How might the use of Writer’s Workshop benefit my second grade students’ writing skills and the quality of their written work?

Seminar Title

How might the use of Writer’s Workshop benefit my second grade students’ writing skills and the quality of their written work?

Writer's Workshop

2nd Grade

Elementary

Writing

Language Arts

“What do I write about? How much do I have to write? Is this enough, and how do I spell this?” These are some of the questions my students repeated over and over again during every writing assignment. For a long time I have been struggling with how to effectively teach writing and get kids to enjoy it. I have drug myself and my students through the writing process for years and have never done it well. I wanted a change and my students needed a change. Through research and then implementation of a Writer’s Workshop model, I no longer hear these questions over and over. In fact, this writing model has helped me build a passion for writing in my second grade students. By using the Writer’s Workshop 3 parts, the mini-lesson, writing and conferencing, and sharing, my writing instruction has become more meaningful and effective for my students. Where writing time used to be painful, it is now a pleasure, for all of us. It could also be a pleasure for your writing time, as it is adaptable for K-6 classrooms.

Gail Marleau Duluth Blended 2 Community gmmarl16@smumn.edu How might the use of Writer’s Workshop benefit my second grade students’ writing skills and the quality of their written work? The question guiding my research is as follows: What are the benefits of using Writer’s Workshop in a second grade classroom? More specifically: How might the use of Writer’s Workshop benefit my second grade students’ writing skills and the quality of their written work? As a result of my research and literature review I discovered that the Writer’s Workshop model was indeed beneficial to my second grade students’ writing. There were four specific areas of focus in writing suggested by my review of literature. Those areas of focus were to provide daily time for students to write, teach students the writing process and to write for a variety of purposes, teach students to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, and sentence structure, and finally, create an engaged community of writers. Throughout my research and implementation I have learned that if you want students to become skilled at something, they need to do it everyday. The routine of writing everyday has improved their writing skills and the quality of their work over time. My students’ handwriting, spelling and sentence structure has improved over time as well. Throughout the implementation period I collected ongoing writing samples from my students to show their growth. I also used a pre and post survey consisting of the students’ perceptions of their writing. I observed my students enjoying their writing more throughout the implementation process. They traveled from near tears about writing independently to looking forward to the Writer’s Workshop each day based on observations and anecdotal notes. Based on observations, they decidedly enjoyed writing narrative pieces rather than informational pieces early on. However, with more practice on informational writing, they grew fond of that too. A community of writers was definitely established as I observed them help one another, spell words, write, edit, and share their stories. As a result of observing my students enjoy writing and sharing their stories, I plan to continue to focus on more opportunities for authentic writing and varied, creative ways for all students to share their writing. In addition, I would like to continue to build their independent and team editing practices.