What if we don’t launch Writing Workshop in August? Last year, I proposed this idea to our Kindergarten team: What if we started with Story Workshop instead? For several weeks, children composed stories through play, loose parts, clay, blocks, drawing, and oral storytelling, while receiving explicit phonics instruction each day. We weren’t waiting for them to be “ready” to write. Instead, we wondered what might happen if we gave storytelling and composition more time and space before asking written language to carry so much of the load. By the time we launched Writing Workshop in October, we noticed some exciting changes. In this post, I share what we tried, what we noticed, and why we’re excited to try it again this year.
An Invitation to Keep Students at the Center of Professional Conversations
The most meaningful conversations about teaching begin with students. This post explores how centering student voices and evidence can lead to more thoughtful, responsive decisions about teaching and learning.
Share this:
Share this:
It’s Tuesday! Join us for Slice of Life!
Write, share, give.
Share this:
Share this:
Worth the Time Invested: Why Slicing with Your Class Changes Everything
Have you wanted to join the slicing community but haven't had a mentor? Today's guest blogger, Erika Victor, was keen and asked her class to join, which was a win-win. Joining the challenge with your class adds depth to your classroom writing community in ways that will surprise you.
Share this:
Share this:
Modeling and Mentors: Finding Common Ground
On the last day of this week's Finding Common Ground Blog Series, learn about the difference between demonstration texts and mentor texts. Both types of text have an important place in writing instruction.
Share this:
Share this:
Balancing Choice and Assignments in Writing Instruction: Finding Common Ground
Required writing units don’t have to mean zero choice for students. There are seven areas where you can still offer meaningful options: audience, genre, mentorship, process, strategies, tools, and topic. Choice helps kids stay invested in their writing even within a scripted curriculum. You’ll find practical ideas you can use right away to balance required assignments with student-centered choice. Small shifts can make a big difference.
Share this:
Share this:
Foundational Skills and Composition: Finding Common Ground
Opportunities to develop fluent transcription, accurate spelling, and flexible sentence construction flourish within authentic reasons for communicating ideas. Foundational skills, sometimes also called transcriptive skills, work in conjunction with compositional skills. When these two aspects of writing grow together, each reinforces the other.
Share this:
Share this:
Writing Workshop and Cross-Curricular Writing: Finding Common Ground
To develop the strongest writers with the skills to navigate complex ideas, research, draft, and produce well-composed pieces, students need ongoing opportunities to build their writing skills seamlessly across the entire school day. Today's post in the Finding Common Ground blog series focuses on ways to seamlessly link writing with content area instruction.
Share this:
Share this:
It’s Tuesday! Join us for Slice of Life!
Write, share, give.
Share this:
Share this:
Explicit Instruction and Responsive Instruction: Finding Common Ground
Are we teaching writing, or are we teaching writers? It's a question that's becoming increasingly important as schools balance curriculum fidelity with meeting the needs of the students sitting in front of us. This post explores how explicit instruction and responsive teaching work together to create meaningful writing instruction.
Share this:
Share this:
It’s Slice of Life Tuesday!
It's Tuesday. Write. Share. Give!
Share this:
Share this:
It’s Slice of Life Tuesday!
It's Tuesday. Write. Share. Give!
