Workshop Challenges: Re-teaching versus Coaching
As I’ve implemented a readers-writers workshop approach over the past 18 months, I have noticed a challenge between different sections of my freshmen and sophomore English courses. In my Honors courses, workshop time generally entails brief coaching sessions on the big picture of writing tasks or brief chats on fine-tuning style. Conversely, my standard and inclusive (“Academic,” “college-prep” level) English classes often require more re-teaching or intensive scaffolding. This differentiation between the two types of courses has become more evident the more I get in-tune with my students’ needs and the workings of a workshop. Coaching in Workshop For my Honors-level students, workshop provides time for students to delve into their learning, and my Gifted Support co-teacher and I can ask a few clarifying questions, answer a few inquiries, or model sentence construction. For the most part, the students in our Honors courses pick up quickly on new ideas, so I can model combinin