"She married a doctor, Charles Porter, and the couple lived in Massachusetts where they raised four children. She has said that three of the books, Hattie and the Wild Waves, Miss Rumphius, and Island Boy are as close as she will ever come to autobiography and readers will find similarities in them to her life. Like Miss Rumphius, Ms Cooney has traveled widely and she surely has made the world more beautiful with her work. She now lives in a house in Maine overlooking the sea. She may not have grown up on Tibbet's Island as Matthais did, but Maine is her chosen home and she relishes it with equal delight to his. Hattie and the Wild Waves depicts the affluent life of an unconventional and questing child growing up in Brooklyn, New York. Enough said?"
The Writing Workshop, similar to the Reading Workshop, is a method of teaching writing using a workshop method. Students are given opportunities to write in a variety of genres and helps foster a love of writing. The Writing Workshop allows teachers to meet the needs of their students by differentiating their instruction and gearing instruction based on information gathered throughout the workshop.
This page gives a basic overview of the Writing Workshop.