Emergent Writers’ Workshop Writers’ Workshop is a wonderful approach to writing instruction because it gives students many choices and lots of time to practice. Generally, the teacher chooses the genre and the students are allowed to pick their own topic within that genre. A typical workshop lesson would contain the following pieces: Mini-lesson (short, 5-15 minutes) Independent writing time and conferring with teacher (usually about 30 minutes) Sharing Time (5-10 minutes) These elements may look a little different in a classroom of emerging writers, especially at first as the students are building up their stamina. There are specific things you want to look for in the work of emerging writers. These are the students we typically find in our Transitional Kindergarten, Kindergarten and First Grade classrooms. Are they primarily expressing themselves through pictures? If so, is there meaning in the pictures? Can they “read” their writing to you? Are they