by Jolanta Maria Nitoslawska-Romer, M.Ed.
International Director of Academic Affairs, BE+Live
Online teaching isn’t easy. Having to ensure that our students are learning, acquiring the knowledge, skills, and understandings that they need isn’t easy and worries us. In my previous blogs, I have written that it’s not pedagogically sound to keep students in front of a screen for hours on end. Then I came across an article which made me think about my own experiences as a teacher and the success of the Writing Workshop model in my class.
I remember my First Graders working totally on their own in the classroom, sometimes individually, sometimes with a partner. I remember how they could walk about and ask other classmates for help if needed, as I met in small guided reading or writing workshop groups in the loft above them. (Yes, I know, I was very lucky to have a large classroom with a loft.) They knew what they had to do, and there were options for them to do if they finished before I could meet with them: they were truly independent learners.
This was our daily routine: first, the whole class got together for calendar time, sharing time, poems or songs, a read-aloud, and general instructions. The children then usually went back to their seats, in groups of 6, for a math or language mini session. Sometimes I quickly explained some workbook pages, other times, it was a math mini-lesson with some hands-on work; other times it was modeling how to do something, with clear expectations and examples: science projects, posters, booklets, videos, audio recordings, etc. Then the children broke up into their teams, and I met with different groups, on a schedule, for some reading or writing activity or a project follow-up. The groups were flexible, according to need: sometimes mixed ability and other times same-ability groups. What was important were lengthy times for students to work uninterrupted, at times, even more than an hour. The routine could then be repeated or we would break up for some art or cooking or gardening classes. As I look back to those years, I realize now that I was implementing a workshop model. It was mostly for writing and reading as well as for many other projects that my students did. They wrote in their Class Journals every day, they wrote their own math problem books, they researched, wrote, and published stories on many of the Science and Social Studies topics we all studied, they worked together, were self-reliant and autonomous.
So what made this way of learning so successful, and how can we adapt it to online learning? I know that I based it on the Writing Workshop model developed by Lucy Calkins. Nowadays, much is written about Workshop Models, and I think it would adapt beautifully to distance learning. It basically, it comes down to giving a mini-lesson, then allowing the students to work on their own, with a partner or in a small group to accomplish what has been set out, and then a debriefing session. Setting clear expectations and explaining to students what they need to do and how they will be assessed is of the utmost importance, as mentioned in my previous blog.
The workshop model provides the structure and the format for students to work independently, with support if needed. It allows them to do different things to reach their learning goals. It builds up student independence while also scaffolding to support growth, and it can be problem-based, planned via learning styles, or address different curricular areas.
We would love to hear from you! Have you tried the Workshop Model? Is it working for your students?
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