I have always loved the term/concept of "workshop" because it conjures up everyone working on whatever they needed/chose to, but they had a space to work, time to work, and all the materials and tools available, as well as masters to consult and apprentices to teach (also a powerful teaching/learning opportunity). The feelings of authentic engagement and acceptance, and a value for diversity, coupled with shared responsibility and "power-sharing," were key in my perception of the workshop as an ideal model. Now comes the term/concept of "studio" and I realized how I had under-utilized perhaps the most important ingredient of all in my vision: creativity. The image of a little old man in a workshop lovingly polishing the finish on a cradle has always appealed to me and now I realize that's probably because my mind took me ALMOST to understanding the "studio" model. I think I'm beginning to understand why Ellin grew discontented with the workshop model designation and stretched her understanding to allow for a studio model, which I agree is probably more powerful than a workshop model. Hmmmm. And do you know what frustrates me beyond words? It's that ... at just this time when powerful new thinking is "out there" that schools are adopting more and more models of linear, single-dimensional learning such as Reading Mastery or Saxon math. My fear has always been that having to "teach" that model will drive all of our deep thinkers and creative colleagues out of our profession. We'll be left with people for whom the phrase "to understand" is stripped of possibility because it doesn't fit the "conveyer belt" model of instruction. Maybe that's not a coincidence. initial post: I love the Ellin's term "Literacy Studio" - it conjures up an image of an artist's studio with lots of different things going on at different stages using all kinds of mediums. And isn't that what our classrooms should look like - our students involved in different things at different stages? As I read through Ellin's descriptions of the composing sessions and invitational groups, I could just see the students laying on their stomachs, or lounging on comfy pillows, or rereading part of writing that they were trying to get just right.
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