WRITING WORKSHOP

LITERARY CRITICISM
Curriculum Constructs and Assessment: English/Language Arts
Cynthia Gallagher
 Introductio
n
Consider your journal, group discussions, and the two basic genres of literature as
you select a topic and structure a thesis, supportive thesis, and conclusion(s):

 Nonfiction  Fiction (Creative Forms)

 Prose
 Essays
 Prose
 Journalism (Informational)  Shortstory
 Historic books
 The Novel
 Research papers
 Textbooks  The Play
 Other Instructional books  The Screenplay
 Letters
 Experimental Forms
 Nonfictional genre are based on:
 Length and purpose  Poetry
 Basic persuasion
 Free-form
 Dialectic persuasion

 Analytic
 Metrical Form
 Narrative qualities  Figurative Qualities
 Degree of Improvisation
 Method for Selection of a Topic
 Student Determination (Smagorinsky, 2003)--
Refer to current interests noted in ongoing
journal
 Consider the subject matter
 Is it fiction or nonfiction?
 Brainstorm in respect to ongoing decision shaped
by class discussions
 Consider your subject matter
 Consider the topic, thesis, conclusion, and figurative speech
and analogies (Crews, 1987) you would like to develop
 Consider all hypotheses and conclusion(s) that your thesis
will support
 Structure of the Workshop Plan
Two Weeks (10 days) devoted to the Writing Workshop Proper as
identified by the references and accumulative elaborations of the Milners

Day # Writing Structural Purpose

Strategy
1 Teacher/Student Conferences
2 Teacher/Student Conferences
3 Status of the Class Conference
4 Mini Lesson
5 Mini Lesson
6 Teacher/Student Conferences
Expand, elucidate upon original premise; decide on general,
specific genres to develop; brainstorm
Relay and substantiate topic to fellow students; each student
has an opportunity to reflect upon specific concerns of the
main subject, writing process
Reveal structural disorders, awkward coordination
Share and develop the writing process, confer programs,
share potential new topics, subtopics, theses, transitions
Share further concerns about rhetorical and figurative
functions, thesis, style, voice, conclusion, writing process
Report on development, revisions, transformations, conclusions

7 Status of the Class Conference Evaluate and report problems, progress

8 Group Share Share with enthusiasm the relationships of individual work
9 Group Share Compare and evaluate the topics, tone, rhetoric
10 Group Share Contrast figurative devices, voice, style, genre
 Instructional Strategy for Writing
Skill Development

 Because “writing is an extended process that includes

prewriting, writing, and rewriting (revising and editing),”
“all modes of written discourse take only one shape”
--both fiction and nonfiction are developed through
prewriting, free-writing, organization tools, and mind-
mapping (Milner, 2002, p. 299)
 The Writing Process Instructional Strategy is a holistic
process—from the focus or topic, the thesis or substance
branches into a transition and conclusion or climax and
denouement or resolution.
 Instructional Strategy for Writing
Skill Development—Extended Writing
Process
 Prewriting  First Draft
 Journal Entries  Question Responses
 Generated Ideas
 Structural Tasks
 Brainstorm
 Complete original content
 Discussion
 Discussion
 Structuring Ideas

 Outline thesis to conclusion

 Mind-mapping

 Freewriting
 Instructional Strategy for Writing
Skill Development—Extended Writing
Process
 Revise and Edit  Publish, Group Share
 Proofread  Read aloud
 Polish syntactic, paragraph,
 Post for viewing
sequential construction
 Compile into a bound
 Revise syntax, grammar,
volume and accumulative
punctuation portfolio
 Reconsider and revise
 Share by web page
logical rationale
 Share at local bookstore and
 Revise introduction, body,
library author reviews
conclusion, analogies to
align with coherent
rationale, cogency
 Objective or Purpose
of the Writing Task
 Written and Oral English Language Conventions (1.0) are
addressed through this Workshop Proper, Extended Writing, and
Portfolio Process. Thus, the following are achieved:
 Students will write and speak with a command of standard
English conventions.
 They will demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph
and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
 They will produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and
correct punctuation and capitalization.
 Students will reflect appropriate manuscript requirements
in writing.
(California State Board of Education, 2008, p. 26)
 Component of Collaboration or Sharing of
Student Work

 Post to online sources such as:

 http://www.scribd.com
 Acquire a class web or individual webs through
internet providers or through a independent server
 Submit to the school newspaper (most include
hardcopy and softcopy editions)
 Submit to community and academic news, both
online and brick-and-mortar editions
 Note the teacher’s online web for potential submission
 Method for Tracking
and Evaluating Student Work
 The student workshop enables students and teachers to refer regularly to the
student’s writing portfolio, thus, the method for tracking and evaluating student
work:
 This method permits evaluation and writing by osmosis, allowing students to
develop writing through a gradual process.
 Teacher guidance augments the overall process, as the mentor or teacher
evaluating student work regularly.
 The method of tracking and evaluating student work enables permits learning
and evaluating a language by osmosis--regular exposure and application of that
language leads the language learner and writer to fluency.
 The student requires the attention that the teacher conveys through the process
of absorption or diffusion.
 The portfolio model is beneficial to the mentor or teacher who seeks to
effectively track and evaluate student work toward the student’s grasp of
effective writing skills, a process that reaches a state of effortlessness as the
communicative or writing processes are assimilated by the student writer.
 Performance-Standards Based
Two-Tiered Rubric
 The two-tiered portfolio
rubric of C.B. Burch
developed by students divided
the rubric into two sections
(Burch, 1997):
 (1) The quantity of the
contents of the portfolio, which
comprises 60 percent of the
awarded credit—writing, meta-
writing/reflection, peer writing,
and writer’s choice;
 (2) The quality of the portfolio
which comprises 40 points for
voice, organization, reflection,
development, mechanics/usage.
 Rubric
Name Volume of Content Added to Portfolio Quality Added to Portfolio through
through workshop (60% of grade) workshop (40% of grade)
Topi Thesi Peer- Conclusio Revisio Voice Structur Meta- Develop Mechanic
Evaluations n e cognitiv -ment s
c s n
e style
 References
 Brainerd, L., Lee, R. and Roebuck Reed, C. (2006). California subject matter for
teachers, 2nd Edition. New York: Kaplan Publishing Company.
 Burch, C.B. (1997). Creating a two-tiered portfolio rubric. English Journal,
86(1), 55-58.
 California State Board of Education (2008, August). Language arts content
standards for public schools. Retrieved December 3, 2008, from
http://www.cde.gov/be/st/ss/
 Crews, Frederick, University of California, Berkeley (1987). The Random House
handbook, 5th Edition. New York: Random House.
 

 Milner, Joseph and Lucy (2003). Bridging English, 3rd Edition. New Jersey and
Ohio: Merrill Prentice-Hall and Pearson Education.
 Smagorinsky, Peter (2002). Teaching English through principled practice. New
York: Merrill Prentice-Hall and Pearson Education, Inc.