Preparing for Writing Workshop

Next week, we will begin to render our research into a multigenre project.

From Tom Romano's Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers (2000):

A multigenre paper arises from research, experience, and imagination. It is not an uninterrupted, expository monolog nor a seamless narrative nor a collection of poems. A multigenre paper is composed of many genres and subgenres, each piece self-contained, making a point of its own, yet connected by theme or topic and sometimes by language, images and content. In addition to many genres, a multigenre paper may also contain many voices, not just the author's. The trick is to make such a paper hang together. (x-xi)

Thus, students will take their research and their imagination and render that information anew. This project is a collection of five genres with a few organizing pieces: cover page, table of contents, letter to the reader, 4 genres, a concluding genre, and endnotes.

Our class, then, will need to take the form of a a writing workshop, which will also be the setting of our next unit: Writing and the Media. I set up a wall of sources. As students begin to write, they will be learning, so naturally, more questions about their topic begin to arise; therefore,  I gathered some sources on our "Source Wall."

Next, students will be working on different types of genres, and they have the freedom to select genres that they think will capture an idea or point of view or voice they want to bring into their project. Therefore, I have created a "Genre Wall" with examples and some "how-to" for different genres.  I anticipate this wall growing as students' imagine new genres.

 Next, I have created a wall of sample multigenre projects for students to see how to organize the different genres into some sort of frame, though they will discover that their project is never whole or finished.

Writing Workshop: For a strong argument for what the writing workshop can do for democratic pedagogy, read Powerful Writing, Responsible Teaching by Timothy J. Lensmire: 

To get the workshop going, I have created a three-part framework common in many writing workshops: lesson time, writing time, and sharing time.  Lesson time is the responsibility of the teacher or, if you have teacher-for-a-day projects as I will talk about later, it might be a student teaching some lesson about a writing strategy or genre. Next, students move to writing time -- a no walk, no talk time -- for students to settle in and write. Be sure students have the genre materials then need along with pencils, pens, a thesaurus, dictionary, and any writing guides you have at the writing tables before you start this time. You may try soft music as a signal that sacred writing time.  Finally, sharing time might be 1) peer reading when they "like" or "question" their peers' writing or 2) a whole group sharing like "author's chair" (http://www.oaklandwrites.org/documents/writing-process/IdeasSuccessAuthorsChair.pdf). Here is that PDF pasted: 

IDEAS FOR A SUCCESSFUL “AUTHOR’S CHAIR”

Preparing:

*Set clear norms for classroom behavior and expectations before you start. Ex: During 

Author’s Chair all pens/pencils are down, heads are up off desks, etc.

*Pre-select student to read – ask student ahead of time – you may choose someone who 

has demonstrated a skill from the day’s writing lesson well.

*Keep track of who has been in the author’s chair – you may want to make this visible to 

the students as well.

*Teach students how to read their work loudly, slowly, and clearly. You may want to let 

readers practice before reading to the class.

*Model how to be in the author’s chair for students

*Encourage students to read their own work

*Optional – having a microphone is fun and can work well

Facilitating:

*You may focus the class before they listen to the reader: tell them what to pay attention to 

in the piece.  

*The audience can listen carefully and give a silent thumbs up when they hear a particular 

skill that the class is studying at that time. Ex: metaphor or simile, transition words or other 

vocabulary, etc.

*After students have listened to the piece, you can guide their responses with sentence 

starters Ex: “When you described ____________ I felt….” Or  “I thought it was interesting 

when…”

*Give students a menu of ways to respond to the writing: Ex: personal connection, 

academic connection, compliment, etc.

*As students are making comments about the piece they just listened to, write them down 

on the board or on a piece of paper. Read these back to the author/class.

*When the reader has finished sharing the writing, and listening to the comments of the 

group, invite him/her to share how it felt to share and to listen to the comments afterwards.

Results:

*The sense of community is reinforced

*Writers know that others value what they have to say

*Writers have an opportunity to hear their own work

*Students know what everyone else is writing

*Students practice active listening

*Students hear new words

*Writers build confidence through the comments afterwards

*Writers see how the techniques they hear used and complimented might apply to their 

own writing

*Writers find mistakes when they hear themselves and their manuscripts

*Teachers have brief, on the spot opportunities for on the spot lessons

*A foundation has been laid for the transition to peer conferencing