Sitting in my professional development on Writer’s Workshop and I’m thinking about how I have taught writing in my classroom in the past. I feel I have taught and developed a couple of units a year decently well, but have never had great PD or mentor to show me how to really develop a writer’s workshop unit. Which means that those units have had a backbone of the genre we are working in and the focus we are taking, but the details have never been carefully crafted and the wrap-ups of the units have often extended beyond what I thought was a reasonable timeline.

I had Writer’s Workshop training in grad school, read Katie Wood Ray’s book, used the NOYCE narrative writing unit, and taught my own expository unit each year, but still don’t feel I know where to start and how to craft a unit well. Does anyone have any resources, tips, or ideas that could help me in my quest to be a good writing teacher? In addition, does anyone incorporate Step Up to Writing or any other writing curriculums in tandem with Writer’s Workshop?