Stacey Shubitz and Lynne Dorfman welcome you to experience the writing workshop for the first time or in a new light with Welcome to Writing Workshop: Engaging Today's Students with a Model That Works. Through strategic routines, tips, resources, and short focused video clips, teachers can create the sights and sounds of a thriving writing workshop where:
- Both students and teachers are working authors
- Students spend most of their time writing--not just learning about it
- Student choice is encouraged to help create engaged writers, not compliant ones
- Students are part of the formative assessment process
- Students will look forward to writing time--not dread it.
From explanations of writing process and writing traits to small-group strategy lessons and mini-lessons, this book will provide the know-how to feel confident and comfortable in the teaching of writers.
Shubitz, Stacey: -
For the past fifteen years, Stacey has worked with writers and teachers of writers, inspiring them with the power of writing workshop. Stacey began her career in education teaching fifth grade at P.S. 171 in East Harlem, New York, and then fourth grade at The Learning Community, a public charter school in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Stacey now works as a literacy consultant and an adjunct professor. She is also the Chief of Operations and Lead Writer for Two Writing Teachers, a popular blog about the teaching of writing.
Stacey grew up in the New York Metropolitan Area and wanted to be a writer thanks to the inspiration of her first-grade teacher, Carol Snook, who used the writing workshop approach (in 1982) long before it was popular. She thought of becoming a teacher during college, but instead worked as an assistant editor for iVillage.com and did public relations for several small cosmetics companies. "With every press release I wrote, I realized my true calling was to work with children," she says. Stacey earned her M.S. Ed. degree from Hunter College of the City University of New York and a master's degree in literacy from Teachers College at Columbia University.
Stacey specializes in mentor texts, conferring, and the routines of writing workshop. Her passion is helping teachers develop a writing identity. "When I was a classroom teacher, I wanted my students to live like writers. I realized my students needed to see my writing, hear my thinking about writing, and understand my struggles as a writer if I was going to have credibility when I conferred with them," she says. Seeing as teachers are the living, breathing authors in the room, Stacey believes teachers must sit beside students, as writers, and talk about their writing process so young writers can understand why and how craft moves are made. "Some teachers I've worked with don't think they're good writers. They're paralyzed with fear because somewhere along the way they were made to feel afraid of writing. One of my greatest joys is helping teachers overcome their discomfort with writing so they can positively impact the lives of the children they teach by becoming a mentor author for their students."
Stacey's first Stenhouse book, Day By Day: Refining Writing Workshop Through 180 Days of Reflective Practice, co-authored with Ruth Ayres, provides teachers with daily encouragement, practical strategies, and advice to run an effective writing workshop that meets the needs of elementary writers. Her latest book, Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts, includes more than 180 lessons to teach various craft moves found in children's picture books that will help K-5 students become better writers.
In her free time, Stacey cooks, swims, and practices Pilates. A beach-lover, she dreams of living and writing by the sea when she "grows up." For the foreseeable future, she lives in Central Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter.
