Writer s workshop can be a very useful tool in promoting student writing. It gives all learners, no matter what level of writing ability, an opportunity to improve their writing in a supportive context of other practicing writers. Writer s workshop provides the learner with strategies to help improve and internalize their writing skills. The teacher s mini lesson is utilized to focus on the skills the writers need to improve on, or learn about. These skills are modeled and then corrected by the class, using the teacher s writing or a sample of a peer s writing piece.
Students learn to think critically about their own or a peer s writing.
They learn to ask questions about grammar and spelling, give feedback to their peers, expand their thoughts, and to reorganize and delete information. Through this interaction with peers and the teacher, the student will extend their knowledge of the writing process. They will develop a confidence within themselves, and realize that editing and questioning is a natural way to improve one s own writing ability. Writer s workshop not only improves the student s writing ability, but also encourages children to express their thoughts and feelings, to remember the past, to share stories about themselves and to record information. Issues of Soundness As a means of informal assessment on their students, teachers need to keep in mind that this technique is highly effective only if clear targets have been established well ahead of time, and focused upon during the prior mini-lessons.