Sheryl Lain: Reaffirming the Writing Workshop

Response to Sheryl Lain’s, “Reaffirming the Writing Workshop”

To be honest, I don’t recall much of anything from my teacher education program that prepared me for teaching writing. Like many teachers I know, I hung my hat on traditional methods—assigning topics, rigid formats, lots of red ink in the margins, and, frustration with seemingly little or no gain in my students’ writing. In her article, Sheryl Lain beautifully articulates this frustration while simultaneously reminds us that there is a better way! For me, Lain’s treatment of the topic “writing workshops” serves as a reminder of the importance of creating an environment that has the potential to foster a love for literacy in our students. She also reminds me of how to implement the writer’s workshop in an increasingly demanding milieu of standardized testing demands. That in fact, adhering to the workshop format increases our students’ scores on such tests.

Several points in Lain’s piece resonated with me. First, she describes the importance of using daily journal writing. I especially like how she emphasizes the use of student writing to teach specific skills, such as sentence combining and comma use in terms of improving flow and to address standardized testing issues. Another point that I will take with me to the classroom is the importance of modeling. Lain not only writes with her students, but is the first to model sharing her work. This accomplishes two goals: it shows her students that she values writing and demonstrates how to share. I will incorporate this into my workshop time next year.

Of the articles we’ve read thus far, this one has been the most useful. Sheryl Lain offers practical solutions and research to back up the importance of teaching writing through the workshop model the National Writing Project advocates.