Back to School
I’ve culled the TWT archives for posts you might want to read during the first month of the school year.
Monthly Archive: August, 2014
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You don’t have to write, you get to write.
After your students decorate their writer’s notebooks and you review your expectations, the notebooks go home. This is exciting! Who doesn’t love writing in a new notebook?!!? I’ll tell ya, there are plenty of… Continue reading
A Peek Inside My Writer’s Notebook
Launching writer’s notebooks by giving kids a peek into my own
Beginning a Year of Teaching Writing with Reflection
What goals will you set for your practice this year? Here are a few suggestions.
Minilessons: It’s All About the Link
It’s all about the link. Make sure your minilessons link to ongoing work. Link to making choices. Link to all the other minilessons. Link to the charts and resources in the room. Most of all link your minilesson always to problem solving and independence.
Kindergarten Writing Workshop: The First Weeks
What is the breakdown of your first two-three weeks of workshop? Here’s a peek into my plans for my kindergarten students.
It’s Tuesday! Write your Slice. Share your Link. Give your Comments.
Please write your Slice of Life Story, share your link, and give at least 3 comments to other Slicers.
Unworkshop
Wouldn’t it be great to escape for a few days to just write? Oh, do I have a place for you! You won’t have to cook a single meal, it’s tranquil, there’s wifi, AND it’s affordable.
Beginning Year Read Alouds
A list of beginning of the year read aloud books to set a positive climate and kick start your workshop.
Table Conferences: An Important Coaching Move at the Start of the Year
Over the summer, we catch up on professional reading, we organize our classrooms, we make plans. In our reading and our planning, we imagine the very best possible scenarios. We see our children working… Continue reading
There Are More Ways Than One To Teach A Minilesson
Last week I wrote a post titled How To Plan A Minilesson From Scratch, and I outlined a very simple way to plan minilessons, based on the work of my wonderful colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Now, I am going to backtrack a bit and revisit just a teensy weensy bit of what I said. I wrote, “Every minilesson can pretty much go the same way.” And this is absolutely true, most of the time. Except for those times when it’s not true.
Interactive Writing: Don’t Close the Door
Interactive Writing? Yeah, I wasn’t a believer. I will admit this openly; I had kind of fought against it and did not see it working in my classroom until many years ago. What… Continue reading
It’s Tuesday! Write your Slice. Share your Link. Give your Comments.
Please write your Slice of Life Story, share your link, and give at least 3 comments to other Slicers.
Reading Fuels Writing
Need some inspiration to write? Fall into a great book and read like a writer!
Good for the Brain
Want to help your students focus better during independent writing time? A recent NY Times piece by Daniel J. Levitin may hold the key to making this happen in your classroom.
If You Ask Them
Stop lurking and start writing. It is the single most important thing you can do as a teacher of writing. It matters.
Writing History in Many Forms
Want some fresh ways to channel your students to write about history? This post offers some light and fast tips that could easily be turned into weighty and meaningful instruction.
How to Plan a Minilesson from Scratch
Minilessons are actually really easy to plan, and fun to teach. What? You don’t believe me? Let me show you, right now, how to do it.
My Re-Programming Process
Sometimes you just have to start over.
WRITE. SHARE. GIVE. IT’S SOL TIME.
It’s Tuesday – time to share your Slice with the Two Writing Teachers Community. Here is a chart from last week’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project August Writing Institute at Columbia University.… Continue reading