ABSTRACT

Master teacher Lisa Morris invites you to share her secrets of success with writer's workshops. After years of experimenting with the workshop model, she has developed the most effective ways to apply it in the classroom, yielding higher test scores and increased student engagement. Through practical, step-by-step instruction, Morris demonstrates how to use writer's notebooks, mentor texts, the writing process, and the 6 traits. Specific topics include:

  • setting up the classroom for workshops
  • creating a writing curriculum
  • creating guidelines, expectations, and lessons for using notebooks
  • helping students select ideas, brainstorm, and plan
  • assigning writing partners and organizing sharing
  • getting students to self-reflect
  • creating process and product portfolios
  • finding resources for publishing
  • holding effective writing conferences

The book also offers an array of invaluable tools, such as

  • student writing samples
  • mini-lessons for each stage of the writing process
  • lesson plans
  • pacing guides for dividing your time during the workshop
  • sample charts to help you stay organized
  • suggested classroom guidelines and handouts
  • a list of mentor texts, organized by what you can use them to teach (e.g., adjectives, alliteration, onomatopoeia, beginnings, endings, strong verbs, sensory details)
  • quotations on each stage of the writing process to motivate students

chapter 1|22 pages

The Fundamentals of the Writing Workshop

chapter 2|16 pages

Using Mentor Texts to Create Curriculum

chapter 3|19 pages

Practicing in the Writer's Notebook

chapter 5|26 pages

Marinating

chapter 6|13 pages

Drafting and Sharing

chapter 7|15 pages

Ideas for Revision

chapter 8|17 pages

Polishing, Publishing, and Portfolios

chapter 9|15 pages

Conferencing with Confidence