The Montessori Approach to Writing
The Writer’s Workshop is a comprehensive approach to teaching primary students writing skills. The teacher utilises a combination of whole group, small group, and individual instruction along with teacher and peer conferencing to develop all areas of writing. Students become successful writers because the teacher is able to differentiate instruction to meet their individual needs. The workshop follows a standard format each day. Teachers begin the lesson with the whole group and introduce the day’s “Mini Lesson”. This is followed by independent work time when the students try out the day’s lesson. The workshop finishes with a share time when the students can share their writing attempts with the group or a partner.
A mini lesson focuses on one skill or concept that the teacher wants to expose the children to, and encourages them to try it in their own writing. One of the most important parts of the writing workshop is that the teacher uses “Mentor Texts”. Mentor Texts are novels or picture books that serve as examples of exemplary writing and showcase techniques that authors use. For example, if the teacher wants to introduce the writing craft of simile in the day’s mini lesson, they would search through their mentor text collection and find examples of similes. During the independent work time of the workshop, students may search through mentor texts on their own for more examples, and try their hand at writing their own simile. During the independent work time the teacher walks through the class meeting with students individually for a “conference”. During the conference the student tells the teacher what they are working on, and together the student and teacher come up with a plan for where the student’s writing can go next. During the conference time the teacher may notice some great examples of the students’ writing for that particular lesson. During the share time the teacher may have a student share their work. Other times everyone will share a piece of their writing with their neighbour. Peer learning is an important part of Writing Workshop.
Usually during Writing Workshop the teacher will set a theme or unit for the students to follow. Units may be Memoir, Poetry, or Non Fiction to name a few. The teacher will gather many mentor texts in the chosen genre to use. Students will spend lots of time immersed in the genre before they begin writing themselves. They will then follow the writing process, spending the majority of the writing time gathering ideas and drafting. The teacher will then meet with the student to discuss the stories that the child wishes to take through to the publishing phase. When a piece is chosen the student then edits and revises, proof-reads and publishes in a best copy format. The final phase of the writing cycle is to celebrate! Celebrating the writing may be done in a variety of ways from reading writing pieces in assembly, to inviting parents in to hear stories.
The important thing about Writing Workshop is that it teaches children to think and write in the same way that an author may sit down to work on a novel. It helps them to break down writing and demystify what it is that their favorite authors do. It shows them that no matter what your age, anyone can be an author!
Learning Support Connection
The Learning Support classroom provides reading and language intervention to the Lower Primary students. During independent and small group tutorial sessions students’ decoding and comprehension skills are closely monitored. Support is tailored to individual students depending on their needs. Assisting students in breaking down and learning phonics skills is the foundation for the programme. Introducing students to comprehension strategies such as retelling the story, making predictions, and asking questions is another important goal of the Learning Support classroom. In-class support is provided and the Learning Support classroom is also a resource to all teachers in the department as they work together to develop strategies to improve the students’ literacy skills.