Writers Workshop: Early Success in Seattle Public Schools
Our lives are worth writing about, and students become stronger writers when they write about things that have meaning for them.
These inspiring words reflect core beliefs of Writers Workshop, developed at Columbia Teachers College and used successfully with students in grades K-8 for more than twenty years. Seattle Public Schools is currently piloting this approach in middle school classrooms in seven schools. Teachers receiving intensive training and ongoing coaching in the strategies guide students through a step-by-step process-learning to observe their lives and the world around them, and then collecting, drafting, revising, and publishing well-crafted writings.
As year one of Seattle’s implementation nears completion, it’s a perfect time to ask, “What makes Writers Workshop so powerful and accessible for all students?” Susannah Kapp, 7th-grade teacher at Mercer Middle School recently offered these insights: “Writers Workshop offers me a way to connect with my students on a level that I haven’t been able to before. The process is so clear. We start off by collecting ideas about our lives, and we capture those on paper. From there, we look at ways to give those ideas more shape. We take it step-by-step, so that the kids don’t get overwhelmed as writers. Together we follow a process that consistently builds students’ confidence and skills as writers. Every student can succeed because every student has a story!”
Another theme that emerges is the impact of the Writers Workshop model on the school-wide learning environment. Whitman Middle School Principal Robert Kogane reflects, “Students notice and respect their classmates’ final products that are prominently displayed in the hallways. This fosters a strong sense of community among students and adults and a shared intellectual curiosity that raises the bar for everyone’s academic experience.”
In January 2007, Alliance for Education granted to Seattle Public Schools, through earnings from the John Stanford Endowment Fund, $150,000 to help support Writers Workshop for one year. Early indicators of the workshop’s success are encouraging. Don Nielsen, Stanford Grants Committee chair comments, “As we have learned about Writers Workshop, we have consistently heard from Seattle educators that this approach has a level of effectiveness and immediacy of impact for students like nothing they’ve experienced before.”
What are students’ reflections as the school year ends? These comments from one 6th-grader at Salmon Bay K-8 are representative: “Writing is much easier for me now. I have discovered that when I am writing about something I care about, I enjoy it! I have also gained confidence in sharing my writing with others. I am proud to say that I have really improved in adding colorful descriptions to my writing, which helps make people more interested in what I have to say.”