Viewers will see strategies and practices that encourage students to write. Teacher Mark Hardy's first days of school provide an example as he sets up the writing workshop by allowing his third graders to choose both the genre and the topic for their first pieces. Silvia Edgerton's fifth-grade class engages in a status-of-the-class activity.

Originally released by Annenberg Learner, 2007. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on July 17, 2019.

Laying Out Options (6:49); --Getting Started (5:35); -- Sharing First Works (4:45); -- Trusting the Kids, Building Independence (9:20); -- Credits: Fostering Choice and Independence (1:34); .