Writer to Writer: 7 Community-Building Workshops for Teaching Language Arts (Grades 6-12)

The guided workshops depicted in this book offer seven, ready-to-implement instructional units that walk secondary language arts teachers through practical, day-one engagements to get writers collaborating and connecting with one another.

By focusing on texts from a writer’s point of view, Writer to Writer offers a fresh vision for teaching language arts that dramatically increases engagement by centering student lives, voices, and peer relationships. Grounded in a workshop model, this book blends theory and practice to show how writing and reading can be humanizing, relational, and responsive for adolescent learners.

Across seven genre-based workshops that include place-based poetry, narrative, speculative fantasy, novel study, literary analysis, and argumentative writing, readers will find practical routines, mentor text studies, conferring strategies, low-stakes daily writing invitations, and author’s craft lessons. This culturally sustaining instruction fosters student agency and engagement while ensuring robust alignment with academic standards and assessment demands in ethical, relational ways.

New and experienced teachers will find inspiration, concrete tools, and renewed purpose in this curriculum designed to reduce planning time and resist burnout, allowing you to reclaim the joy of teaching ELA.

Book Features:

• A holistic, relational vision for ELA curriculum: seven distinct workshops on writer’s notebooks, place-based poetry, narrative, speculative fantasy, novel study, literary analysis, and argument writing.
• Ready-to-use, teacher-friendly features: guided lessons in “instructional invitations,” peer conferring protocols, write-in activities, mentor text suggestions, assessment tools, and celebration practices.
• An innovative integration of joy and critical justice: practical teaching routines blended with critical pedagogies such as grammar as linguistic justice, place-based poetry, and writing speculative futures to promote equitable instruction.
• Assessment that humanizes learning: concrete models of ethical grading, including student self-assessment tools and reflection practices integrated into each workshop
• Professional development in book form: a series of workshops designed for both individual teachers, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), or book study groups.

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. 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. Contact the authors for professional development partnerships!