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Curriculum » Writer's Workshop

Writer's Workshop

Writer’s Workshop


All K-5 classrooms at ABS teach writing through the writing workshop model. The curriculum is a planned, coherent, sequential curriculum built upon the following assumptions: 


  • Teachers need to establish predictable structures that last across every day of writing instruction.
  • Student need to write often, from many purposes, and in many styles.
  • Students need to do the bulk of the work during Writer’s Workshop and be engaged in the task of writing daily for authentic purposes.
  • Students need to make personal choices about what they write.
  • Students need to learn from the beginning, that the purpose of writing is to communicate to a real audience (to inform, persuade, entertain...), and so all writing needs to convey meaning.
  • Students should engage in ALL parts of the writing process: 

Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Publishing.


The purpose of Writer’s Workshop is to develop a community of writers who can choose their own topics, freely take risks, and genuinely give and receive helpful feedback on writing. As in the reading workshop, teachers should support students’ growth as writers through whole class mini-lessons, as well as small group, and individual instruction. The teacher should guide students with modeled writing-aloud, in which the teacher shares his/her thought processes as s/he constructs text. During interactive/shared writing, the teacher and students co-construct text. Teachers should continue to guide students with guided writing, providing strong support as students construct texts. Finally, the student constructs text independently, while coached and supported by the teacher in conferring conversations. During Writer’s Workshop, as students move through the writing process, the teacher is constantly assessing and providing constructive feedback--not merely correcting or grading a product. 


Children also need to study the conventions of written language, including writing with paragraphing, punctuation, and syntactical complexity. Children need time to learn about spelling patterns and to study words—both the meaning and the spelling of words. These conventions of writing should be taught in the context of creating meaningful, authentic texts for an authentic purpose and for an intended audience. 


Structure of the Writer’s Workshop: 

Writer’s Workshop is a management system: you do the same components in the same order every day. Teachers should work to establish predictable routines in the Writer’s Workshop so students know what to do and what is expected. Students need to write every day at a predictable time every day. 


  • Mini Lesson (5-10 minutes)
  • Workshop Time: Writing and Conferencing (20-40 minutes)
  • Sharing (5-15 minutes)

Process Writing 

Writing is a process!  Teachers should model each stage of the process and explain to students at EACH stage that professional authors engage in these same stages of the

writing process.


Prewriting: The writer brainstorms, generates, transforms, and organizes ideas. 

    • Prewriting looks like: drawing, talking, mapping, lists, “quick writes,” writer’s notebook, etc.

Drafting: The writer gets ideas on paper. 

  • Drafting looks like: Students writing! (or drawing in primary grades.)
  • Students are getting their ideas down on paper without giving priority to handwriting, spelling, mechanics. Their priority in this stage is IDEAS. 

Revising: The writer re-thinks and clarifies. 

  • Revision occurs at multiple points in the process.
  • Revision looks like: adding on; taking out; trying different leads, titles, or endings; trying to make meaning more precise; clarifying; limiting a topic; strengthening word choice to better convey meaning; etc. 

Editing: The writer fine tunes the rough draft.

  • Editing looks like: Checking /correcting spelling; using an editing checklist to correct punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage; self-editing; peer-editing; etc.
  • Consider the developmental stage of your writers and focus editing on concepts from previous instruction.

Publishing/Sharing: The writer publicly shares a piece of writing

  • Publishing looks like creating a “finished” copy that might be: on a bulletin board or hall display; in a magazine; on a classroom shelf; blogs; flyers; newsletters; newspaper; etc.
  • Sharing can include: Author’s Chair; collaborative teams; partners; students from another class; administrators; parents; etc.
  • Students need to write for an authentic audience and have response to their writing (just like real writers!) This part of the process clarifies their writing, generates new ideas, validates their work.