Workshop

Last week, I shared some classroom management ideas from Adina. This week, I'd like to describe a writing workshop which I observed in Suzanne's writing class. What was most striking to me was the initiative which the students displayed throughout this process. They had obviously internalized the rules and terminology and were accustomed to running workshop with little overt orchestration from Suzanne.

Each workshop focused on a piece by a student author, which the students had all read and critiqued in advance; the author sat quietly throughout the first part of the workshop, listening and taking notes. Suzanne also took notes quietly throughout.

During this phase, a student presenter took responsibility for facilitating the discussion; he or she had carefully reviewed the work under consideration and prepared a set of questions. The rest of the class weighed in with their own questions, reactions and impressions.

The presenter was adept at guiding the discussion and moved the conversation forward with prompts such as: "How did you think the dialogue established the main character?" "Did anyone have reactions about Richard?" "Does anyone else wonder about the oddly light tone?" If the conversation lagged (which was seldom), the presenter was practiced at asking questions such as: "Does anyone else have questions?" and finally, "Should we open it up to the author?"

This was a pivotal moment. Quite a lot of interest had built up as the students shared their impressions. When the presenter finally turned the conversation over, the readers got the rare chance to have their questions answered--and the author got to weigh in to the feedback which had been offered.

One by one, the author answered questions. On the day I observed, the author stood by some of her choices and seemed to be in the process of re-considering others. It was a fascinating shared experience of decoding and discovery and everyone in the room seemed aware of the privilege which this process conveyed upon readers and author alike. This is a rare feeling to achieve in a classroom...and Suzanne has clearly shown her students how to get there.