Reading and Writer's Workshop

I have searched my memory and I cannot specifically pinpoint anything that I can confidently say, "Now, that took place in a reading or writing workshop." I do, however, remember learning everything in units. For instance, if the class was reading a book together, then suddenly everything we were doing in class seemed to be connected to the book in someway. I do wish that my classrooms in elementary school would have participated in literature circles. The most experience, and only experience, that I have had with literature circles have taken place in college. Literature circles are a great way to discuss literature and connect literature to personal experiences. Certain roles within the literature circle also connect the literature to history which brings in other subjects such as social studies.

I'm not sure if the classes that I was in, in elementary school, went about writer's workshop correctly. I don't remember if we had a full hour to work on our writings but I know that there were some other aspects of a writer's workshop that were present. I specifically remember going through all of the stages of the writing process before producing a final copy of my paper. We all started our papers at the same time but all continued at our own pace. I enjoyed this. However, more times than not, I remember simply turning my paper in. There were very few times that we had the opportunity to share our work with our peers. I believe that just turning papers in can sometimes change a students purpose of writing to writing for the teacher instead of writing for themselves.