Writers’ Workshop Troubleshooting Guide

Writers’ Workshop Dilemmas	Questions/Ideas to Consider	Possible Solutions
There is not enough time in the day to do Writers’ Workshop.	Rethink the way you use time in your classroom in order to have at least 4 days a week for students to write.	Eliminate calendar time. Eliminate holiday curriculum. Begin writing as soon as the students enter in the morning. Teach grammar and punctuation during Writers’ Workshop. Reduce the use of workbooks.
My students are not excited about writing. They dread writing time and spend most of the time off task.	Reflect on the ways you encourage choice: How do you help students find topics they care about? How much topic choice is allowed in the classroom?	Read powerful literature. Stop writing for a few days and begin having students tell stories that are important to their lives. Have students write stories for a younger class. Have students bring photographs or items from home that are special to them. Students may use these to get ideas for writing.
My students are writing very simple pieces that do not show any risk-taking. All of the words are spelled correctly in first drafts; there is no experimentation with different writing strategies, etc.	Reflect on the ways you encourage students to take risks in their writing: What language do you use to encourage risk taking? What expectations do you set that discourage or prevent students from taking risks? How do you show students that writing is a messy process as you draft and revise each piece?	Write in front of the students and model how to try new ideas. Share a former student’s drafts and final pieces. During Group Share, invite students to share excerpts from their writing that demonstrate trying a new strategy. It is not important that the strategy be applied correctly, but that the students’ work shows risk-taking.
Students are distracted during Writers’ Workshop. They are interrupting during conferences; the classroom is noisy; etc.	Spend 15 minutes watching Writers’ Workshop. Write down your observations. Decide which issues need to be addressed with the whole class.	Have a whole class discussion about the problem you observed. Elicit solutions from the students. After each session, ask the students to discuss the class’ progress in solving the problem. Role-play the situation with a few students. Discuss possible solutions with the class. Teach more focus lessons about the routines and management of Writers’ Workshop.