Honing the art and craft of writing instruction: Teachers’ journeys in implementing writer’s workshop

Writing is used as a means of communication and also as a way to creatively express our innermost thoughts and feelings. The act of teaching writing can be envisioned as helping students to craft and construct grammatical, easy to read sentences and compositions. Conversely, writing instruction can also be seen as providing other writers with the encouragement to create beautiful and meaningful ideas. Writer’s Workshop is an organizational framework for teaching, which allows students the time to practice using the writing process in a variety of authentic, meaningful ways. This research study examined how four elementary teachers responded to a training session on Writer’s Workshop as they sought to strengthen their instructional practices. Data for the qualitative inquiry was collected through interviews, classroom observations, reflective journals, and student writing samples.
The findings revealed that the overall classroom culture greatly impacts writing instruction. Also, teachers’ personal ideologies drive their decisions; therefore, to change classroom practice, one must first make philosophical shifts. The results also highlighted the ongoing and multi-faceted nature of professional growth. Overall, when teachers are given choice and flexibility regarding areas they want to study, they develop the initiative to learn through a multitude of opportunities.