The First 15 Days of Writer’s Workshop
Write This Way From the Start: The First 15 Days of Writer’s Workshop
By Kelly Boswell
(Capstone Professional, 2018 – Learn more)
Reviewed by Lisa Signorelli
Have you ever wanted to create the perfect writing workshop, but had no idea how to? Well, the search is over.
In Write This Way from the Start: The First 15 Days of Writer’s Workshop, Kelly Boswell gives us the tools in the easiest format to understand and emulate. She’s borrowed from the masters like Calkins, Fletcher, Gallagher and Fisher.
For those of us in education who have tried various ways to start a writing workshop, I can say that this has been the most sustaining one to date for my colleagues and myself.
As a lifelong learner, I’m always reading about ways to improve on things that I am already doing in my classroom, which is why I love this book. I was able to read Write This Way From the Start in one sitting and plan my writing workshop for the following two weeks. It is that easy.
Boswell supplies ideas, routines, anchor charts, and the teacher talk. I love to use metaphors with my students, and this book is the “cookbook for writer’s workshop.” If you follow the steps, you and your students will experience the joy of writing.
I would recommend this book if you are a brand new K-8 teacher who has not seen a writer’s workshop in action, for veteran teachers who want to jazz up their writing workshop, or for literacy coaches who need to inspire teachers to try a sustaining writer’s workshop. I have shared multiple copies with my colleagues in both elementary and middle school with great success.
Lisa Signorelli has been involved in education since 1985. She earned her master’s degree in reading education in 1989. She has held many teaching positions in both New York and Virginia from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Her current position is as a reading specialist/literacy coach at a high needs middle school. She is an avid reader of both young adult literature and educational pedagogy. Her goal is to have a book in every student’s hand that they can call their own by the end of the school year.
