When Writers Drive the Workshop: Honoring Young Voices and Bold Choices

With increasing school mandates and pressure to perform well on standardized tests, writing instruction has shifted to more accountability, taking the focus away from the writer. In his engaging book, When Writers Drive the Workshop: Honoring Young Voices and Bold Choices, author Brian Kissel asks teachers to go back to the roots of the writing workshop and let the students lead the conference.

What happens when students, not tests, determine what they learned through reflection and self-evaluation? In When Writers Drive the Workshop, you'll find practical ideas, guiding beliefs, FAQs, and Digital Diversions to help visualize digital possibilities in the classroom.

Written in an engaging, teacher-to-teacher style, this book focuses on four key components of writing workshop:

• Student-led conferring sessions where the teachers are the listeners.
• The Author's Chair-, where students set the agenda and gather feedback.
• Structured reflection time for students to set goals and expectations for themselves.
• Mini lessons that allow for detours based on students' needs, not teacher or curricula goals.

All students have the powerful, shared need to be heard; when they choose their writing topics, they can see their lives unfold on the page. Teachers are educated by the bold choices of these young voices.

Brian Kissel, an educator for over 20 years, is a professor of Literacy and Elementary Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A former elementary school teacher and literacy coach, Brian teaches courses in writing instruction, digital literacy, and literacy development and instruction. He also conducts research in the areas of writing development and instruction.

Brian began his career as a 2nd grade teacher in Jacksonville, Florida. He taught various grade levels at the elementary school level. Eventually, he began working as a literacy coach--first in an elementary school and later as a traveling literacy coach in various pre-kindergarten classrooms.

Brian went to the University of Virginia to pursue a doctorate degree in Elementary Education with an emphasis on literacy. He studied under Jane Hansen, who, along with colleague Donald Graves, was an influential voice in literacy learning. Jane gave Brian important advice as a graduate student when she said, "As a professor, it's important that you never leave real classrooms." So, upon graduation from UVA, Brian accepted a job as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he spends 1-2 days a week teaching in various K-5 classrooms.

As a researcher, Brian is the author of several book chapters and journal articles in journals such as The Reading Teacher, Young Children, Childhood Education, and Journal of Research in Childhood Education. He is the author of three books: The Literacy Coach's Companion, Perspectives and Provocations in Early Childhood, and What's New in Literacy Teaching.

This is Brian's fourth book and it represents his most personal professional book to date. Weaving together stories from his own classroom experiences with stories he gathered by teaching in others' classrooms, Brian writes about the Writer's Workshop from the perspective of writers. Noticing a trend in many classrooms where writing has become more teacher-, standard-, and assessment-driven experience, Brian examined classrooms in which writing instruction was more writer-driven. He explored what happens when writers lead the mini-lessons, guide the conferences, drive the Author's Chair, and self-reflect on their learning. In classrooms where authors have authority, he noticed that writers flourish. In this book When Writers Drive the Workshop: Honoring the Young Voices and Bold Choices, Brian writes about the powerful ways teachers empowered their students to make important decisions for themselves as writers. And he uses their stories to show other K-5 teachers how they might envision writing instruction differently in their own classrooms.

Brian lives in Davidson, North Carolina with his wife, Hattie, twin sons Ben and Charlie, and daughter Harriet.