Scaffolding Young Writers
A Writers' Workshop Approach
Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos
The authors present a clear road map for implementing writers' workshop in the primary grades. They show how explicit teaching, good models, clear demonstrations, established routines, assisted teaching followed by independent practice, and self-regulated learning are all fundamental for success. There are also chapters on organizing for writers' workshop, mini-lessons, and student conferences. An overview of how children become writers is provided along with a number of assessments, benchmarks and illustrations for assistance in evaluating student progress.
- Author: Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos
- ISBN: 978-157110-342-0
- Media: 112 pp/paper
- Grade Range: K-3
- Item No: WEB-0342
The goal of teaching writing is to create independent and self-motivated writers. When students write more often, they become better at writing. They acquire habits, skills, and strategies that enable them to learn more about the craft of writing. Yet they require the guidance and support of a more knowledgeable person who understands the writing process, the changes over time in writing development, and specific techniques and procedures for teaching writing.
In Scaffolding Young Writers: A Writers' Workshop Approach, Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos present a clear road map for implementing writers' workshop in the primary grades.
Adopting an apprenticeship approach, the authors show how explicit teaching, good models, clear demonstrations, established routines, assisted teaching followed by independent practice, and self-regulated learning are all fundamental in establishing a successful writers' workshop. There is a detailed chapter on organizing for writers' workshop, including materials, components, routines, and procedures. Other chapters provide explicit guidelines for designing productive mini-lessons and student conferences.
Scaffolding Young Writers also features:
- an overview of how children become writers;
- analyses of students' samples according to informal and formal writing assessments;
- writing checklists, benchmark behaviors, and rubrics based on national standards;
- examples of teaching interactions during mini-lessons and writing conferences;
- illustrations of completed forms and checklists with detailed descriptions, and blank reproducible forms in the appendix for classroom use.
Instruction is linked with assessment throughout the book, so that all teaching interactions are grounded in what children already know and what they need to know as they develop into independent writers.
Table of ContentsPreview this book online!
1. The Development of Young Writers
2. Assessing Writing Development
3. Organizing for Writers' Workshop
4. Designing Productive Mini-Lessons
5. Writing Conferences
About the Authors
Linda Dorn is a professor of reading education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she is the director of the UALR Center for Literacy. She teaches graduate classes in literacy theory, research, classroom practice, and literacy leadership. >more
Carla is a literacy specialist with the Arkansas Department of Education. She has twenty-one years of experience in education, including teaching in the primary grades and Literacy Coaching. >more