About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest WritersAuthor: Katie Wood Ray with Lisa B. Cleaveland
Format: Paperback
Published: Heinemann, 2004

Ray demonstrates what it takes to nourish writing in students grades K-2: a supportive environment that enables even the youngest students to write; respect and sensitivity to the way children really learn; inviting instruction that both encourages and elevates young writers; rich language that stimulates writing; classroom talk and children's literature that energize young writers; developmental considerations that shape the structure of the workshop, making it natural, joyful, and absolutely appropriate. Ray explains step by step how to set up and maintain a primary writing workshop, detailing eleven units of study that cover idea generation, text structures, different genres, and illustrations that work with text. She also draws on data, projects, and the language of teaching used in the classroom of first-grade teacher Lisa Cleaveland. Ray allows readers to "listen in" on Lisa as she helps her young students learn from professional writers, work with intention, and think about their own process.