"Learning to Teach Writing" Part 2

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Continuing in my reading, I am becoming more inspired to give my students some of the reins to my classroom. Maybe I can call it a “free writing” workshop, where students can choose whatever they would like to write about and whatever format they would like to write in. This will be my own personal workshop test. While Atwell encourages the workshop, she also stresses the importance of still teaching directly the skills students need as writers such as “procedures, conventions, craft, genre, and topic development” (Atwell, 15). She also stresses the importance of giving students time to write in class. I am now convinced that the teacher needs to function as a guide: “a mentor of writing, a mediator of writing strategies, and a model of a writer at work” (Atwell, 21). To me this means that I am not only teaching my students directly, but that I am showing them how I write and I am participating in the workshop with them to demonstrate constructive criticism and revision and to learn from my students also.       

Some ways, Nancie instills structure in her classroom is by always having a mini lesson and by having certain guidelines for student workshop participation. She says, “I expect students to experiment with different genres, attempt professional publication, produce minimum pages of draft each week and finished pieces of writing each trimester, attend to conventions as they draft, take notes on mini lessons, be quiet, and work as hard in writing workshop as I do” (Atwell, 25). By the end of this chapter I have not been thoroughly convinced that I can do this workshop class with all of my current students. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around how this will work for my most needy students and my students who consistently demonstrate disruptive behavior. As I continue through this book and venture into setting up a workshop classroom I hope to have these questions answered and worries resolved.