The Systems and Structure of A Writing Workshop Classroom
Consider the template for most writing workshop classes: mini-lesson, individual writing conferences, de-briefing. During a discussion last summer with Jen Doucette about this framework, we noted our shared preference for less “teaching” time and more “student thinking” time: any whole class mini-lesson or debriefing time should be as brief as possible, so as to give students the opportunity to write, to read, and to talk, as this practice and reflection time is when young writers learn their craft.
Each student spends relatively little time with the teacher: the short time at the beginning and end plus individual conferences equals, at most, ten percent of a student’s time in any given week of class. In our experience, most texts and conference presentations offer ideas for what the teacher can do to make the most out of our mini-lessons and writing conferences, but what about the other 90% of each student’s time?
During this 90% time, most students are out of our direct influence, but we believe that the teacher has a very important role in helping to shape student experience. Specifically, we think there are three main components that teachers can work on:
- foster the culture of a writing community
- develop the systems and structure of a productive writing workshop
- refine the techniques of effective peer feedback
My last post offered some thoughts on helping students develop feedback techniques and in her next post Jen Doucette will share her thoughts on a writing community’s culture. In this post, I want to talk about workshop systems and structure.
First, I should note my experience that many teachers loathe talk of systems and structure. Given the oppressive reign of so many educational institutions, from standardized testing to district bureaucracies, I understand that response. And all good teachers take greater satisfaction from meaningful conversations with individual students than knowing that one is really well organized. But I think that designing one’s classroom is precisely how students arrive at the understanding that we hear in those inspiring moments we share with students. And moreover, I think that our classroom systems and structures can actually offer students freedom.
In designing a system, I think the most important goal is for students and teachers to be focused. To be clear, I don’t mean this is in the superficial classroom management sense of the word, describing children attentively and politely sitting down at desks following the teacher’s instructions.
Instead, I mean the singular focus that characterizes deep thinking.
Every teacher knows about starting a class period, developing activities, managing transitions, end of class exercises, and various other organizational strategies. These are important, but are simply means to an end. Like many GMWPers, I start class with a write-in, a daily timed writing exercise. Like my peers, I believe that starting class with this exercise shows that I value student writing and thinking. I also think that it sets the appropriate tone for the writing workshop. But, I also believe that this structure frees students: they don’t have to spend any mental energy working out what the teacher expects and they have the liberty to write what they want.
Rather than detail my classroom, I want to share my experience with the pomodoro, a productivity technique that consists of two major elements:
- working for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break, repeat for a maximum of four times
- writing down random thoughts on a separate computer file/sheet of paper titled “urgent and unplanned”
Many people with whom I have shared this technique recoil at the seeming lack of freedom. Yet, I have experienced just the opposite: by submitting to the structure, I find that I become free to actually think about the specific task at hand, such as offering comments on student papers.
The self-imposed time pressure to read and comment on, for example, three student drafts means that I am focused and mentally present for that time in a manner that I rarely achieve when I just tell myself “I have to read 3 essays now.” There is something about the time pressure that focuses me in a way that a goal does not.
Having the additional sheet to write down “urgent and unplanned” thoughts means that I can quickly restore my focus on the student work, not on what I need to pick up at the grocery store that night nor the other random thoughts that tend to distract us from thinking.
In short, this technique frees me to think. And this freedom of thought is why teachers run a writing workshop classroom. Thus, I believe that classroom systems and structures, rather than oppressing us, can offer similar structure and freedom to students to develop their own thoughts in the 90% of time they are outside our direct influence.
