Writer’s Workshop

We have created the ultimate resource for students to write their own fiction stories through Writer’s workshop.  Writer’s Workshop with Teachtopia is a valuable time set aside for the writing process.

There is nothing more exciting than starting a Writer’s Workshop Program in your classroom. In writer’s workshop, students go through a process set forth by their classroom teacher that ultimately allows them to “publish” their own fiction book.

Teachtopia’s suggested sequence for Writer’s Workshop:

1. The Student Notebook- Every Student Needs to have their own three ring binder notebook (or sturdy folder) to store all their writer’s workshop materials. Organization is key to all writing.  As much as students might want to use a computer throughout the entire process, it is important for writers to keep “hard copies” of everything done throughout each stage of the process in these folders. It also allows the teacher to quickly check on an individual student’s progress by asking for their workshop folder.

2. The Student Created Clustering of Ideas For A Topic
With just a plane white sheet of paper, students are to first write a huge list of things that interest them.  This should be done through mind mapping.

3. Story Ideas
Using the cluster of ideas students, begin to write several story ideas.

4.  Mapping out a story.  Main Characters and Antagonist/Problem that needs to be solved.

5. The Table of Contents- After students have spent some time coming up with ideas for their story, it is time for them to commit to an idea. Whether their book is fiction or non-fiction they could begin to develop a “in progress” Table of Contents.

6. The Writing Process (filling in those chapters)- This may be a couple of weeks into the writing process. It is here where the students get to begin writing those chapters. What you must notice that if students were to sit down and start writing their books without the clustering and table of contents already produced, their product would likely end after a few pages.

5. Getting a Title There is no rush in developing a title for a book, but when student’s do have a title it is great to have a title page.