This chapter looks at year-long goals for the writing workshop. It was very short and concise. A few things that stuck with me were the authors’ re-iteration of how flexibility and formatting lessons to fit YOUR class is very important. A year-long plan needs to include a series of sessions with “closures and new beginnings…reflections and challenges.” I LOVE how they writers gave us a calendar of events to look for during the year. This will be really important when I go to plan my writing workshop using our 1st grade roll out of the year. Weaving this in with the other teachers will be a challenge, though a rewarding one. August and January are similar in ways because they are “fresh starts” to workshop. I’ve found this in my own classroom. How I present writing to my students in August really sets the tone for how they see themselves as writers and how they perceive me as a teacher of writing. January is my chance to change anything that wasn’t working previously and to hash out any problems as well as a time to remind and reinforce practices that are working. December and May are also very similar as they are natural “closures” to various projects.
I found this chapter to be very helpful for me while looking towards next year and how I can improve my writing workshop. I like how the writers found common themes that happen throughout a school year, no matter the curricula being used or the grade level being taught. These common threads gave me an overview of what my teaching needs to look like to help my students take to writing instead of dread it. Their pacing, allowing for pauses and breaks in genre I think is really important, especially for my students who's attention span is limited.
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