Small Groups in Writing Workshops

Providing personal yet professional guidelines for introducing students to the life of a writer, this book provides a rationale, a set of principles, and some possible methods for using small groups in writing workshops. The book discusses how small groups can provide growing writers with the four essentials which all writers need: time for writing; ownership over their topics and processes; ongoing responses to their writing; and exposure to the writing of others. Chapters in the book are: (1) "Invitations to a Writer's Life: Guidelines for Designing Small-Group Writing Classes" (Robert Brooke); (2) "Our Students' Experiences with Groups" (Robert Brooke and others); (3) "Teaching from Experience, Claiming Small Groups" (Robert Brooke and others); (4) "Model Groups and Un-Model Writers: Introducing First- and Second-Year College Students to a Writer's Life" (Ruth Mirtz); (5) "Individualization and Group Work: A Small-Group Writing Workshop and Individualized Invitations to a Writer's Life" (Robert Brooke); (6) "Changing the Frame: Writing, Reading, and Learning about Writing in Small Groups" (Rick Evans); (7) "A Conversation about Small Groups" (Ruth Mirtz); and (8) "Exhortation: Beyond the Small Group--Personal, Pedagogical, and Professional Lives" (Robert Brooke and others). An annotated list of 11 recommended readings is attached. (RS)