writing workshop

Back to School Week.

Ruth Ayres

Next week will be a week where we celebrate returning to school.  It is our vision to use the week to answer questions or elaborate on ideas that are most pressing to our readers.  We’d love to know what’s on your mind . . . so please leave a comment or take the poll (or do both) so we can gear up a Back to School Week that will provide useful and timely posts.  Thanks, in advance, for your feedback.

Published by Ruth Ayres

Unhurried. Finding the magic in the middle of living. Capturing a life of ridiculous grace + raw stories.

9 thoughts on “Back to School Week.”

  1. Pingback: Back to School Week: Bursting With Excitement About Writing « TWO WRITING TEACHERS

  2. With instructional assistants I mean classified staff adults in the classroom. I have heard some people also call them aides or paraprofessionals. Is that enough clarification?

    I have an instructional assistant two days a week, and I never feel like I am utilizing the aide that I have. I have felt like this every year I have been teaching.

    So far this year I am planning on/have started:
    *having my assistant read with specific students during reading workshop on a rotating basis
    *I was thinking of training her to confer with writer’s during writer’s workshop
    *She would also be able to run an additional small group instruction

    The times when I am especially not sure how to utilize her best is when I am doing direct instruction/mini-lessons or activities when I am guiding the whole class in an activity.

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  5. Hi!
    You two are such a great resource to me. I really hope that you keep sharing all of your great ideas. One of the areas that I struggle with is keeping organized conferring notes. Last year I used a binder with multiple pages for students. This year, I’m thinking of using a notebook. What has worked for you both? How do your organize/set up this tool?

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  6. I would like for you to share ideas about conferring. I love my conversations about books with my 4th and 5th grade students. They are rich and meaningful. I am longing for the same feeling from my writing conferences. How do I keep them from becoming editing sessions?

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  8. I’m interested in learning about effective warm ups for middle schoolers in ELA. I love the idea of using mentor sentences, but how do I incorporate those into a warm up activity at the beginning of class?

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  9. I’m always interested in how I can reach the kids at the two ends of the writing spectrum. i.e. addressing kids who struggle with writing, or the freedom of the writer’s workshop format, as well as those kids who are so far above grade level expectations that I feel like they don’t even need me. I would also be interested in more publishing options, ones that the kids may have a real chance of getting into. I’ve explored some of the ones you guys have talked about but it would be nice if we could all work together to find more. Sheesh I’m about ready to start my own at this point. Organization and Assessment are ALWAYS on my mind.

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