Course Description
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Readers’ and Writers’ Studio

Students and teachers will read for pleasure across multiple genres and write to explore, explain, convince, and create in multiple genres. We will work in and out of school, pursue our interests, capitalize on our strengths, address areas of weakness, and share our literacy projects with each other and with audiences outside our immediate community. Our classes will be divided into Writers’ Studios and Readers’ Studios.

Expectations and Procedures

Writers’ Studio
Students will write to inform and persuade in the first semester (news story, review, and "This I Believe" essay) and to entertain and move in the second (poetry and fiction).

  • The agenda for each class is as follows: notebook quick-writes (everyone writes an exploratory three-line entry in his or her notebook); a focus lesson (the teacher introduces a specific skill); status-of-the-class (each student commits to what he or she will work on during class); studio (everyone composes).
     
  • Students must bring these tools to every Writers’ Studio: the Punctuation Pocket (containing drafts of compositions-in-process and distributed class materials); Writers Inc; a flash drive or other portable memory; the notebook; the pleasure book being currently read; and, on occasion, another assigned book.
     
  • Students will use class time to invent, research, draft, confer, workshop, revise, edit, proofread, and publish their compositions.
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    Readers' Studio
    All will read for pleasure. Readers select their own books with advice and guidance from other students and teachers. All share their discoveries about literature with each other.

  • In addition to reading in school, all are required to read a minimum of thirty (30) minutes in one sitting outside of class every day, weekends and holidays included.
     
  • Students must bring these tools to every Writers’ Studio: the Punctuation Pocket (containing drafts of compositions-in-process and distributed class materials); Writers Inc; a flash drive or other portable memory; the notebook; the pleasure book being currently read; and, on occasion, another assigned book.
     
  • Each semester, every reader will initiate and complete six letter-essay exchanges with members of the class. Each letter-essay must be word-processed and delivered through Gmail to the recipient and the teacher. The recipient must respond within twenty-four hours in the same way. Both letter-essay writers must print both letters and affix them in their notebooks. Readers must send letter-essays to their teacher at least three times in the first semester.
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    The Notebook
    Students must bring their composition notebooks to every Studio. In it, readers and writers make the following entries, each of which must be dated and maintained in chronological order:

    Write the page number at the top right of each page.

    Self-Evaluation
    At the end of a marking period, each student will compose a self-evaluation and will confer with his or her teacher about work completed, learning attempted and accomplished, and goals for growth.

    Assessment and Evaluation
    Each student’s portfolio will be assessed and evaluated individually. There will be no comparison of performance; instead, every grade earned will represent a student’s unique set of strengths and weaknesses and will reflect the performance of one individual only. In general, an A signifies exceptional performance in all aspects of the course; a B signifies solid performance in all aspects of the course; a C signifies competent performance in all aspects of the course; anything lower than a C indicates that the student has not met course expectations.