Writing Circles: Kids Revolutionize Workshop

Listen to a podcast with Jim Vopat and Harvey "Smokey" Daniels.

"Ever wish there was a structure that let kids work collaboratively to generate writing topics, complete drafts, learn and practice positive ways of response, and develop published pieces? To give every kid in the class a feeling of success, a sense of what it means to be a writer? Writing Circles are here to grant those wishes."

-Jim Vopat

If literature circles work with your readers, Jim Vopat has exciting news: peer-led small groups are just as effective with writers.

Read Writing Circles and find out how they:

• lead students from practice to progress as they write, respond, and lead one another toward better writing
• motivate and engage everyone through choice-including struggling writers and English learners
• develop voice and encourage risk-taking across genres
• rehabilitate the writing wounded and nurture growth through peer response-not critique
• make teaching more efficient by reducing the need for one-on-one conferring.

Vopat helps you get started with circles and shows how they can help you achieve instructional goals. He includes step-by-step guidance for implementation and assessment, activities that make management smooth, and minilessons that scaffold growth in skills, topic selection, and craft.

Writing Circles are a revolution, not an evolution, in writing workshop-the missing link between independent student writing and whole-group instruction.Try them with your students; give kids the space, safety, and support they need; and see why circles are as powerful for writers as they are for readers.

"Writing Circles is that elusive something new under the sun, a genuine departure and an exciting step ahead. It's what's next. And it is also something big.... If you are already using literature circles or book clubs in your classroom, you will immediately see how fresh and engaging Writing Circles is."

-Harvey "Smokey" Daniels

Author of Mini-lessons for Literature Circles and Literature Circles, Second Edition