Blog
Writer’s Workshop for Every Classroom
- October 11, 2024
- Posted by: The Teachers Academy
- Category: All Blog Postings Art Integration Classroom Activities Educator Resources / News Online Courses

Why should you create a Writer’s Workshop in your Classroom? A writer’s workshop is a place where students can be creative, imaginative and practice skills necessary for college, career and success in their future communities. An effective writer’s workshop engages students in improving skills like reading, communication, critical thinking, and of course writing.
Becoming a good writer and recognizing good writing are also keys to building other skills such as comprehension, research, presentation, grammar and language. After a writer’s workshop has been established, teachers can use the time to individually conference with their students and offer specific strategies to strengthen skills. Also, students who participate in a writer’s workshop tend to develop confidence in clearly communicating their thoughts and ideas which can be a critically important skill to master in career and life.
How do I set up a Writer’s Workshop?
Clip from The Teacher’s Academy’s course, Writer’s Workshop:
Create a Writing Schedule
There are many different types of writer’s workshops. Create a workshop that will work with your schedule. Not everyone has one hour every day to dedicate to a writer’s workshop. Most of us have to creatively integrate writer’s workshop tactics into our current curriculum. Here are a few ideas that might help squeeze a writer’s workshop into a packed schedule:
- Organize your lessons so all writing happens during the writer’s workshop. For example, if you are teaching multiple subjects, informational writing for science, social studies or math, and reading responses could be all be done during a writer’s workshop. Try to fill science, social studies and math subjects with project-based learning and/or movement activities instead of writing. Save the writing for the workshop!
- Collaborate with peers to create a workshop that supports the subjects they are teaching. In the elementary school where I taught, the students would change classrooms for different subjects. When students were in my classroom for reading and writing, I connected their writing activities to the topics they were learning in other classes. I could not have done this without collaborating with my peers. This not only increased student knowledge of subject areas, but it put less stress on my teacher friends trying to squeeze writing into their block of time.
- Scrutinize/Makeover your existing lessons. Eliminate writing activities that are not connected to curriculum or that are ineffective. For example, trash that writing response on the board every morning! It is ineffective and disconnected to real writing. Instead, post an exercise to try, an inspirational quote or better yet, a riddle to invite discussion and give your students something to look forward to when they come into your classroom. (Forcing students to respond to a writing prompt, every day, may alter their view of writing from positive to negative.) You may already do a lot of skills-based writing activities with your students. Again, consider the purpose and effectiveness of your current writing activities and make changes that save time and support writing goals.
Make Time for Writing
Approximately 70% of a writing workshop should be used for writing. Set aside about 10% for direct instruction and 20% for peer sharing. Try to create a consistent schedule for your students. Having a set time frame, makes the workshop much more efficient because students know when and how long they will be able to work on writing. Many times, they can mentally prepare before the workshop begins.
Design the Space/Environment
The space you create for your workshop is going to depend on how much room you have in your classroom. (My first classroom was not much bigger than a closet so creating a comfortable writing spot was a challenge.) Consider ideal writing conditions as you design the ideal space for your writer’s workshop. Here are four “spots” that may help you create a workshop atmosphere:
- Quiet Spot- Keep a few bean bags chairs or a comfortable couch in a small corner of the room. A carpet remnant could be used to define the space. When student enter this area, they are to work quietly. Allow them to use the chairs or spread out on the floor.
- Small Meeting Spot- A half-moon table works well for meeting with small groups of students. A meeting spot is where teachers can meet one on one, or with small groups of students to assess progress and provide guidance. This area should be a good distance from the quiet spot.
- Not-So Quiet Spot- Some students need more stimulation to write. Use another corner of the room with comfortable seating and headphones.
- Materials Spot- Keep the tools that students need for writing in one area. If you’ve been teaching for a while, you probably already have this space set up. Some materials might include: Crayons, pencils, scissors, tape, glue, paper, dictionaries, thesauri, computers, clipboards, laptops, college-ruled and wide-ruled paper, selection of mechanical pencils and literature to use as inspiration for teaching the craft.
Successful companies like Google and Apple have spent millions on designing the perfect working environment that stimulates productive employees. A positive, comfortable, flexible workspace will promote a positive working attitude. The classroom space is no different. (It will make you happy too!)
Keep it Flexible
Providing a relaxed working environment allows students to take risks and grow as learners. How can teachers create a relaxed, working atmosphere? By offering choices. Students tend to thrive when given a choice of activities, comfortable places to work and guidance from teachers and peers. Being “flexible” simply means to adjust a structured, teacher-centered environment, to one that is more student-centered. Student-centered environments address a variety of learning differences, by providing a variety of learning opportunities, based on interest and abilities.
Like these ideas? Want more? Check out the 18-hour professional development course: Writer’s Workshop. Enjoy!
Here are a few more resources for setting up a writer’s workshop in your classroom:
The Structured Writing Teacher
Teachers need to maintain their professional licenses by participating in professional development. Make sure the professional development you spend time and money on is worth the cost and effort. The Teacher’s Academy hires teachers to develop the coursework necessary to maintain educator licenses. We know how precious time is so our course requirements implement work that teachers have experience completing, like lesson plans and activities. Plus, we make sure teachers can customize their projects so they can use them in the classroom the next day. Find out what your state requirements are or simply take a course for the quality, education resources already vetted and used by active teachers.