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Watch the 30-minute video “Fostering Choice and Independence.” Apply what you have learned in “Reasons for Writing” as you watch the extended video of classroom examples.
Answer the questions that follow each segment, jotting down your answers in your notebook or using them as discussion starters
Mark Hardy’s Class
On these first two days of school, Mark Hardy introduces his third-graders to two important components of the writing workshop: writing for a real audience and writing about what they know and love best.
Mark Hardy: Lesson Background (PDF)
Silvia Edgerton’s Class
Silvia Edgerton begins each writing workshop with a “status of the class,” in which she gathers her fifth-graders together to ask them what they plan to do that day. (If you are watching the video in segments, you will find this image at the beginning of the segment, approximately 18 minutes into the video.)