Writing Workshop Essentials

Writing Workshop:
Not Just for the Little
Ones
Mentoring Middle
and High School
Writers

Stevi Quate
Writer’s Notebook

Rambling Autobiography
I was born in Salt Lake City but left before I knew it was the
home of the Mormons. The Korean War was just ending, and
McCarthyism was just starting to roil, and television was new. I
adored my ballerina doll even though I cut her hair to look like a
“duck tail.” Sherry and I danced to Bobby Darin singing“Splish!
Splash! I was taking a bath” and watched Elvis Presley wiggle his
hips on the Ed Sullivan Show. My dad kissed me good bye as he
left for the Bishop’s Museum in Honolulu and my parents’
marriage ended. Charlie Starkweather went on a killing spree,
leaving 11 people dead. My mother drove us from Lincoln
Nebraska to Denver Colorado in the middle of a snowstorm, and
there in Denver, I met my first and my second husband. I gave
birth to one son and watched him father two children. I am a
teacher without a classroom. I want to be a teacher still on a
journey.
Stevi Quate

Stevi Quate
Having a set of
procedures in place
is less important than
your beliefs and
philosophy about
teaching writing.
-- Regie Routman

Learning Targets
• I can demonstrate how my hopes and dreams
for students as writers shape my instruction.
• I can apply the essential components of a
writing workshop to my classroom.
• I can write a mini-lesson that includes
modeling and explicit instruction.
• I can read like a writer and apply my insights
to my writing and to my writing instruction.
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Stevi Quate
But what is writer’s
workshop?

Exit Slip
• What do I need to know?
• What would you like to get smarter about in
terms of writing workshop?
Stevi Quate

Welcome back
• Today:
– Simulation
– Mucking around with the essential components:
• Time/Autonomy (Writing workshop simulation)
• Vision/Authenticity (Mentor text)
• Modeling/teaching/demo’ing (Mini-lesson)
• Response (Conferring and feedback)
PHEW!
Stevi Quate

Stevi Quate
Workshop: time for students to get
smarter
Opening
Minilesson
Work time
Debrief
Opening
Mini-lesson
Work time
Debrief/Ref
lection

Simulation:
Launching the
workshop
and
Stevi Quate

Stevi Quate
We spend five to fifteen
minutes on quick writing
each block….It is priming
the pump, not the study
of mentor texts or the
development of ideas
into coherent essays,
but iT is essential
because it develops
voice and often leads
students to topics.

Stevi Quate
Units of Study Possibilities:
 Genre (i.e., micro-essay, fan
fiction, feature essay)
 The Art of Persuasion
 Writing about Literature and
Life
 Multigenre
 Teen Activism
(interdisciplinary)
 Choice
 And....

Stevi Quate
Writing floats on a sea of
talk.

Minilesson
• Connect: Greece and shopping while Marta
wants to make the pants
• Teach: Reading like a writer: figuring out how
to make something
• Active engagement: What did you notice?
• Link: Use your mentor text to help you figure
out options for writing.
Stevi Quate

Tuning Our Writing
• Writer poses a question and then reads the
draft.
• Responders talk to each other, not to the
writer. Writer listens ONLY.
• Warm comments: What worked well for you?
• Cool comments: What confused you? What
did you see as gaps? What questions do you
have?
• Writer responds.
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Workshop:
How Class Time is Spent
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Opening
Minilesson
Worktime
Reflection/

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VISION &
AUTHENTICITY

Stevi Quate
What I noticed Why the author might have
used this craft
How might I too use this
craft?
Lead: answering the
implied question in the title
.
Let the reader know the
focus of the essay
After writing the 1st
paragraph, figure out a title

Stevi Quate
used this craft
craft?
Lead: piling on the details:
…a particular tree, a slow-
moving car, a figure on a
sidewalk.
Present tense
The use of parenthesis
Brings the reader into the
moment
Another way of bringing the
reader into the moment
When I talk about arrival in
Jakarta

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used this craft
craft?
Repetition: It wasn’t….I
cried….
Stress the emotions In the second paragraph of
my personal essay

Stevi Quate
used this craft
craft?
I noticed “…that....”
I noticed “...,which....”
I think you can’t take “that”
out of the sentence
I think that a “which”
phrase is like decoration –
a nice addition but
necessary

Stevi Quate
MODELING, TEACHING,
DEMONSTRATING

Writing
• ASSIGNED? • TAUGHT?
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Stevi Quate
Connect
•Tell a story to
build schema
•Explain why
this lesson is
needed at
this time
Teach
•Model with a
think aloud
•Demonstrate
•Explain the
work
•Discover
Active
Engagement
•Determine if
students are
ready to
move forward
on their own
Link
•Explain how
this lesson is
relevant for
today and for
the future

Can you use your writing from our
earlier writing workshop in the
“teach” part of our workshop?

What do you now know that you
didn’t know yesterday afternoon?
What do you want to know more
about (or need clarified)?

Focusing your response
HOC MOC LOC
IDEAS
FOCUS
ORGANIZATION
PURPOSE
AUDIENCE
CLARITY
SENTENCE
FLUENCY
FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE
WORD CHOICE
VOICE/TONE
CONVENTIONS:
GRAMMAR
USAGE
PUNCTUATION
SPELLING
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This is your
presentation title

Stevi Quate
CELEBRATION, COMMUNITY,
CHOICE

How often should students write?
Stevi Quate

Richard Allington:
• “Along with my ninety-minute volume
standard for daily in-school reading I
would also set a thirty to forty five
minute volume standard for writing.
Thus, about two hours of the
instructional day would be allocated to
just reading or writing (including reading
and writing in content subjects also).”
Stevi Quate

Writing Workshop Essentials

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