know locally if they are part of a group or know of groups
  • Create your own

The drawback of local writers’ groups is that these groups only provide one aspect of the creative writing workshop experience: feedback.

Getting good feedback might be a valuable part of becoming a published writer, but it’s certainly not the only part. Structured brainstorming, structured writing time (like deadlines), focusing on revision, publishing opportunities, and even lessons on creative writing are also important parts of growing as a writer.

On top of that, you might not connect with your local group (I never have!). You might not be a good fit in terms of career level, with people either far ahead of you or behind you.

Even worse, what if you don’t live in an area with a local writers’ group at all?

If a local writers’ group isn’t a good solution for you, how can you get the full creative writing workshop experience?

That’s where online creative writing workshops like The Write Practice Pro can help.

How an Online Writing Workshop Like The Write Practice Pro Works

There are several online writing workshops that overcome the hurdles we talked about above. One of the best groups is The Write Practice Pro.

The Write Practice Pro is an online creative writing workshop dedicated to helping you become a better writer, write award-winning books and short stories, and ultimately become a bestselling author.

Here’s how it can help you get the full creative writing workshop experience:

1. Lessons on the creative writing process

At The Write Practice, we believe everyone can become a great writer through deliberate practice, and one of the most important aspects of deliberate practice is solid lessons.

Through The Write Practice Pro, you can get daily writing lessons, writing prompts, and exercises to help you become a better writer. For example, click here for the top 100 creative writing lessons .

We also host regular writing courses , like 100 Day Book , where you can connect with a mentor who will walk you through the process of writing a first draft (or second draft) of a novel, memoir, or non-fiction book.

2. Planning your writing and brainstorming ideas

It can take hundreds of hours to write a book, sometimes even thousands. If you’re going to invest that time into the writing process, you want to make sure that you’re working on the right idea.

That’s why getting feedback on your idea, not just your actual writing, is so important.

In The Write Practice Pro, you can go to the Book Ideas group , share your idea, and get feedback from other writers on whether the idea works or not.

writing workshops definition

3. Structured writing time

As someone who struggles with structure, one thing I’ve learned is that if I don’t have structured writing time, I will never finish my writing! I’ve written over ten books, but I wouldn’t have finished any of them if I hadn’t leaned into structure.

The best way I know to build structure for writing is to create deadlines that I can actually keep, and in The Write Practice Pro, we have a sacred deadline that the whole community lives by. We call in The Write Practice Pro challenge:

writing workshops definition

Write one chapter, story, article, or poem per week by Friday at midnight.

If you’re in one of our writing classes, like 100 Day Book or Write to Publish, you follow this deadline. And if you’re in The Write Practice Pro, you follow it too.

Why? Because as writers, we need deadlines. Even more importantly, we need a community that will encourage us to hit the deadline even if we don’t want to.

4. Getting feedback, from editors and other writers

At The Write Practice, we believe everyone can become a great writer through deliberate practice, and one of the most important aspects of deliberate practice is feedback.

To grow as a writer you need feedback both from your peers (other writers) and from experts (an editor or teacher).

Why does feedback work? Because good writing is rewriting. But studies have shown that when you rewrite without feedback, you generally focus on surface-level edits like fixing grammatical errors and typos. However, if you get feedback, you’ll focus on content-level edits, like rewriting a section to make it more readable or restructuring the piece entirely.

The amazing thing that these studies have shown is that peer feedback is almost as effective as professional feedback. So as important as it is to get professional feedback, even feedback from writers at your same level will help you become a better writer.

Below I’ll share how to get peer and professional feedback on your writing on The Write Practice Pro.

How to Get Feedback on The Write Practice Pro

1. Start by going to The Write Practice Pro groups screen . The Write Practice Pro is organized into several different critiquing groups, including a group for short stories and a group for novels.

2. Follow the group for your piece. If you’ve written a short story or writing practice, click “Follow” next to the Writers Workshop: Short Stories group. If you’ve written a chapter of a novel, click “Follow” next to the Writers Workshop: Novels and Books group.

I’m writing a Pirate Story and so I’m going to be sharing in the Short Stories workshop .

writing workshops definition

3. Click to your group and then copy and paste your piece into the editor. Then click submit and wait for your piece to publish!

I copied and pasted my Pirate Story (from Pirate Ipsum ) into the Short Story Workshop below. Once the story is published, my story will be assigned to other writers and I can start to get feedback.

4. Complete your critiquing. Some groups in The Write Practice Pro, like the Short Story Workshop, pair you with other writers to critique. This is a great way to get to know the work of other writers and make new writer friends. Here’s what a match looks like:

writing workshops definition

Now, I will follow the links to those three stories, read them, and give feedback to the writer.

Other groups, like the Novel and Books Workshop, allow you to choose whom you will critique.

But all groups ask you to read and give feedback on three other pieces in your group before you can view the critiques on your own story (this requirement expires after fourteen days). That way everyone gets the feedback they need to improve their writing!

There are two ways to give feedback:

  • Critique the story as a whole, following our critiquing guidelines and using the Oreo Method .
  • Give inline feedback by highlighting text and clicking the comment icon. This is great for spotting typos, grammatical errors, or other inline issues.

After I finish my matched critiques, I will be able to view feedback on my own story.

5. Upgrade for Professional Editor Feedback. If you want a professional critique, click the “Upgrade” button (see screenshot below) and send your story to The Write Pro’s team of Story Grid certified editors for a content-based critique.

writing workshops definition

I want an editor’s feedback on Pirate Story, so I click the upgrade button. Then I’m taken to a page describing the kind of feedback I’ll receive and the cost, which is 1.5¢ per word.

I can also enter any special area of focus for the critique. After I click submit, a member of The Write Practice Pro’s team will follow up and I will receive my professional critique within one to three weeks.

5. Revisions Based on Content, Grammar, and Readability

After you get feedback, you need to edit your writing and revise it based on content, grammar, and readability.

Often this is the hardest part of the writing process, and I usually have my biggest struggles and moments of self-doubt during the revision process.

However, that’s why it’s so great to have an encouraging community of other writers. When you feel stuck, share your struggles with the community in The Write Practice Pro’s Café group. This is a great way to get tips and encouragement from the community.

writing workshops definition

6. Publishing or sharing

This is the end goal. As writers, we don’t just write . We share our writing with the world.

The Write Practice Pro makes it easy to publish. Through their partnership with Short Fiction Break literary magazine , you can publish your writing instantly on the website, sharing your writing with the world.

Here’s how it works:

How to Publish Your Writing on Short Fiction Break Literary Magazine

Note: publishing is currently only available for pieces posted in the Short Stories Workshop.

1. After your piece has been thoroughly edited, navigate to your writing piece on The Write Practice Pro . If you can’t find it, go to your profile and find your story in your feed.

writing workshops definition

When I click on my profile, I can easily find my story in my activity feed.

writing workshops definition

2. Click the “Publish” button beside the story title. Note that you must complete your three critiques before the “Publish” button will appear.

writing workshops definition

After you click Publish, a dialogue box will appear, asking if you agree to Short Fiction Break’s publishing guidelines and terms. When you confirm you’re ready to publish, you will see this message with a link to your story:

writing workshops definition

Here’s the story LIVE on Short Fiction Break:

writing workshops definition

That was easy! Maybe I should write a real story now!

Will the Writing Workshop Process Help You Become a Better Creative Writer?

So what’s the verdict? Will participating in the Writing Workshop process help your writing?

Yes! Even if you only participate in a local writers’ group and just get feedback, that feedback will help you become a better writer.

Even better, if you enroll in an MFA program or join an online writing workshop like The Write Practice Pro and go through all six steps of the workshopping process, you will become a better writer even faster.

One thing to remember, though: these workshops do not make the writing process easier. In fact, in some ways it will be harder, because you are growing in each step in the writing process.

After all, growth never comes without discomfort.

But if you follow the process and press in to that discomfort, you will become a better writer.

Ready to start the writing workshop process? Join The Write Practice Pro and get started now. Click to join The Write Practice Pro .

What is your favorite part of the writing workshop process? How has being part of a workshop helped you? Let me know in the comments .

Ready to practice the writing workshop process? Here’s a writing prompt to help:

Write about a writing critique group gone wrong. Maybe two of the members are dating and get into a massive fight. Maybe one member can’t take feedback and erupts in anger. Maybe the teacher is secretly gaslighting everyone.

Whatever your writing group gone wrong looks like, write about it for fifteen minutes . When your time is up, participate in the workshopping process by posting your practice in the comments section for feedback. And if you do post, please be sure to give feedback on at least three other pieces.

Happy writing!

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Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

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What is a Creative Writing Workshop?

A workshop is not an academic lecture; instead, it's a group session, led by an instructor, that focuses on student writing.

Hands-On Learning

Here, in a hands-on learning approach, students critique each others' work, discussing areas of strength and making constructive suggestions about aspects of writing that could be improved upon, all in a supportive environment. Students learn to articulate their response to writing in a way that is useful for both the person whose work is being critiqued and the person who makes the comments.

Valuable Skills

The workshop method of teaching allows students to develop the critical thinking skills needed for revising their own work, as well as the interpersonal skills necessary to participate in upper level and graduate level workshops in university. Creative Writing workshops focus on the development of style and the treatment of content, not on writing skills. An appropriate level of writing skill is required.

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Writing Workshop vs. Writers' Workshop

Workshop: A physical place where a craftsperson creates something.

Writer: A person who informs, entertains, persuades, remembers, reminds, and expresses using a combination of words.

The Writer's Workshop

In the past two decades, as laws have ushered in more standardized assessments, our writing classrooms have started to reflect a trend towards sameness. A simple stroll down many school hallways reveals this. Student writing, posted side-by-side, often follows the same five paragraph structure—stories that all begin with dialogue leads, or persuasive pieces that have the same exact transitional words threaded throughout the text. One piece sounds exactly like the next—each one as voiceless as the one before. It seems to me that we have started to embrace compliance rather than honoring the uniqueness of the stories our children might tell.

I think we’d be wise to consider our reading lives as we determine what’s important when helping writers develop their writing lives. As a reader, I seek texts that are thought-provoking, emotional, meaningful, interesting, unpredictable, moving, honest, funny, and powerful. Over the past two months I’ve read high fantasy ( A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin), humor ( Best State Ever by Dave Barry), memoir ( Just Kids by Patti Smith), historical nonfiction ( Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann), and YA fiction ( The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas). Each book informed me, made me laugh, provoked thought, appealed to my emotions. And each author kept me turning pages. If we value these qualities above all others as readers, shouldn’t we work to hone these qualities within our young writers?

As writing teachers, how often do we begin lessons asking:

  • What kind of (story, informational text, persuasive essay, poem, digital text) do you want to explore?
  • What tone (humorous, sad, thought-provoking, ethereal) do you want to convey?
  • How do you want your audience to react?
  • What do you need to know how to do as a writer to achieve those results?

In a writers' workshop we work to foster the habits young writers need to form so writing is a routine. And through this daily routine, we work to help writers obtain the cumulative knowledge they need to continuously develop and hone their craft. The focus is entirely on the writer. We help writers develop the skills that will sustain them across multiple pieces of writing.

Here are some of my tips for creating a more writer-focused writers' workshop:

  • Know your students: Spend the first several weeks of school engaging in conversations with students about their lives outside the classroom. Use these conversations to match them to writing topics throughout the year.
  • Delay genre studies: Resist going into genre studies too early in the school year. Give students the first 6–8 weeks to explore genres on their own. As you learn about your students’ lives, you’ll also learn about their preferred genres.
  • Confer: Confer with students for a week before planning an entire genre study. Our mini-lessons should be responsive to what our students create as writers. We don’t know what to teach until we’ve had a chance to study our writers
  • Offer an author’s chair: Give children opportunities to share their writing with the class and ask them to direct feedback from their peers.
  • Leave time for reflection: Ask students to reflect daily on their learning. Reserve some time (2–3 minutes) at the end of your workshop and ask students to name something they learned. Their replies give you a snippet of authentic assessment that you can use when planning lessons.

I’ve taught writing in some capacity for over 20 years now—from teaching our youngest writers in pre-K to working with adult writers at the college level. When I first started teaching writing, I followed a guide handed to me by the district—I was teaching writing, but I wasn’t teaching writers. Now, I know better. I follow the writer. And my instruction is much more meaningful because I allow them to lead the way.

Brian Kissel

Dr. Brian Kissel is an associate professor of literacy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A former elementary school teacher and literacy coach, Brian teaches courses, conducts research, and provides professional development in writing instruction. He has a new book, published by Stenhouse, titled When Writers Drive the Workshop: Honoring Young Voices and Bold Choices. You can follow Dr. Kissel on Twitter .

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writing workshops definition

Shared Teaching

Systematic Teaching for First and Second Grade

What is Writer’s Workshop?

January 5, 2022 | Leave a Comment

writing workshops definition

If you’re new to teaching writing, this is a question you might have asked yourself or your colleagues. I use a modified version of the writer’s workshop to format my writing block. I find keeping the students on the same part of the writing process is easier to manage in a primary classroom with many struggling writers.

First, what exactly is writer’s workshop? Well, writer’s workshop is a framework that is used to teach writing. Writing time for each day is broken down into three main components I’ll discuss more below. The components are a mini-lesson, student writing time which may include writing conferences, and sharing time.

During writer’s workshop, students are expected to be writing independently for a majority of the time block. Students should also be writing on a personal choice topic rather than on a provided prompt. If students can choose their own topic, they will usually write freely and for a longer period of time than if they are told what they have to write.

Components of Writer’s Workshop

The major components of writer’s workshop are: 

  • Mini-lesson (10-15 minutes)
  • Writing Time (20-30 minutes)
  • Share Time (5-10 minutes)

Mini-Lesson Time

For the mini-lesson, the teacher is offering direct instruction to the whole class on a specific writing skill. This may include topics such as crafting a great lead, using proper punctuation, adding details to a story, or building story suspense. 

Sequence words mini lesson taught during the writer's workshop.

The mini-lesson is short and hyper focused to teach one item for the day that students can take and apply to their own writing. It’s important to also model this skill during the mini-lesson. I like to share my writing using a document camera but you could also use an anchor chart.

When I first began writer’s workshop, I used Lucy Calkins model, First Units of Study . This was a great way for me to learn the process and I loved many of her mini lessons, but like many other teachers I found the formatting of the books hard to follow quickly while teaching.

Today I write my lessons according to the skills needed to teach a specific genre. Then I break down my lessons into bite-sized pieces that become my teaching point for each day. I like to stick with one genre of writing (opinion writing, expository writing, and narrative writing) for multiple weeks.

Writing Time

The next component of writer’s workshop is to have writing time. Just like it sounds, this is the time students are released to their seats (if you had gathered them to the carpet for the whole class lesson) to write. Traditionally students in a typical writer’s workshop would check in and state where they are at in the writing process before heading off to write. 

Within my own classroom, I have the majority of my class working on the same part of the writing process so it is easier to manage. As I planned my writing units, I created lessons that would lead to the culmination of a final, graded work. Students follow the daily lessons to practice the skill for the day in their own writing.

writing workshops definition

An example mini lesson might be on how to begin an introduction. I will show several examples of introductions and then release students to write. At their desks, students will work on following the blueprint I gave them to craft their own introduction. When they finish the task, they will continue to write but on a different piece of writing. This can be an unfinished piece of a new piece but should be on the same genre we are working on to limit confusion. They keep their writing pieces in a designated writing folder. The image above is from a mini lesson during expository writing on how to create text features.

The final component of the writer’s workshop is to have share time . This is just what it sounds like - students are given time to share their writing. I find in my own class that this is the time students look forward to the most. I like to set a timer after my mini lesson so that I am making sure to keep this time available each day.

I like to think of share time as the equivalent to a number talk in math. The most important part of number talks is allowing students to see how others arrived at a solution. With writing it’s just as important to provide time for students to see how others are writing, and see how they are completing their stories. I find that often the students have more creative ideas than I do! This is a component that should not be skipped.

When I am short on time, I have students share with their writing partners for a timed five minutes. If both partners are unable to share during that time, then the partner who didn’t share goes first the next day. This procedure is built into my lessons prior to beginning the partner process. I also like to assign my writing partners to be the same throughout a unit study. This allows students to know exactly who they need to work with when it’s time to work in partners. 

Writing Conferences

In my classroom, writing conferences are very informal. I set my topic for writing conferences according to the students’ writing goals. For more information on my goal setting, please visit the blog post and podcast episode called Setting Student Learning Goals .

Student writing goals should be explicit and available for students to reference when writing.

I make note of the student writing goal and approach the student, asking them to read me their current writing. Then we reference their goal together and note the progress on that specific goal. I like to keep the conference aimed at one specific point (their chosen goal) even though there are usually MANY other topics we can discuss. I find if I bring up too many things the student can become overwhelmed and possibly shut down. I end the conference much like I would with a parent teacher conference by providing a positive note to the student.

It might be helpful to keep a checklist of your class roster that you can mark off as you go throughout the week. This will help make sure you are meeting with every student equally. I also like to pull small groups that have similar, if not the same, writing goals that we can work on together. This is usually students struggling with beginning sentence structure or even sounding out words. My motto is always to work smarter so instead of having five individual conferences, I can hold one conference of five students and do a quick modeling of the expected goal outcome.

By sticking to this framework, you’ll be planning lessons and implementing your own writer's workshop in no time! I suggest if you are new to writer’s workshop that you first start with a series of lessons that explicitly teaches your workshop expectations. After students know what to expect it is easier to have them work independently during writing time.

What is your favorite component of the writer’s workshop model?

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writing workshops definition

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Why Workshop Drafts?

1) workshops reinforces key concepts of academic writing:.

  • drafts are a work in process
  • writing must make sense for an audience beyond the professor
  • revision is not “fixing” but seeing afresh and rethinking from that perspective

2)  WORKSHOPPING HELPS STUDENTS SEE EACH OTHER AS RESOURCES

  • writers gain valuable feedback
  • giving feedback helps them learn how to talk about papers
  • reading other papers helps them see their own writing in a new way

3) WORKSHOPS MAKE PROFESSORS MORE EFFECTIVE WRITING TEACHERS

  • reduces the amount of time that needs to be spent commenting on each draft
  • allows professors to focus on specific issues and problem areas (such as introductions)
  • provides extra feedback and generally produces stronger paper

Best Practices for Success

  • Provide structure:   Tell the class what you are going to do, then do it, then comment on it
  • Teach first:   begin by introducing the topic for review, reference TS/IS or the Owl if relevant
  • Model the process:   review a few examples together and talk through what to look for
  • Direct the feedback:   provide a feedback sheet or set of very focused questions
  • Step out of the way:   the workshops need to be a space for student voices, resist the urge to join each group and take over
  • Write For Us

Re:Fiction

How to Lead a Creative Writing Workshop

writing workshops definition

A writing workshop has been described as a class that teaches itself. At their best, they can create an experience that exceeds everyone’s expectations – including the leader’s! Here’s how to give your next workshop the best chance of making that happen.   

As writers who have both attended and conducted writing workshops, we’ve seen firsthand how they can work well – and how they can fall apart. Every writing workshop is unique, and there is no magical formula to ensure success. But there are lots of things you can do to set up the session to have the best chance of generating some truly creative magic.

So much about your workshop’s success depends on the participants and how they work with each other as well as the exercises they are given. Even as the workshop leader, you won’t have complete control over these variables. But you can do your best to provide the right environment, ideas and support for the creative spark to ignite.

Choose a Conducive Venue

Getting the setting for the workshop right, if it’s not already determined as part of another event, is essential. You want a space that’s easy for people to find, with practicalities like parking, accommodations and refreshments covered. At the same time, it needs to be a quiet, self-contained space where you and your fellow creative writers won’t be disturbed.

If you are running the workshop to generate revenue, you may need to factor in costs like venue rental and hiring extra help. Training providers and creative companies will often be willing to rent out an unused meeting room at a reasonable rate, and libraries or even church halls can make good locations, too. So it’s a good idea to ask around before springing for an option that will look very swish, but will erode your profits.

Set Expectations

Give participants a good idea of what to expect before they arrive at the workshop. Let them know that they’ll be asked to write something during the session, and that their writing will be discussed in a nonjudgmental way by the group.

It’s important to communicate this up front, because some writers – however experienced – may be uncomfortable with the idea of writing spontaneously and sharing in a group setting. The writers that gain the most from workshops are likely to be those that are ready to take on a challenge and to push beyond their comfort zones in the hopes of developing their craft.

Lock Down the Practicalities

Inform participants about the length and overall structure of the session. A decent length of time per session is about two hours, typically broken down into an hour of writing followed by another hour of reading and feedback. Make sure the time and location are both clearly communicated beforehand, and that you have confirmation of the number of writers who will be attending.

In terms of numbers, five is probably about the ideal group size for this kind of workshop and timeframe. Many more than that, and there is the risk of running out of time before everyone’s had a chance to receive feedback on their work. Less than four participants, and it can start to feel a bit too intense, and lacking in varied opinions.

People sometimes forget to bring writing materials, too, so make sure you have a stock of spare pens and pads handy.

How to Structure Your Workshop

There are a number of different ways to structure a workshop, but whichever approach you use, don’t brief participants on the specific exercises you intend to give them. It’s vital that they arrive without any preconceptions about what they will try to write.

Warm-up and Rapport

Before starting any exercise, it helps to have a way to break the ice and generate a bit of group rapport, especially as some attendees may be strangers to each other and will understandably feel a little nervous about diving in.

A simple way to do this is to get the group to pair off and chat briefly about why they’ve come to the workshop and what sort of writing they do. Then, you bring everyone back together and ask each person to introduce not themselves, but whomever he or she talked to. Inevitably, the subject of each intro will want to chip in and clarify or supplement a few facts, and in this way people warm up and start interacting more freely.

From there, it’s straight into the exercise section!

The Single-exercise Approach: Pros and Cons

We’ve attended writing workshops where, after a brief introduction, everyone launches straight into a single, hour-long exercise. This approach has both benefits and drawbacks.

The main benefit is that it gives participants the time to attempt something ambitious and unconstrained. It’s comforting to know that you can always abandon your piece if it isn’t working, and still be able to produce something halfway decent by the end of the session.

The drawbacks are that, firstly, you’ve barely taken off your coat and uncapped your pen (or fired up your laptop) and you’re immediately expected to be creative – often the mind can freeze in such situations. Secondly, if you’re not inspired by the exercise you’ve been given, you’re basically stuck. So, this can be quite the risky approach, and we’d advise breaking up the writing part of the workshop into a number of different exercises to take some of the pressure off your participants.

The Multi-exercise Approach

A more common approach in writing workshops is for participants to begin with a short and simple warm-up exercise to get the creative juices flowing. This could be, for example, spending a minute writing down all the sounds they can hear. They could then extend this to imagine themselves in a forest or on a busy street and write down what they think they could hear now that they’ve extended the setting.

Another simple exercise to get people in the writing mood would be to ask them to use a couple hundred words to describe a recent meal, their journey to the workshop, or a room in their house or a view from a window. For an extra challenge, tell them they have to do it without using the word “I.”

These limited and circumscribed exercises can be followed by a more open kind of writing challenge, such as:

  • Write a story in which each sentence begins with a different letter of the alphabet
  • Write a letter to your younger self
  • Think of someone you know well and write a scene from his or her perspective

Other classic workshop exercises require some preparatory work on the leader’s part. You might, for example, provide a list of odd and mismatched words and ask the participants to write a story containing all of them. Or, you might hand around images cut out from a magazine as inspiration for a story. There are lots of other weird and wonderful prompts you could draw on here, too.

The Cumulative Approach

Personally, we prefer to structure writing exercises so that the results flow into one another and contribute to, and help shape, a larger story.

For example, you might start off by inviting participants to select one object out of a variety: a hat, a pair of shoes, an umbrella, a pair of glasses, a walking stick, a wristwatch, etc. They would then be asked to write a paragraph describing their chosen object in detail. In the second exercise, the challenge is to describe the person who owns or regularly uses the object, including that person’s personality and life story. The next task is to describe the person’s relationship with the object – how it was acquired, why it’s important to the owner, how it’s used, how it can be personalized, and how it’s changed its owner.

Finally, after briefly discussing what the participants have developed so far, they are asked to begin a story featuring the person and the object. This could be the origin story of how the two first came in contact, a moment of triumph or pride when the object helped the owner achieve something, a significant event when the object first became important, or a moment of crisis or loss. With this approach, the exercises feed naturally into one other, with each adding to the next, giving writers momentum, so that when it comes to the final exercise, they have fewer doubts about the stories they wish to write.

The Feedback Session: Balancing Praise and Critique

When the writing part of the workshop is over, the leader will invite participants to read out some or all of what they have written. No one should feel compelled to read – although it might be worth gently reminding reluctant participants that a big part of the value of any workshop is the feedback one receives from one’s peers.

The leader usually facilitates the discussion that follows a reading by offering his or her views, which should always be positive and constructive to set the right tone. Everything written in the pressure cooker environment of a workshop is deserving of sincere and wholehearted praise, after all. We praise primarily to show that we understand what the writer intended and can appreciate the work from the writer’s perspective, on his or her terms.

When it comes to the critique part of the workshop, you have to be careful how you express things. Avoid speaking in definitive or objective terms (“this is bad writing”) and refer instead to aspects that didn’t work for you as a reader, or what the writer might expand on, with suggestions of things he or she might do differently or try in the future.

It’s important that the leader doesn’t dominate the feedback session, but also encourages the other participants to give their responses to the readings. The leader’s main role, after offering an informed opinion, is to keep the discussion positive and on-topic, to challenge harsh or unfair criticisms, and to sum up at the end. The leader should also keep an eye on the clock to ensure that discussions don’t run on too long and everyone gets a fair share of feedback time. Once everyone has shared his or her thoughts on the readings, or there is no more time left for the workshop, the leader should bring the session to a close with a few final summarizing remarks.

Watch the Benefits Emerge

Often the real benefit of a workshop will only become apparent after the fact. The exercises, along with the feedback, may have sown the seeds of a potential story, or maybe even a novel. The experience might encourage a participant to work on and improve an aspect of his or her technique. The exercises themselves can be reused or adapted as writing prompts in the future.

In short, no one can be sure exactly what will be gained from a creative writing workshop until jumping in and doing one! The simple act of writing spontaneously and then discussing the results will always throw out surprises, and the leader is likely to learn as much, if not more, than the participants.

About the author

Alex Woolf and Dan Brotzel are co-authors of a new comic novel, Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound). As a reader of this website, you can pre-order Kitten on a Fatberg for a 10% discount – simply quote promo code KITTEN10.

Alex has written over 100 books for children and adults, published by the likes of OUP, Ladybird, and Heinemann and Watts.

Dan Brotzel

Dan Brotzel is the winner of the latest Riptide Journal short story competition, was runner-up in the 2019 Leicester Writes contest, and was highly commended in the Manchester Writing School competition 2018. Other competition shortlists include Flash500, Sunderland University/Waterstones, To Hull and Back, Wimbledon BookFest, Fish, Dorset Writers Award and Retreat West. He has words in places like Pithead Chapel, Ellipsis, Reflex Fiction, Cabinet of Heed, Bending Genres, The Esthetic Apostle, Spelk, Ginger Collect, and Fiction Pool. His first collection of short stories, Hotel du Jack, will be published early 2020. He is also co-author of a comic novel, Kitten on a Fatberg, now available to pre-order at Unbound (discount code Kitten10).

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Creating a Writers’ Workshop: An Evolved Model

Would-be writers pack laptops, blank notebooks, or worn journals filled with handwritten musings into their luggage to travel away from home, sometimes thousands of miles, to learn how to best get words down on paper or to organize what they’ve already written.

Trained wordsmiths, engaged writing teachers, or professional word seekers imagine occupying a space for themselves and with other weary word travelers to work on or teach writing.

A writers’ workshop is in order.

So, what does it take to create a writers’ workshop? It takes more than mimicking the Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) courses experienced by grad students. Seasoned workshop organizers lean on their years of training, months of planning, a keen awareness of the market, and selfless energy as key ingredients to running a successful writers’ workshop.

Writers’ workshop, by definition, is a way to teach writing through writing. It is a moniker for instruction at all levels of writing acquisition. Even teachers at the elementary school level use “writers’ workshops” as a method to teach writing fluency, using repeated exposure to writing and its elements through exercises, practice, and feedback.

This is the way many adults choose to engage with and learn about writing too. More and more, those adults are not necessarily writers by trade, yet they harbor stories they want to tell. The growing market of interested writers, who are invested adult learners, has spawned a number of various writers’ workshop offerings, intentional gatherings of like-minded creative people with a desire to work on the craft of their art.

According to Amy Margolis, director of The Iowa Summer Writing Festival , an acclaimed writers’ workshop program that has been in operation for thirty-two years at the University of Iowa, “The workshop model was initially from visual/ arts crafts workshops.”

The writers’ workshop model seems to have undergone a process in evolution, however.

Amy, who has been with the Summer Writing Festival for twenty-seven years, notes the progression of their program since its inception.

When the program first started, the classes were structured more like mini-MFA writing workshops. she explains, “It was assumed that writers would have something under way and the structure of the learning experience was to share work in progress with a group of people who were kindred. The goal was to receive feedback on that work and return to your burrow and continue either revising or developing.”

A participant in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival reads her manuscript aloud.

A participant in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival reads her manuscript aloud.

Many MFA classes are structured that way, where works in progress are offered and critiqued. The classes operate around a feedback model that can be quite intense. Work is presented to the group and the writer, often asked to remain silent, listens to the dissection of his/her writing.

The Summer Festival currently employs approximately 70 instructors and provides programming in the form of 130 course offerings for approximately 1100 writers during the months of June and July. The program has grown and morphed over the years, tailoring the various offerings to reflect the strengths of the instructors as well as the needs of the attendees. Very few of the courses look like mini-MFA workshops anymore. The Festival discovered that those who attended weekend-long or week-long workshops were coming with a different level of preparedness and they often had different goals.

Amy explains, “It was a limited approach to teaching creative writing at all levels. There are some problems with walking into a workshop, shining a bright, white light on the work with intense scrutiny. If you have everyone jump on it, it can be hard. The traditional workshop model has its place…in grad programs. It can be very effective when pages are at a certain point.”

Mimi Herman and John Yewell, founders and operators of Writeaways , a destination writers’ workshop that operates in Italy, France, and North Carolina, agree that the MFA style of feedback does not work for emerging adult writers who are not necessarily seeking a degree or a career in writing.

They say, “the standard workshop model assumes that we are all perfect readers who have read each piece thoroughly (rather than skimming it the night before) and that the reader understands the work better than the writer, so any criticism a workshop member makes about a piece must be legitimate. It also robs the group of the opportunity to form positive bonds and work together collegially to advance each other’s work.”

Both Writeaways and the Summer Writing Festival have employed different tactics to address the desires of the adult learners who come to them for instruction. They are invested in creating a compassionate community that constructively approaches works in progress or works created over the course of the week or weekend.

For the Iowa Summer Writing Festival it is about fostering a community, encouraging networking and getting hands moving across the page.

University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival now uses a community-style writing workshop model.

University of Iowa’s Summer Writing Festival now uses an evolved community-style writing workshop model.

Amy explains, now workshops are “aimed at adults who are not always getting what they want in their private lives (with regard to writing) and they have other jobs. They are not getting close, careful feedback, not much support and they are not maybe among those like them. When they come they’re coming for community, access to one another, to their people, and for training.”

For Writeaways it is also about fostering the community of like-minded creatives. Participants in the Writeaways programs are generally fans of travel, good food and wine, and they want to expand their knowledge and craftsmanship of writing.

John and Mimi say, “Our business model combines complete pampering in exotic locations with a rigorous approach to writing and critiquing.” They pride themselves on personalizing the experience for their participants, helping them to identify a manageable weeklong writing project that can be tackled over the course of the workshop.

John explains further, “On the first day of the workshop we enter into a verbal agreement. We want to make sure we are all pulling on the same rope.” Readers have the job of helping to identify blind spots and writers have the job of being open to the suggestions. “They have to be open to ideas and then we discuss, and sometimes debate in a collegial manner. It is quite rigorous.”

Mimi explains, “Even before the verbal agreement we ask each participant to bring a sample of 300 words from a writer whose writing they admire. They read their piece and explain why they chose it. We discuss the piece. It helps to set the tone of the landscape. It helps us to get to know who they are and what matters to them as writers.”

Writeaways fosters a community of like-minded creatives. Participants are generally fans of travel, good food and wine, and they want to expand their knowledge and craftsmanship of writing.

Writeaways fosters a community of like-minded creatives. Participants are generally fans of travel, good food and wine, and they want to expand their knowledge and craftsmanship of writing. Photo courtesy Liz Pena.

Running an effective workshop requires good planning and solid instruction. Workshops like the Summer Writing Festival can offer a wide range of talented instructors with a variety of backgrounds and approaches. For smaller workshops like Writeaways, the uniqueness of the programming includes the powerful combination of John and Mimi’s complementary teaching styles, which adds to the intimacy of the experience.

John and Mimi’s tagteam approach to instruction has proven very valuable to the attendees of their workshops.

Mimi says, “I think it is helpful for writers to hear us disagree.  They hear what John thinks and that I think something different. They see that there is no one way to write.” They begin to see that they can take John’s advice or Mimi’s advice or a combination of the two. Mimi continues, “It expands their vision of their own writing.”

In keeping with the theme of multiple options, John and Mimi have also started to offer “build-your-own” Writeaways. Essentially, small groups of writers can determine where in the world they would like to connect and what sort of workshop they would like to experience. John and Mimi make the arrangements and then join the participants to facilitate the workshop they envision.

The growing list of workshop opportunities is a good thing for both aspiring writers and those who want to and are capable of facilitating a workshop for them.

The Summer Writing Festival offers every level of workshop and interested writers indeed have options. Amy acknowledges, however, that The University of Iowa no longer holds the corner on the market for creative writing instruction, and workshop offerings will likely only continue to expand.

Because more and more people are getting high-level degrees in writing, workshops have expanded worldwide, creating communities for writers who desire them. Amy says, “the micro-writing communities all over the land are a gift and an example of progress.”

It is left up to writers to decide what sort of experience will benefit them the most. Whether it is travel to a workshop, or deciding to offer a workshop right where they are, the options are as limitless as their imaginations.

Tips to Build Your Own Writers’ Workshop

1. Attend workshops.

Participating in a number of different workshops will help you to identify what sort of workshop you might want to build.

2. Create a business plan for logistics.

  • What space do you have to host the workshop?
  • How will you feed and lodge the participants?
  • What time of year do you plan to operate?
  • What is your budget?
  • What can the market bear for your price to attend?
  • How many attendees will make the workshop feasible?
  • If you have a travel component, do you know the area and/or the language well?
  • What connections do you have for a destination workshop scenario?

3. Identify your level of expertise.

  • Do you have the credentials to be the instructor, or will you need to employ the help of a qualified instructor?
  • Do you plan to bring in a resident author to help with the instruction?

4. Decide your goals for the workshop.

  • What sort of community do you want to foster?
  • Do you want to gather professional writers with the goal of publication?
  • Do you want novice writers who are looking for guidance on pieces they have yet to share with anyone?
  • Is there an element of writing you want to explore for a week?

5. Decide your level of critique/conversation/class.

  • Do you want participants to present prepared pieces or will you offer generative classes?

6. Plan your curriculum.

  • Set up the week or weekend with organized programming. What do you want participants to learn or experience by the end of their time together?

7. Create a marketing plan.

  • How will you advertise for your workshop? Word of mouth, social media, advertisement?

Have you hosted or attended a meaningful writers’ workshop that made a difference for you as a writer? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Iowa Summer Writing Festival Web:  IowaSummerWritingFestival.org Facebook: /IowaSummerWritingFestival Twitter:  @ISWFestival

University of Iowa Writers Workshop (MFA program):  @IowaWritersWksp

Writeaways  Web:  Writeaways.com Facebook:  /Writeawaysinfo Twitter:  @Writeawaysinfo

Feature photo: Mimi Herman consults with writers Heather and Megan at a Writeaways workshop. Photo by Gary O’Brien.

Meagan Frank is a novelist, mom, coach, and senior writer for  Books Make a Difference . She is seeking agent representation for her second nonfiction book, about navigating youth sports.  Contact Meagan .

This article was first published July 2018.  

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Mimi Herman consults with writers Heather and Megan at a writers' workshop. Photo by Gary O'Brien.

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Writer’s workshop: meaning & structure.

writing workshops definition

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Writer’s workshop, 06 february 2021/ by zineb djoub.

Writer’s workshop is a technique for structuring your classroom to support students’ writing development. This is through engaging them in extended writing time where they select topics of their interest and work through a wide variety of writing projects in a sustained and self-directed way.

This means that within such workshops, the focus is more on encouraging students to write frequently and take charge of their writing. The purpose of the learning rests on the process of writing rather than the content and conventions.

So, Writer’s Workshop is a ‘writing for writing’ activity where the objective is to help students become better writers and learn how to write in various genres.

Students’ improvement of the language occurs through practice. Yet, this is a by-product of this ‘writing for writing’ activity, not necessarily its main purpose.

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Why a writer’s workshop?

Students learn to write best when they write frequently, for extended periods.

Besides, Writer’s Workshop can help students get more motivated to write and express their ideas. Because it allows them to select their topics. It guides them throughout their selection and writing and also encourages sharing work with peers and others.

It can also support you in building the writing habits of students, mainly those who lack familiarity, confidence with, or enthusiasm for writing.

So, they’ll feel comfortable as writers and more willing to participate in creative and extended writing activities.

Because it has a structured order of events, this framework for teaching writing will make your writing classes more organized.

No matter what grade levels you’re teaching, writing goals, and strategies you’re targeting, you can use Writer’s Workshop and get your students to practise writing in the classroom.

Yet, to use this framework students need to have already developed certain ability to write.

So, how to use Writer’s Workshop?

Structure of writer’s workshop

Writer’s Workshop follows the following basic format:

1. The mini-Lesson (approx. 10 mins.)

The Writing Workshop begins with a mini-lesson. A mini-lesson is a short lesson focused on one aspect of writing (one specific craft, convention, process, or organisational technique) in which the teacher provides explicit instruction.

A mini-lesson should be :

Brief : Your mini-lesson should be short so that the majority of each writing period will be available to the students for writing.

Focused : Each mini-lesson covers a single, narrowly defined topic. So, you need to note down the specific difficulties your students are having in writing and focus on them in your mini-lessons.

Authentic : Good mini-lessons are based on practical and immediately useful things real writers really need to know. They are targeted to address, in a timely way, the specific challenges writers face as they explore new writing tasks and genres.

For example, if your students need help with writing business emails, you can focus on how to organize your email, the way to express inquiries, email etiquette, and devote a mini-lesson for each of these writing aspects.

But, how to do it?

• Begin your mini-lesson by activating students’ prior knowledge : reminding them of previous content or revising an area that relates to your mini-lesson topic ;

• explain the objective of your mini-lesson and what your students are expected to do ;

• provide explicit instruction on one aspect of writing by using illustrations and modelling.

It’s important to note that you are not expected to give a mini-lesson every day; twice a week is usually fine. Focus more on the writing time, asking students to write regularly.

2. Independent writing and conferencing (approx. 30 mins.)

In Writer’s Workshop, students work on different pieces of writing at different rates. They determine first the topics they will write about, talk or discuss ideas with their peers, and start to write.

It’s a good idea to ask each student what he/she is going to write about once the mini-lesson is over. This can help you track students’ writing progress over time.

To support them with the writing process, provide a variety of graphic organizers for brainstorming and planning, samples of the genre they are to be creating, writing and highlighting utensils, scraps of papers for recording questions or ideas, and a writing process checklist.

What should you do during students’ writing time?

It was found that students get more excited about writing when their teacher is writing too. So, try to do so at least once a week.

You can start conferring with individual writers after 10 minutes of assigning the writing task.

How can you conduct writing conferences?

Writing conferences can be approached from two perspectives: teacher-led or student-led.

When it is teacher-led, you interact with individual students to nudge details from them, to understand what they are working on, what ideas they want to express, what they are going to do next, and the kind of support they need to accomplish the work.

When students lead writing conferences, they spend one-on-one time with the teacher to discuss their writing, address questions, and possible obstacles, and provide an accountability check of goals and progress.

Whether they’re teacher or student-led, writing conferences aim to encourage students to write, to listen to them and provide help as needed, and not to interfere with the task at hand.

Be sure to take anecdotal notes during the writing conference to use in the assessment of students’ writing skills and strategies.

How often should you conference with each student?

You need to interact individually with every student in the class at least twice a week to help him with the specific writing issue he has.

3. Sharing (10-15 mins.)

This is the most important stage of the writer’s workshop. When students share their ideas and their peers comment and address questions, they are more likely to learn from each other and improve their writing.

Providing students with opportunities to share their writing pieces can also motivate them to write more to make their voices heard.

Here are some tips for better sharing :

• Teach students how to make constructive comments to their peers by modelling that kind of commenting yourself. • Ask students to use the vocabulary of the Six Traits criteria when making comments. • Make sure that everyone knows that all comments are only suggestions. Authors do not have to make the changes their readers request (even if the teacher is doing the request). This makes authors more willing to listen and keeps readers from getting too insistent. • Make sharing voluntary. No one should ever be forced to share their writing with the class. This reduces anxiety about sharing. • Conduct periodic small group share sessions. This lets more students share and practice making constructive comments. • Ask students to consider creating informal “revision plans” based on the feedback they get from sharing. This helps students connect reader response with the act of revision. • Share your writing often and be a good listener. This shows students how to take and how to use good constructive criticism. (Peha,2003)

But, how can you give each student this sharing opportunity?

You may not have time for every student to share his work. So, you can either limit authors to reading just a small section or ask prompting questions so that students focus their audience’s attention on one specific aspect of their work.

You can, for instance, ask them to share: What’s the main point they want to communicate? Why? What they’re expecting from others?

This is the structure of Writer’s Workshop.

Yet, it’s not necessary to complete the above stages in that order. You can get more flexible with your Writer’s Workshop.

Focus more on students’ writing and try to devote time to that regularly. Give a mini-lesson twice a week. You need not conclude each class with sharing, but do it as often as possible because your students will love it.

So, don’t think of Writer’s Workshop as a rigid teaching framework that can take a lot of your time. Rather, consider it as a tool to help students overcome any writing deficiencies.

Remember that, unlike a traditional writing classroom, in Writer’s Workshop you don’t have to test your students on every new concept presented. That learning is supposed to come through their writing.

The more you use this teaching framework, the more likely you’ll make the most of it. So, don’t stress out and try to reflect on such an experience to improve things.

So, if you are concerned about your students’ writing development, Writer’s Workshop can help you bring the change you have always longed for.

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7 Steps to a Great Writing Workshop

Writing Workshops in Your Classroom

Would you like to make your classroom a stimulating community of writers and learners? Set up a writing workshop! This instructional approach truly engages students by letting them write, read, interact, mentor, and take risks—all at their own pace. Follow these simple steps to create a writing workshop in your classroom.

Step 1: Set up a writing workshop framework.

A typical writing workshop session has four parts.

Step 2: Be a writer!

Teach by example, showing not only how you write, but also how to collaborate, respond to other writers, and make improvements based on responses.

Step 3: Create a writing community.

Help your students work side by side, learning from each other in much the same way that artists do in studios or cooks do in the kitchen. Provide spaces for individual work and spaces for small-group work.

Step 4: Provide many models and topic choices.

Student Model

Models help students see how other writers have shaped their ideas in essays and stories. They also serve as springboards for minilessons and class discussions about specific writing strategies. ( See student models .)

Your students need to write about topics that interest them. When students have strong feelings about their topics, they stay with their writing longer and do their best work. ( See writing topics .)

Step 5: Let students work at their own pace.

On any given day, some students may be researching a topic; others may be drafting or revising; and still others may have finished one piece of work and started on another. As workshop manager, your job is to make sure that everyone is gainfully working on a project.

Step 6: Invite peer responses.

Your students need the feedback of their peers to develop strong writing and feel part of the writing community. Help them carry out peer response groups. ( See the peer response minilesson .)

Step 7: Offer your support.

Hold brief (2- to 3-minute) conferences with students as needed during independent writing time. During these conferences, don’t act as a fixer but rather as someone who listens and suggests and offers next steps.

Final Thoughts:

Effective classroom management is the key to implementing a successful writing workshop. You need to establish specific goals (such as the number of pieces to be completed per quarter), keep students on task (via the work check), and look for teachable moments to introduce specific minilessons.

Writing Workshop Resources

Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi

About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers by Katie Wood Ray

In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancie Atwell

The 9 Rights of Every Writer by Vicki Spandel

The No-Nonsense Guide to Teaching Writing by Judy Davis and Sharon Hill

www.writingproject.org (National Writing Project)

Teacher Support:

Click to find out more about this resource.

Standards Correlations:

The State Standards provide a way to evaluate your students' performance.

  • LAFS.K12.W.1.1
  • LAFS.K12.W.1.2
  • LAFS.K12.W.1.3
  • LAFS.K12.W.2.4
  • LAFS.K12.W.2.5
  • LAFS.K12.W.2.6
  • LAFS.K12.W.3.7
  • LAFS.K12.W.3.8
  • LAFS.K12.W.3.9
  • LAFS.K12.W.4.10

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  4. What Is Writing Workshop and How Do I Use It in the Classroom?

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  1. What Is Writing Workshop and How Do I Use It in the Classroom?

    What is writing workshop? Writing workshop is a student-centered framework for teaching writing that is based on the idea that students learn to write best when they write frequently, for extended periods of time, on topics of their own choosing.

  2. What Is a Writer's Workshop? An Insider's Guide to Attending Writing

    What Is a Writer's Workshop? A writer's workshop is similar to a writing conference in that it's a thing you pay to attend to help advance your writing career. It often has a celebrity or expert speaker leading activities, and usually takes place somewhere you'll be spending the night. Beyond that, they are very different animals.

  3. How to Workshop Creative Writing

    There are a couple of different definitions of writing workshops. For the purposes of this article, we will examine writing workshop models under the university definition, which is the process of sharing your work in a setting where you receive writing feedback and suggestions for improvement.

  4. Writing Workshop

    Writing Workshop is a method of writing instruction that developed from the early work of Donald Graves, Donald Murray, and other teacher/researchers who found that coaching students to write for a variety of audiences and purposes was more effective than traditional writing instruction.

  5. Writing Workshop > Overview

    Writing Workshop is an instructional practice designed to help children become confident and capable writers. During Writing Workshop, children have time to work independently and with their peers. They engage in the writing process by selecting topics, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their original work.

  6. What is Writing Workshop?

    Writing Workshop is a collaborative learning approach that focuses on improving students' writing skills through various activities and exercises. It is designed to create a supportive environment where students can develop their writing abilities, receive constructive feedback, and engage in meaningful writing discussions.

  7. How to Run a Writing Workshop: a Guide for Writers

    A writer's workshop is a collaborative environment where participants have a chance to create one or several pieces of work on a theme. The participants then get to critique others on their work and have their writing critiqued, too.

  8. Writing Workshop: Can a Workshop Help You Become a Better Writer?

    The Write Practice Pro is an online creative writing workshop dedicated to helping you become a better writer, write award-winning books and short stories, and ultimately become a bestselling author. Here's how it can help you get the full creative writing workshop experience: 1. Lessons on the creative writing process.

  9. What Is A Writers' Workshop?

    A writing workshop is an age-old technique for developing pieces of creative writing. In its simplest form, it can be described as a group of writers that meet together to develop written work by giving feedback and comments. To add to the confusion, sometimes taught sessions on writing can be called a writing workshop.

  10. What is a Creative Writing Workshop?

    A workshop is not an academic lecture; instead, it's a group session, led by an instructor, that focuses on student writing. Hands-On Learning

  11. The Writing Workshop and Its Variations

    The draft workshop is the fundamental, flexible tool for teaching writing. It can also be one of the most fun. On the surface, it is simply a facilitated conversation among students about a draft produced by one of their classmates with the aim of producing a revision strategy.

  12. Writing Workshop vs. Writers' Workshop

    A writing workshop provides a physical space for writers to work, while a writers' workshop provides both a physical and psychological space for writers to grow. I believe we teachers need to work towards building a writers' workshop within our classrooms. In the past two decades, as laws have ushered in more standardized assessments, our ...

  13. What is Writer's Workshop?

    Well, writer's workshop is a framework that is used to teach writing. Writing time for each day is broken down into three main components I'll discuss more below. The components are a mini-lesson, student writing time which may include writing conferences, and sharing time.

  14. Why Use Writing Workshops and How to Use Them Well

    Best Practices for Success. Provide structure: Tell the class what you are going to do, then do it, then comment on it Teach first: begin by introducing the topic for review, reference TS/IS or the Owl if relevant Model the process: review a few examples together and talk through what to look for Direct the feedback: provide a feedback sheet or set of very focused questions

  15. How to Lead a Creative Writing Workshop

    A writing workshop has been described as a class that teaches itself. At their best, they can create an experience that exceeds everyone's expectations - including the leader's! Here's how to give your next workshop the best chance of making that happen.

  16. Creating a Writers' Workshop: An Evolved Model

    Seasoned workshop organizers lean on their years of training, months of planning, a keen awareness of the market, and selfless energy as key ingredients to running a successful writers' workshop. Writers' workshop, by definition, is a way to teach writing through writing. It is a moniker for instruction at all levels of writing acquisition.

  17. How to Approach a Writing Workshop

    How to Approach a Workshop. The most important thing to remember when giving feedback is that it's the work you're critiquing, not the person. If the person you're critiquing truly wants to improve, they will listen to your feedback with an open mind. Even if they don't agree with what you're saying, they'll try to understand your ...

  18. How to Create a Writing Workshop in your Classroom

    The History of the Writing Workshop. The Writing Workshop method has a history spanning decades and is a combination of best-practice principles and pedagogies designed to develop students' critical literacy. Let's take a look at where the Writing Workshop began and how it's being applied in contemporary classrooms. The American Research

  19. Writer's Workshop: Meaning & Structure

    The Writing Workshop begins with a mini-lesson. A mini-lesson is a short lesson focused on one aspect of writing (one specific craft, convention, process, or organisational technique) in which the teacher provides explicit instruction. ... Critical Thinking Definition and Strategies. Living in an information-driven society, students need to ...

  20. 7 Steps to a Great Writing Workshop

    Bookmark 7 Steps to a Great Writing Workshop Would you like to make your classroom a stimulating community of writers and learners? Set up a writing workshop! This instructional approach truly engages students by letting them write, read, interact, mentor, and take risks—all at their own pace.

  21. Writing Workshop Revisited:

    The initial literature on writing workshops was rightly critiqued over 20 years ago (Dressman, 1993; Lensmire, 1994; McCarthey, 1994) for being overly individualistic in its treatment of writing processes and for its lack of attention to the social, cultural, and authority dynamics involved in pedagogy and classroom interaction.Since then, a wide variety of workshop pedagogies remain a staple ...

  22. Best Writing Workshops in 2024

    The individual classes are, by definition, small and discussion-based, and take place over many days. In the United States, hundreds of workshops take place in many locations, ranging from intimate getaways to MFA programs and more. ... Small-group creative writing workshops in poetry, fiction and non-fiction, evening readings, and more. This ...

  23. PDF WRITING PROCESS OR WRITING WORKSHOP?

    In writing workshops, students decide what they will be writing about—their content—for their many writing projects across the year. By definition, writing is about having something to say, and it is the writer's right to decide what this will be, to decide what he or she wants to say.

  24. Facts About Business Administration Bachelor's Degrees

    The business world is an increasingly competitive environment, and it's important to stand out against the crowd. A Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) can be a great starting point for ...