If you're an early childhood educator looking for a simple way to establish a consistent routine early in the year that builds toward independence, grows a sense of classroom community, and forges meaningful connections between you and your students, I encourage you to introduce journals into your daily repertoire.
It’s Tuesday! Join us for Slice of Life!
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Starting Fresh, Not Starting Over: 3 Ways to Activate Prior Knowledge in Writing Workshop
Jordan was a confident third-grade writer—until he opened a blank notebook on day one of fourth grade and froze. A new school year feels like a fresh start, but it doesn't mean starting over. Here are three simple ways to activate prior knowledge and remind students who they still are.
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Class Newsbooks: Daily Interactive Writing and Language Development That Builds Community
Class Newsbooks are an interactive writing routine designed to support oral language development and writing skills, plus foster strong classroom community in the primary grades. Read all about how to get started with this routine in your own classroom.
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It’s Tuesday! Join us for Slice of Life!
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Before You Scaffold, Figure Out What’s Actually Hard
Before adding another scaffold, take a moment to figure out what’s actually making the task hard and match the support to the barrier.
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A Kindergarten Story: Before Writing Workshop
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.
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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.
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It’s Tuesday! Join us for Slice of Life!
Write, share, give.
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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.
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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.
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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.
