Article 9

I. Title: Reaffirming the Writing Workshop for Young Adolescents
II. Author: Sheryl Lain
III. Author’s Purpose: Lain writes this article to show that a writing workshop approach to
teaching writing is the best way to help students learn to write and is instrumental in
raising students’ scores on state tests.
IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they
support the need for the study? Lain shows a successful way to set up
and implement a successful writing workshop:
A. Minilessons (modeling what students should do)
B. Variety of writing modes
C. Use of writing folders
D. Revision practices
E. Sharing work with peers
F. Publishing student work
G. Teacher wrote more and keeps in tune with writing tasks
expected of students
V. Author’s Inquiry Question: Is there a more direct way to ensure
student success in writing than trough the use of writing workshop?
VI. Author’s Methodology: Observation and analysis of student writing
A. Who is being studied? Students in middle school language arts classes
B. Over what length of time? No specific timeframe given
C. What data is being collected? Samples of student writing, discussion of students
about their writing, scores students receive on state tests
D. How is it being analyzed? Lain looked at the quality of the students’ examples and
noticed the depth and complexity of their writing. This is how she could see that the
workshop approach was beneficial to her students.
E. Any other interesting or pertinent data: Lain made sure that she modeled lessons
for her students through minilessons and sharing her own writing with them
VII. How the author collected information: Lain asked students to write
for different purposes, peer edit drafts, participate in minilessons, and
take pieces to final copy so they could be analyzed to progress and
success as writers.
VIII. What the Author Discovered or Conclusions/Implications: Lain
definitely feels there is not better or more meaningful method for students to
achieve success as writers than the writing workshop that includes teacher modeling. She
says that her students learn to write better when they use a writing workshop approach
because they write more and practice a more thoughtful approach.