The theory behind teaching within the pedagogy of Reader/Writer Workshop is based on the belief that teacher and scholar read and write side by side while sharing the thought process aloud throughout both experiences. Too often, English teachers pre-write examples, whether that is a thesis statement, a paragraph, an essay, a memoir, a poem, whatever, but the move is to produce an end product, present that product to the scholars, backtrack to explain the writing process, and expect scholars to take the finished model and be able to produce their own text.
Why is this the least effective method?
Let me count the reasons:
1. Providing an established model encourages scholars to imitate the structure which in turn limits their creativity.
2. Teaching with a pre-written model can cause a well-meaning teacher to skip the deconstruction of the prompt step, so later scholars are unequipped to analyze the prompt on their own which can cause writer's block.
3. The final product eliminates the space to teach the brainstorming step of the pre-writing process which discourages scholars to work through their own brainstorming stage of their writing process.
4. When presented with a final product, the first draft is a daunting task to scholars because they cannot see all the work that has gone into the production even if you tell them that it is a final product, if they don't see evidence of the struggle they won't process it as the essential piece of writing.
5. Finally, teaching with finished products shuts down the opportunity to be authentic and vulnerable as a writer with your scholars.
We cannot just tell our students about the struggle, we must wade through the struggle with them at the pace that they set where we are simply the recorder of ideas, the questioner of ideas, and the affirmer of ideas.
This begins with experiencing what one is about to ask their scholars to experience; this allows you to process through the potential roadblocks so that you are familiarized with them and can anticipate them, but not remove them for your scholars. Where does this start? For me, it is during our ENG 2 PLCs, a space where we diligently encourage each other to share all the ideas--good, bad, unfinished, recycled, extensions, etc.
During one of these "brain dump" sessions, one of my brilliant colleagues recalled Neal Shusterman's stand alone novel Dry as a potential excerpt for our first essential question of our newest unit. I bolted out of the room to go to a ENG 3 teacher's room to snag the book, dip back into our PLC and hand the book to Mrs. Swan so she can hunt down the passage. At the same time, another colleague is discussing potential excerpts for independent practice for our scholars to use after our model and an IC is examining my classroom library for other potential excerpts to fit into our overall unit. Suddenly, there is a stack of three books next to me and Mrs. Swan has found the passage she had in mind. As she reads, we listen intently with the context of our essential question 1: how does context/environment inform social norms? Together, the seven of us discuss the passage, examine the text evidence we typed while she read, consider other suggestions, shorten the passage, and settle on pages 12 and 13 from Dry to model our short answer response. From there, two colleagues collectively draft a model paragraph response as reference.
At this point, I have two options: I can use the example paragraph to show my scholars what I am looking for, or I can read through it to assess what we are looking for collectively and then write with my scholars.
I choose option two.
And here's why:
1. Each class period is independent from another and might observe something different, like selecting different text evidence.
2. The act of actually handwriting ideas and crossing out the unnecessary words or moving one clause is the manual practice of revision, one of the most important skills we must teach.
3. With the help of a doc camera, scholars are able to actually see my hand hesitate when thinking of a word or scratch out a word when I change my mind.
4. I model how to label each sentence in the margins (TS = topic sentence, C = context of plot, TE = text evidence, and Ex = explain) to ensure that my response provides a complete answer to the prompt.
5. Scholars are able to partake in this writing process by selecting the text evidence, completing sentences that their peers start, listening to me reread and suggesting what to cut, hearing me think aloud about why I bracket "ing" in the quote, questioning if I can start a sentence with 'Because' which leads me to discuss dependent clauses authentically.
Below is just one of the paragraphs my classes wrote together. Their investment in this paragraph is authentic because we wrote it collectively without judgement of misspellings, of syntax, or of the mental blocks we experienced. As we wrote, (me in my notebook under the doc camera and them in their notebooks copying down our paragraph as it comes to life) I gently reminded them that this is our first draft after we had deconstructed the prompt and written our brainstorm. Once the first draft is done, we immediately go back and begin to ask ourselves all the revision questions (that's the blue pen you see marking through words and moving clauses); together we argue why lines should be cut, where it sounds disjointed, and offer solutions.
I leave it messy like you see here so they can begin to embrace the messiness of writing. We will revise the paragraph again using an amazing technique called Topic Strings (more on this to come in a later blog) and the revision decisions will be made collectively as a community. It is hard work to develop a community of readers and writers. But wow is it more than worth it when they begin to find their own confidence to share ideas without fear of being wrong when being wrong is a built in part of the writing process.
So write in front of your scholars. Literally, pen to paper. Revise with them. Don't overanalyze your handwriting. Who cares if you misspell a word? Ask if you aren't sure of a spelling. Let them join you in your writing process so that it becomes their process as well.
Give your scholars space to grow, be patient, be kind, and be authentic.
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