Chapter 4 Summary “Launching the Workshop”
The authors first stress that the important part of writer’s workshop is that it puts students on the spot and requires them to be active learners. Their advice is to always stress that “A writer is someone who makes decisions” right from the beginning to discourage students from staying dependent on you to make their decisions for them. Their reminder that a good writing teacher is “half-host, half-bouncer” and that while you may start out playing a heavier host role you do want to gradually become more of a bouncer. This provided me with a refreshing way to look at and reassess what the teachers role is a writers workshop.
Other noteworthy reminders for me included:
1. Try to be there as a reader before a corrector.
2. Stress “I’m not surprised so many are not finished yet.“ “It takes time to do good work.”
3. Always include students of differing ability levels to share their work so strugglers do not get intimidated or give up.
4. Don’t always require that work to share is finished as you don’t want them to rush to completion but instead stay with their work always seeing their drafts as tentative.
5. Teach them what to do after they think they are done.