How To Teach Writing Virtually

As if teaching writing in the traditional classroom wasn’t hard enough with jam-packed schedules and mandated curriculum. A global health crisis brought along different challenges of remote teaching which put a pin in our traditional teaching methods. Before COVID-19, Writer’s Workshop was our favorite time of day. My personal favorite was conferring with students and teaching skills and strategies in small groups. I wasn’t sure what writing would look like when we transitioned to remote teaching and learning, but I soon realized that it is not so different. In fact, once you set up the components virtually, it is quite the same.

Mini-Lesson

Teaching mini-lessons virtually are basically the same. A mini-lesson is a brief, 10-15 minute lesson that focuses on one thing. Mini-lessons are based on real things that your writers need to know. You may be teaching your students a strategy or skill that they can immediately try in their writing. During virtual teaching, share your screen or use a document camera to display the text and/or illustrations. For example, you may want to use mentor texts to teach leads or endings. You may want to demonstrate a specific trait of writing. I always begin my mini-lessons with, “Today I’d like to teach you or show you how writers do…….” Then students practice what they have learned from the mini-lesson during independent writing.

Independent Writing

Most of the writing time should be dedicated to students independently writing. Students should be independently writing for about 20-30 minutes practicing and applying what they have learned from the mini-lesson. Keep those who are independently writing in the main Zoom room. Students can write on a Google doc which is excellent for giving live feedback when conferring.

Status of the Class

Status of the Class gives the teacher a quick snapshot of where each student is in the writing process each day. Students move a pencil with their name to the stage of writing to show you where they are in the writing process. Students should update this slide daily during the first few minutes of Writer’s Workshop. The teacher glances at it as well, taking note of students progressing throughout the writing process or those who may be stuck and need additional conferring.

Teacher Student Conferring

Students will need individual support and instruction. Use breakout rooms to confer with students.  You can confer with individual students, one on one conferring, or you may want to pull a small group of students to teach a common skill or strategy that is needed among the group. Be sure to focus on one thing that the writer(s) needs to know and can apply to their writing.

Some questions to guide your conferences:

• What are you working on?
• What can I help you with?
• What would you like to focus on?
• Can you read me some of what you’ve got?
• What are you going to do next?

Peer Conferences

While the teacher is conferring with individual students or a small group of students, some students may need a little help or support. Sometimes they are stuck and need help moving forward. Open up a breakout room for students who would like to confer with peers. Limit this group to 2-3 students. This provides a way for students to get help if they are stuck while waiting for a conference with the teacher. It also allows students to engage with peers which may increase productivity and creativity.

I suggest planning out conferences beforehand by looking at the Status of the Class slide. Plan who you will need to confer with individually or in small groups and those who would like to have a peer conference. When a student has received the help they need, they exit the breakout room to go back into the main Zoom room to resume independent writing.

Share

Allow about 5 minutes or so at the end of each Writer’s Workshop for a brief share. Sharing gives writers a chance to address a real audience and get valuable feedback. Students give kind, helpful, and specific feedback or ask thoughtful questions to help the writer.

Sample Writer’s Workshop Schedule (45 minutes total)

• Mini-Lesson (10-15 minutes)
• Independent Writing and Conferring (20-30 minutes)
• Share (5 minutes)

You may not be in a traditional classroom setting this year but don’t let that stop you from teaching writing. A virtual Writer’s Workshop allows you to teach writing while also meeting your students’ needs no matter which grade you teach. Even if you have never taught writing using the workshop model, it’s a great way to structure your writing block virtually. Definitely give it a try!

Now let’s put it all together and get started. Here’s a FREE guide for organizing and managing a virtual Writer’s Workshop.

Includes:

• An overview of a virtual Writer’s Workshop
• How to organize and manage a virtual Writer’ Workshop
• Mini-Lesson overview
• Mini-Lesson example and template
• Status of the Class overview and copy of the Status of the Class slide
• Conferring overview
• Peer conferring overview
• Conferring sign up
• Conferring log
• Share overview

 

 

Take-Home Points:

• You can teach writing virtually.
• You can still confer with your students.
• Students can and should write independently for most of the writing time.
• Even if you have never used the workshop model, it’s a great way to structure your writing block virtually.

Related blog posts to support writing instruction:

Teaching Writing Through Mentor Texts

4 Ways To Get Your Students to Love Writing

From The Desk of The Grading Guru and Why “Good Job” Isn’t Enough

5 Ways To Get Your Students Out of The Reluctant Writer’s Rut

4 Ways To Coach The Revision Process To Develop Writers

Writer’s Workshop Boot Camp for the Elementary Teacher

Resources to support your writing instruction:

⭐Writer’s Workshop Modeling Script

⭐ Writer’s Workshop Boot Camp Mini-Course

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Bundle

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Mini Lesson BUNDLE: Narrative, Informative, Persuasive

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Mini-Lessons: Narrative, Informational & Persuasive Gr 2-3

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Mini-Lessons: Narrative, Informational & Persuasive Gr 4-5

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Mini-Lessons: Narrative, Informational & Persuasive Gr K-1

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Mini-Lessons: Persuasive/Argument/Opinion

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Posters & Student Checklists

⭐ Six Traits of Writing Sticky Note Checklists

Now, let’s teach some writing!

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