The Writing Workshop as a student-centred approach: strengths and weaknesses

The paper examines the Writing Workshop, a process-oriented approach to teaching writing, in the context of Italian middle schools. This method, which emerged in the 1970s in the U.S. (Murray, 1972; Calkins, 1983), emphasises writing as a process and focuses on autonomy, student agency and teacher support. In recent years, it has also gained importance in Italy (Poletti-Riz, 2017). The adaptation of the method is analysed, as well as Writing Workshop’s adherence to an authentic student-centred approach (Starkey, 2019). The main strengths of the method and the challenges of its implementation in the Italian context are analysed based on teachers’ opinions on the subject and theoretical consideration. The paper concludes that while the Writing Workshop has significant potential, its success depends on thoughtful integration, teacher readiness to implement it, and ongoing research. Further research is recommended to evaluate its long-term effectiveness in Italian schools.