What do Children Value in a K/1 Writing Workshop?

Abstract

Writing workshop models, historically grounded in expressivist views of writing, emphasize student agency by encouraging choice of topics, genres, and audiences. At the same time, workshops have been critiqued for privileging personal narratives, overlooking popular culture, and reproducing dominant cultural norms. Drawing on a communities of practice framework, this qualitative case study examined what children value in a K/1 writing workshop. Data sources included classroom observations, student focus groups, interviews, and analyses of student texts collected across two spring semesters in a university-affiliated laboratory school. Findings show that students valued a wide range of topics and genres, appreciated multimodality and humor, and frequently wrote with and for peers. These practices reflected a classroom community characterized by collaboration, shared routines, and opportunities for student agency. The study highlights how young writers negotiate purpose and audience within social writing practices and raises questions about how and when explicit instruction about genre and audience might be introduced in early writing instruction.