Alone+and+Together+-+Building+an+Independent+Writing+Community+in+Middle+School

=Alone and Together: Building an Independent Writing Community in Middle School=

Brooklyn, New York

 * We already know what writing workshop entails: students learn minilessons about an aspect of writing that responds to their needs. They write focusing on a common genre, but each student has the freedom to choose their topic and method of achieving their goals. (Nancie Atwell, Lucy Calkins, etc.)
 * Independent writing workshop allows student complete freedom over genre. Minilessons focus more on the writing process than they do specific skills and genre-specific strategies.
 * These teachers ran their independent writing workshops concurrently with their genre studies. They had four days of genre study and one day of independent workshop. Students were expected to work on their independent piece at home. An idea would be to have independent workshop on Fridays.
 * When students want to write, they will strive for excellence.
 * Writers Notebooks need to be working //towards// something.
 * A book to look into if you're thinking of doing this: //Independent Writing: One Teacher, Thirty-Two Needs, Topics, and Plans//.
 * I'm thinking this would be a great example of personalized learning!
 * After students begin and decide on a genre (it really can be anything - a personal essay, a short story, a graphic novel, a series of narrative letters... whatever).
 * Conferencing with students is a big part of the workshop model, and this happens in the independent workshop model as well. However, group conferencing is the approach these teachers took. They conferenced with students by genre or by process. For example, they might say, "Anyone who is still working on brainstorming," or "Anyone who is writing a graphic novel."
 * The teachers knew that too //much// freedom could be disastrous, so they did have some deadlines. They had a deadline each week the independent workshop convened:
 * Week 1: Collecting
 * Week 2: Developing
 * Week 3: Drafting
 * Week 4: Revising
 * Week 5: Editing
 * Week 6: Publishing
 * Week 7: Presenting
 * Since there were so many genres being represented, it's difficult to set requirements, so what they said was that the finished piece should look like it's a piece of writing that they've devoted time and effort to for roughly six weeks. The writing notebook should show that they were committed to the writing process and that they spent time working on it at least a couple of nights a week.
 * The teachers recommended developing some genre guides, for example, "A Writer's Guide to Short Stories," or "A Writer's Guide to Personal Essays." There were many minilessons the teachers kept teaching over and over again and having this resource available to students cuts down on this repetition. This would be a perfect opportunity to use a Wiki like the one I am writing in now.
 * Assessment also focused on the writing process. One of the teachers had students hand in a reflection with their finished piece, which was marked along with the piece of writing. It asked three questions:
 * Our writing process doesn't always go in a straight line. What was your process? What's your story's story?
 * We write pieces to help develop and explain ideas about our life and about our world. What did you really mean to say? What do you want your reader to know?
 * Strong writers use each opportunity to improve as writers. What did you try to improve in your writing? What did you try that you've never really tried before?