Helping Teachers on Their Way with Writers' Workshop
a book review by Doreen Anderson

Fraser, Jane and Donna Skolnick, On Their Way: Celebrating Second Graders as They Read and Write, Heinemann, 1994.

In On Their Way: Celebrating Second Graders as They Read and Write, Jane Fraser and Donna Skolnick share practices for teaching reading and writing they have actually used in their second grade classrooms and practices they have observed being used in the classrooms of others. They discuss the connection between the way children learn to talk and the way they learn to read and write. They say the relationship between reading and writing is inseparable, that being a writer supports and helps the young reader and a child learns about writing from the stories that are heard and read. They point out the need to work with children as readers and writers in “authentic, real world ways.” They stress that the concept of student choice in what they read and write is developmentally appropriate.

The authors remind teachers not to use the deficit model, but rather to focus on what each student can do. They point out that learning to write is recursive, just like the writing process. Students do not follow a neat progression along a continuum of development; each story will not necessarily be better than the one before. For this reason, teachers should guage students’ writing growth over time.

Fraser and Skolnick provide the information needed for teachers interested in using a writers’ workshop approach in their own class. They provide examples on every aspect including the class rules they use during writing workshop, the format of workshop time, minilessons for procedural lessons and for illuminating the craft of writers, ideas for sharing student writings, procedures for peer and student-teacher writing conferences, and suggestions for revising and editing. They present an entire chapter of ideas for reflecting on and evaluating student work, including rating scales, recording sheets, portfolios, and videotaping. The appendix contains a number of parent and student questionaires, a parent handout detailing how to assist students at home, sheets for students to record and evaluate readings and writings, surveys regarding reading and writing, publishing tips for students and student self-evaluation forms.

Lots of examples and discussions of students’ writings are presented in the book. This is very helpful to the teacher who may not be sure what level of work to expect from most second grade students. For example, the authors point out that the elements of “tense” and “point of view” are developmentally not there yet at second grade. I have struggled for years trying to teach these elements, but now I know that they are not areas I need to focus on at my grade level. I was also provided reassurance as I found the writings of my second grade students to be as good as, and often even better than, the examples presented by Fraser and Skolnick.