To begin, teachers can structure a short (around 10 minutes) minilesson. This is the traditional idea of direct instruction. All students are gathered to focus on a specific targeted lesson. The teacher demonstrates why she is teaching this minilesson and models how students can use this in their own writing. Students then have a chance to practice this independently before they move on to the bulk of the time in the lesson which is spent on producing writing.

Topics for mini-lessons can come directly from curricular sources, state standards, or what the teacher is noticing many students are struggling with during conferencing with students (Shubitz, 2017).

Teachers can also incorporate mentor texts into minilessons. Here students study a technique used by an author (for example a beautiful metaphor), discuss this together, and try to mimic the example on their own. (Bekel, 2018).

Next, the teacher asks students for a quick "status update". There are many different forms this can take - students write on a clipboard where they are in their process writing (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, evaluating, publishing) or they briefly talk about how they are doing in a class "whip-around." This is an important check-in moment to help the teacher pivot to where she may be needed most during the writing time.

As students enter in the bulk of the lesson - writing - teachers can use this time to engage students with conferences. During the mini-conference, the teacher can meet with any students who are struggling and help nudge them in the right direction (Mulvahill, 2018).

At the end of the session, students get a chance to share their writing. The teacher must ensure that the classroom is a safe place for students to share their writing. Students can also ask for feedback from their peers. Here again, teachers need to be vigilant to instruct how to listen, be respectful, and how to offer positive or actionable feedback to their peers.

1. Teacher examines curriculum, standards, rubrics (such as 6 +1 writing traits) and student work to determine a very specific minilesson to teach to students. The goal is to select something that many students may be struggling with and providing either a teacher-led model or using mentor texts to explain why the teacher selected this and how students can use this in their own writing. This minilesson is short (less than 15 minutes) direct instruction.

2. Students briefly share-out their current progress on their writing.

3. Students engage in writing. Students may continue to examine mentor texts, look over their notes for ideas, confer with the teacher, continue drafting or start a new draft.

4. The session ends with students sharing their writing as a whole class or even in small groups for feedback from their peers.

1. Teacher: curriculum resources, mentor texts, rubric to use with students (such as the 6 +1 writing traits), digital materials, openness to share own writing with students.

2. Students: paper/pen or digital writing resources.

1. It may not be supported by administrators.

2. We are teaching in an environment that favors high-stakes testing, and with it very structured lessons that are taught lock-step with teaching peers. Autonomy and pivoting as needed are important with Writer's Workshop (Welcome to Writer’ s Workshop, n.d.).

3. It is not easy to learn nor easy to implement.

4. Workshop teaching favors process-oriented teaching - which is not what we emphasize in schooling. We have to change how students think about their own learning that is grade-based and product-oriented (Thomas, 2021).

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Bekel, J. (2018, September 18). Who’s Doing the Work?: Letting Students Guide the Process in a Writing Workshop [Review of Who’s Doing the Work?: Letting Students Guide the Process in a Writing Workshop]. International Literacy Association. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2018/09/12/who-s-doing-the-work-letting-students-guide-the-process-in-a-writing-workshop

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Literacy Today - WRITER’S WORKSHOP. (n.d.). Www.literacytoday.ca. https://www.literacytoday.ca/home/writingproduction/writers-workshop

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Mulvahill, E. (2018). What is Writing Workshop? WeAreTeachers. https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-writing-workshop/

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Shubitz, S. (2017, August 3). Minilessons: Writing Workshop Fundamentals. TWO WRITING TEACHERS. https://twowritingteachers.org/2017/08/03/minilessons-wwfundamentals/

Thomas, P. (2021, May 6). The Problem of Student Engagement in Writing Workshop. Medium. https://plthomasedd.medium.com/the-problem-of-student-engagement-in-writing-workshop-d0280530b9cd

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Welcome to Writer’ s Workshop. (n.d.). https://www.ttms.org/PDFs/05%20Writers%20Workshop%20v001%20(Full).pdf

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1. The teacher begins with a mini-lesson with a small group of struggling writers. The focus is for the group to have a shared experience to draw from and have a rich conversation about the subject.

2. The teachers selects a few strategies to teach to the small group of students. This can include: how to select a topic to write about, how to pre-write, how to write strong sentences, etc.

3. Students are given time to produce writing. The teacher provides assistance as necessary during this time.

4. Students are given time to share their writing with each other (Guided Writing | Read Write Think, n.d.).

Supportive Tools (Gibson, 2008): cue cards, diagrams, graphic organizers, clear examples of sentence structures, paper & pencil, 3-ringed binder or blank journal, word walls

“Strips, post its, adding machine tape, odd sized papers either large or small, index cards, overhead transparencies” (Oczkus, 2007, 2012).

• do not have the tools they need to organize their writing well, which makes it hard for them to use their writing skills effectively (McNaughton, 1995)

• struggle to organize their ideas and write more complex sentences (Gibson, 2008)

• need explicit instruction and support to help them improve in their writing; telling them to write is not enough (Englert, 1992)

• do not know how to engage in the writing process, which requires planning and decision-making (Flower & Hayes, 1981)

• may struggle with the planning and revision process as they are still learning to express their ideas clearly (Gibson, 2008)

(Collins, Six traits writing workshop)

Planning: 

ideas, organization, voice

Drafiting: 

add & develop ideas / organize ideas into parts / use voice for purpose & audience / sentence fluency / word choice

Revising: 

adjust voice, ideas, organization, sentence fluency, word choice

Editing: 

conventions

Publishing: 

Presentation

Songs & Charts:

https://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/6-traits-resources.html

Mentor Texts:

https://www.smekenseducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Use-a-single-text-to-introduce-the-6-Traits-Grade-Level-Picture-Book-List.pdf

Rubrics:

https://www.teacherplanet.com/pdf/6TraitsParagraph.pdf?ref=rubrics4teachers

Lessons for Each Trait:

https://www.geneva304.org/Downloads/six%20traits2.pdf

The purpose remains the same going into upper elementary with an additional goal of strengthening student writing skills. This is achieved by providing clear instructions that align with the Common Core writing standards (Roth 2014).

5. Teach writing conventions throughout the lesson, the teacher discusses and prepares mini-lessons on writing conventions, such as spacing, capitalization, and punctuation. For example, “I’m putting spaces between the words so everyone can read what we’ve written” (Williams, 2017). 

6. Emphasize the importance of rereading and revising in writing: “good writers make sure it makes sense.” Teachers provide specific feedback that helps students tell the difference between making big changes to the overall structure of the text v. fixing small details like spelling and punctuation (Williams, 2017).

7. Wrap up with a review at the end of the lesson, summarizing the main writing ideas and reminding students how they can use these strategies when they write on their own.

• large writing tablets or chart paper for group writing

• writing tools (markers, expo markers + whiteboards)

• relevant texts or resources to inspire ideas/writing topics

• visual aids (graphic organizers for planning)

• technology (interactive whiteboards or typing tools, can enrich the writing experience, especially for older students)

  
  

(Williams, 2018; Roth, 2014)

• meeting the varying levels of writing ability within the same group (Williams, 2017)

• maintaining classroom dynamics (Roth, 2014)

• ensuring active participation from all learners (Roth, 2014)

• finding the right balance between focusing on spelling and grammar rules and looking at the bigger picture of writing a complete text (Williams, 2017) 

• balancing planned instruction with spontaneous teaching moments (Roth, 2014)

Bottom line: Teachers will need to adapt their instruction to meet the diverse needs of their students (Williams, 2018).

2. Books that are referenced:

   1. Nancy Atwell - In the Middle

   2. William Zinsser’s - On Writing Well

   3. Ken Macrorie’s - Telling Writing

   4. Natalie Goldberg’s - Writing Down the Bones

   5. Peter Elbow’s - Writing Without Teachers

   
   

Flower, L., & Hayes, J.R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), 365–387. doi:10.2307/356600

Gibson, S. A. (2008). An Effective Framework for Primary-Grade Guided Writing Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), 324–334. https://doi.org/10.1598/rt.62.4.5

Guided Writing | Read Write Think. (n.d.). Www.readwritethink.org. https://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/guided-writing

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Guided Writing – What is it? How and Why to do it in the classroom? – 3peaksclassroom. (2023, March 13). https://3peaksclassroom.com/2023/03/13/guided-writing-what-is-it-how-and-why-to-do-it-in-the-classroom/

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McNaughton, S. (1995). Patterns of emergent literacy: Processes of development and transition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Oczkus, L. (2022). Guided Writing Scaffolding Writing for Success! Retrieved from https://education.byu.edu/sites/default/files/media/cites/files/2022/OczkusGuidiedWriting.pdf

Twinkl. (n.d.) What is guided reading? https://www.twinkl.com/teaching-wiki/guided-writing

Cox, C. (2012). Interactive Writing | Reading Rockets. Retrieved from www.readingrockets.org website: https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/writing/articles/interactive-writing

Dennen, V.P. (2004). Cognitive apprenticeship in educational practice: Research on scaffolding, modeling, mentoring, and coaching as instructional strategies. In D.H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 813–828). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Roth, K., & Dabrowski, J. (2014). Extending Interactive Writing Into Grades 2–5. The Reading Teacher, 68(1), 33–44. doi:10.1002/trtr.1270

Williams, C. (2017). Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 71(5), 523-532. doi:10.1002/trtr.1643

Ideas

Ideas develop a single topic to convey a clear message

Organization

Reveals ideas in a logical order. This can include a beginning, middle, and end. It can include a particular text structure.

Voice

The writer’s personal tone is conveyed. There is intention in the emotions, feelings, and attitude of the writer. The writer knows the audience and purpose for writing.

Word Choice

The writer uses the right words in the right places to convey the intended meaning. The vocabulary a writer chooses is rich, colorful, precise, and vivid. Imagery and figurative language are utilized.

Sentence Structure

Writers improve the readability of a piece with varied sentence beginnings and sentence variety. The writing is free of awkward patterns. There is a specific style to the writing.

Conventions

The writing is made correct by following the rules of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and usage.

Presentations (Not a Trait)

This includes how a piece of writing looks on the page and whether it invites someone to read it. If the piece is manually written, it includes: handwriting, penmanship, writing on a line, letter formation, and overall legibility. If the piece is digital, it includes: typography, color, graphics, images, proportions, margins, and white space.

(Smekens, n.d.)

(About 6+1 Trait® Writing and 6+1 Trait® Definitions)

Collins, J. (n.d.). Six traits writing workshop. https://www.bloomfield.k12.nj.us/pdf/Academics/Special%20Services/6Traits_Intro.pdf

Education Northwest. Looking for 6+1 traits. https://educationnorthwest.org/traits

Holt McDougal. Six traits for writing middle school. https://ademaio.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/6/13760533/sixtraitsofwritinghandbook.pdfhttps://ademaio.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/6/13760533/sixtraitsofwritinghandbook.pdf

Mrs. Warner’s Learning Community. Six traits of writing. https://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/6-traits-resources.html

Smekens, K. (n.d.). Six traits of writing: The Ultimate Guide. Smekens Education Solutions, Inc. https://www.smekenseducation.com/6-traits-of-writing/

6+1 Traits of Writing. https://www.geneva304.org/Downloads/six%20traits2.pdf