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Writer to Writer: 7 Community-Building Workshops for Teaching
Writer to Writer: 7 Community-Building Workshops for Teaching
Language Arts (Grades 6–12)
Language Arts (Grades 6–12)
Writer to Writer has been shaping secondary ELA instruction through the combined decades of research, teaching, and collaboration of its authors. Written by Sarah J. Donovan and Jennifer Yong Sanders, Writer to Writer provides humanizing, relational pedagogies to make every student uncover their unique voice and express themselves authentically beyond grades and correctness. Our seven community-building workshops are here to support your instructional moves and unlock the "writerly minds" of students in grades 6–12. We exclusively use writer-centered routines and practical, compassionate scaffolds such as writer’s notebooks and culturally relevant mentor texts.
Writer to Writer has been shaping secondary ELA instruction through the combined decades of research, teaching, and collaboration of its authors. Written by Sarah J. Donovan and Jennifer Yong Sanders, Writer to Writer provides humanizing, relational pedagogies to make every student uncover their unique voice and express themselves authentically beyond grades and correctness. Our seven community-building workshops are here to support your instructional moves and unlock the "writerly minds" of students in grades 6–12. We exclusively use writer-centered routines and practical, compassionate scaffolds such as writer’s notebooks and culturally relevant mentor texts.
We have been featured in numerous journals including Voices from the Middle, Language Arts, The Reading Teacher, Literacy Research and Instruction, and Middleweb. Our pedagogical experts have appeared through the National Writing Project, Teachers College Press, and Oklahoma State University platforms. Our collaborative authors have worked with hundreds of preservice and inservice teachers to reimagine ELA curriculum for a digital, interconnected world.
We have been featured in numerous journals including Voices from the Middle, Language Arts, The Reading Teacher, Literacy Research and Instruction, and Middleweb. Our pedagogical experts have appeared through the National Writing Project, Teachers College Press, and Oklahoma State University platforms. Our collaborative authors have worked with hundreds of preservice and inservice teachers to reimagine ELA curriculum for a digital, interconnected world.
Trust the process and launch your first workshop today.
Trust the process and launch your first workshop today.
Workshop 1: Writers Notebooks
Workshop 1: Writers Notebooks
This foundational workshop establishes the writer’s notebook as the curriculum itself. Rather than using a traditional textbook, students fill physical notebooks with daily, low-stakes writing, flash drafts, and craft notes. The goal is to build writing fluency and mental stamina while establishing a "culture of vulnerability and bravery" where students feel safe to explore their own ideas.
Workshop 2: Building Connections Through Critical Place Poetry
Workshop 2: Building Connections Through Critical Place Poetry
Taught early in the year to build community, this workshop uses place-based writing to help students honor their identities and cultural backgrounds. Students study mentor poems to "Notice & Name" authorial craft moves and then create their own counter-stories that challenge regional stereotypes. The workshop culminates in a celebration of the writer’s voice through an Open Mic or Gallery Walk.
Workshop 3: Exploring Our Journeys in Personal Narrative Writing
Workshop 3: Exploring Our Journeys in Personal Narrative Writing
This workshop focuses on creative nonfiction, inviting students to story their own physical or metaphorical journeys through specific spaces. By studying counter-narratives in picture books, students learn to disrupt mainstream narratives and center historically marginalized perspectives. Instruction focuses on narrative craft moves such as dialogue, sensory language, and motif.
Workshop 4: Fantasy Writing—Creating Speculative Futures
Workshop 4: Fantasy Writing—Creating Speculative Futures
Students are invited to engage their imaginations to create "what if" scenarios that move toward more just and hopeful futures. The focus is on flash fiction (stories under 1,000 words), which requires writers to practice brevity and trust their readers to infer details. Students engage in world-building by mapping their own internal identities to ensure their fictional worlds are intentional and consistent.
Workshop 5: Reading Like a Novelist
Workshop 5: Reading Like a Novelist
This workshop disrupts the traditional whole-class novel study by focusing on how long-form texts are constructed. Students "read in service of their writing," tracing how authors develop characters, build suspense, and reveal themes over several chapters. The workshop emphasizes collaborative talk through fishbowl discussions and one-on-one reading conferring.
Workshop 6: Becoming Literary Critics
Workshop 6: Becoming Literary Critics
Designed to foster critical consciousness, this workshop teaches students to analyze literature through various theoretical lenses, such as critical literacy, feminist, or queer analysis. Using genocide studies as a thematic anchor, students learn to move beyond simple summary to write comparative analytic essays that interrogate power, privilege, and social systems.
Workshop 7: Nurturing Critical Conversation as Argumentative Writing
Workshop 7: Nurturing Critical Conversation as Argumentative Writing
Reimagining argument as a critical conversation rather than a winner-takes-all debate, this workshop focuses on advocacy and social action. Students create multimodal texts, such as TED-style "Youth Talks," that blend linguistic, visual, and gestural modes. Instruction focuses on sophisticated rhetorical moves: illustrating with personal experience, authorizing with expert evidence, and extending the ideas of others.
Jenn & Sarah
Jenn & Sarah
Jenn Yong Sanders
Jenn Yong Sanders
Jenn Yong Sanders is a professor of literacy education at Oklahoma State University who works with K–12 teachers to enact culturally sustaining and relational writing instruction.
Sarah J. Donovan
Sarah J. Donovan
Sarah J. Donovan is an associate professor of secondary English education at Oklahoma State University who leads professional development on workshop routines, genre-based instruction, and ethical assessment.
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