Our school gets ready for Writer's Workshop

Once the decision was made to move into a writer's workshop framework, we had some background work to do to get ready. I contacted a Heinemann sales rep to discuss ordering the Lucy Calkins' Units of Study kits for our teachers. Using funds from our NCA budget, we ordered Units of Study for 6 of our teachers. The Kindergarten teacher was invited to a district inservice and they supplied her with a primary level Units of Study. That eliminated one kit that we would have to pay for out of our school funds. I should say that we are on a very tight budget in my building. We are not a Title or Reading First school and therefore receive no funding for special projects and such. We are left mostly with our small NCA budget to appropriate for special projects we'd like to implement. Our district offers Foundation Grants in the amount of $750.00 to teachers who apply and have a compelling cause. Our third grade teacher applied and was awarded $750.00 which we used to purchase additional Units of Study for our teachers. The final Units of Study were acquired by the principal and myself when we attended a summer workshop on Launching Writer's Workshop. We now had enough kits ordered to ensure that each teacher would have their own.


While I was e-mailing back and forth with the Heinemann rep and placing the order, I continued to read everything I could get my hands on about the Writer's Workshop framework so that I could prepare an initial inservice for the staff in my building. As a Literacy Leader, I had been receiving training on the method periodically during the year. I pulled together the basics, not wanting to overwhelm the staff initially, and prepared for a brief introduction to writer's workshop. This inservice took place in April, 2007. I was able to convey the need for moving toward this model and also give the staff a vision of moving into it.


The writing scores from our building clearly showed the need to move into a stronger, more supportive writing program. I explained that Writer's Workshop was a framework within which we could incorporate Six Traits and many of the other models we had tried in the past. The principal and I stressed the fact that for the school year 2007-2008, each teacher would need to build in a 30-60 minute block of time daily dedicated to Writer's Workshop. Obviously, the shorter time period applied to Kindergarten with more time added to each grade level as we moved up to fifth grade.


I explained to our staff that the first year of implementation would be a learning year and we would take it slowly, learning and helping each other as we went along. Both the principal and I felt that a three year timeframe was a realistic vision of having Writer's Workshop really taking a firm hold on our students and making a difference in raising the scores. This is not to say that we don't expect improved scores the first year. We just believe that by the third year of implementation, children will be pretty firm in their control of the model as will the teachers.


The staff was enthusiastic and received the news well. Our staff is composed of highly professional, experienced teachers. The majority of the staff have taught twenty years or more. The great thing about our staff is their willingness to adapt to changing teaching techniques and to implement new programs. This always involves a lot of work and effort and they always are willing and work tirelessly toward the goal. We are blessed and fortunate to have a staff of such dedicated, professional expertise.