English Language Arts - 8th Grade

Q: “What are the goals for the students in a workshop classroom?”

A: The purpose of the workshop classroom is to teach students to become more independent readers and writers. In the workshop they learn skills and strategies that are designed to improve their reading comprehension, reading enjoyment, and ability to get the most out of their reading time. They also learn strategies to help build their vocabulary, explore various styles of writing, develop their own writing voice, and are given time to practice.

The goal is that the students, by the end of the year, will not just be stronger students in English, but in all of their various classes across the entire range of disciplines.

Q: “What is the parents’ responsibility to ensure student success?”

A: There are many things parents can do to help. Parents should keep track of their child’s reading and talk with them about what they are reading, encouraging the child to make connections between what the child reads and what happens in the real world. Parents can check student progress by looking at their journals.

Q: “What if a student is absent?”

A: Read and write. If there is make-up required they can ask the teacher, but students in workshop should read and write in their journals every day, whether they are in school or out of school.

Q: “Why are students allowed to choose their own books for reading?”

A: There are many advantages to student choice when it comes to reading, and student choice is central to the workshop philosophy.

- People feel more eager to read a book they choose as opposed to a book that is assigned to them.

- Higher engagement will lead to more in-depth analysis.

- If students want to read, they will read. If students are forced to read, they will not.

Q: “Why are students responsible for developing their own writing topics and prompts?”

A: Critical thinking skills are best developed when students are not spoon-fed topics and ideas. The truly hard work of writing is developing the idea itself, so workshop students should be focused on developing their own ideas.

Q: “What do the workshop teachers mean when they say ‘teaching the kids to think’ or talk about ‘developing personal responsibility’?”

A: Writing is a difficult process for most students, and reading for many others. There are many ways teachers try to ease that difficult or help kids overcome that difficulty. The method workshop employs is to set an expectation and then mentor the students along the way, giving them the opportunity to succeed, but also the opportunity to fail and learn from their mistakes. How this looks will vary from teacher to teacher, but the underlying philosophy is that kids should take the skills and strategies they learn and then use those skills and strategies in their own independent work.

When a teacher assigns work, the teacher has already done most of the hard thinking. Choosing a topic for writing is hard. Choosing the best order for thoughts in a written work is hard. In workshop, students are expected to do that hard work and gain the benefit of that hard work by becoming more critical and flexible in their thinking.