Writer's Workshop: Components and Structures to Help You Get Started

What is Writer's Workshop? How do you structure your time? What does it look like in upper elementary? This post answers these questions and introduces the structures and components of writer's workshop. It inlcudes ideas fo rminilesons, what independent writing time looks like, and the difference between a writing conference and intervention groups. It's perfect if you're looking for ideas about out how to set up your workshop and it includes a free download too!

If you haven’t been trained in writer’s workshop, but you’ve been asked to do it, you’re probably super stressing out.

It’s a big shift from whole-class, teacher-led instruction, but I believe, with the right structure and support, you can do it!

This introduction will give you the language you need and some ideas on structuring your writer’s workshop in third, fourth, and fifth grade, so that you can get started without pulling your hair out.

The Structure of Writer’s Workshop
The basic workshop works in a one-hour model. That doesn’t mean you can’t use this approach if you have less or more time. It just means you have to make some adjustments!

The main components of the workshop framework are…
The minilesson
Independent writing time
Closing share

Here’s what each one looks like:

The Minilesson: 15 minutes
During the minilesson, the teacher is providing instruction and modeling in one of the following areas:

Rituals and routines

How to set up a writer’s notebook
Where to get materials
How to come to the carpet for a lesson
How to talk to a partner about writing
What to do when you’re ready to move on

The writing process (more on this in the next post!)

Prewriting: gathering ideas, planning writing
Drafting: organizing and developing ideas into a piece of writing
Revising: making changes to the writing with the message and reader in mind
Editing: making corrections to writing in spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization
Publishing: putting the writing into its final form so that it can be shared

Craft (for more ideas on books to use for this, check out my mentor text post for a free download!)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sensory-Language-Narrative-Writing-Mini-lessons-Unit-4130579?aref=6ctmalhx

Using figurative language
Good beginnings and endings
Story structure
Expository structure
Zooming in on a moment
Using sensory details
Show, don’t tell
Developing characters
Developing settings
Paragraph writing
Using dialogue
So many more crafts – anything an author does in their writing can be a minilesson!

Conventions

Spelling
Grammar
Capitalization
Punctuation
Paragraphing

Get more ideas for minilessons and the tools you need to deliver them in this Writer’s Workshop Resource

Independent Writing Time 30 – 40 minutes

Students work independently on following the writing process to create a piece of writing. Students may be at different places in the writing process. Expectations for independence need to be taught and reviewed frequently.

The teacher should perform a “status of the class” at the end of the minilesson or the beginning of this block of time to see where students are in their writing work. A clip chart is one way to do this, but a clipboard with a checklist works well, too.

During this time, the teacher can work with small groups of students for intervention, or individual students for writing conferences. More on that below!

Closing Share: 3-5 minutes

Author’s chair: one student shares their writing with the class (the student is chosen by the teacher to feature something they did well)
Everybody shares: each student reads something they worked on to another student
Favorite line: Each student underlines their favorite line that they worked on that day. They take turns sharing their lines in a group.

Other important components of Writer’s Workshop
Those three components make up the main structure. However, these components are so important!

Conventions: even though many people weave the conventions instruction into the minilesson, I personally think it’s important to have direct and purposeful conventions instruction every single day.

Daily Oral Language, or Morning Message, where students correct errors every day isn’t research based, and studies show it is not effective in the long run and doesn’t change students’ actual writing conventions when they create a piece of writing.

Instead, mentor sentences are an authentic, purposeful way to get more mileage out of your conventions instruction.

Writing Response Groups or Buddies: Students share their writing with a teacher-assigned partner or group to get feedback. Structures for writing response need to be explicitly modeled for and taught to students in order for them to be effective.

Get these Writing Response Group tools and more in my Writer’s Workshop Resource on TpT!

Intervention Group: A small group of students meets with the teacher to work on a specific skill or strategy.

It’s basically a minilesson that targets what the students need and is done with lots of support and application.

Guided Writing: In a small group, the teacher walks the students through a part of the writing process a step at a time.

Writing Conference: An individual student meets with the teacher to discuss their writing, what they’re doing well, and what they can do next to grow.

It helps to keep a record of conferences so you know who you’ve conferred with and what they’re working on.

Need more tools for implementing Writer’s Workshop in your classroom? Get the entire Writer’s Workshop Toolkit with everything you need to organize your workshop, evaluate student writing, plan and deliver minilessons, and confer with your writers!