Fitting in Writer's Workshop

[rmclure]

I am wondering about time. I know this is the age old challenge, right? Anyway, I understand that the writing part of the Daily 5 is separate from Writer's Workshop, but how do you fit in both? What kind of time does your schedule allow for this? How much time is dedicated to a true writer's workshop each day? Each week? Just trying to figure out how to fit it all in.

[julie_funk]

Hi there! We've been running Lucy Calkins' writer's workshop for several years now. We dedicate a minimum of 45 minutes every day for WW. I teach 2nd grade, so the focus is very much on literacy content.

I know what a struggle it is to try to fit it all in during a school week! In my classroom, these are my "core" time frames

Reader's workshop - 90 min.
Writer's workshop - 45 min.
Math Workshop - 60 minutes

There's a little extra time in each day that's flexible (after you subtract music, PE, etc.) for special units, social studies, science, cursive handwriting, etc.

What's great about Calkins writer's workshop is that her 2nd unit of study (in second grade) is focused on informational and scientific writing. So we are able to integrate science into our WW and that takes care of both at one time.

Social studies is fairly easy to tuck into reader's workshop while studying non-fiction text with biographies about famous Americans.

I hope this helps... good luck as you launch WW in your classroom. I love it, and can honestly say that my writers in the past few years have become much stronger through the WW program.

Cheers ~
Julie