Based on a profound understanding of the ways in which young children learn, this book shows teachers how to launch a writing workshop by inviting children to do what they do naturally - make stuff.

A full-time writer and researcher of the teaching of writing, Katie Wood Ray works with teachers across the country The 2002 recipient of the prestigious NCTE/Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing, Lisa B. Cleaveland is a first-grade teacher at Jonathan Valley Elementary School in Waynesville, North Carolina

Building a Strong Foundation
Writing Workshop: A Happy Place Where We Make Stuff
Work, Space, and Time: Writing Workshop Right from the Start
Wrapping Strong Arms Around the Writing Workshop: Children Learning About Language All Day Long
How Our Youngest Writers Use the Writing Process to Help Them Make Books
Understanding the Teaching
Looking Closely at Minilessons: Whole-Class Teaching That Fills the Workshop with Possibilities
Organizing for Thoughtful Instruction with Units of Study
Assessment: Learning All We Can About the Authors
Teaching Into and Out of the Work of Individual Children: Writing Conferences and Share Times
An Overview of Units of Study
A. The Kinds of Things Writers Make and How We'll Make Them in This Room
B. Where Writers Get Ideas
C. How to Read Like Writers
D. Finding Writing Mentors
E. How to Structure Texts in Interesting Ways
F. How to Make Illustrations Work Better with Written Text
G. How to Have Better Peer Conferences
H. Literary Nonfiction
How to Use Punctuation in Interesting Ways
J. Poetry
K. Revision