ICYMI: Authentic Purposes for Writing

Thank you for joining us for our blog series Authentic Purposes for Writing. Melanie said it well with the introductory words in her post,

“We all agree that our students will benefit from having strong voices, clear messages, and wide audiences in our quickly changing world.”

Everyone benefits when we provide children with authentic, purposeful opportunities for writing and help them to learn the power of the written word.

In case you missed any pieces from the series, the links are below. Each post is full of ideas, inspiration, and practical tips.

Stacey shared her thoughts on why letter writing continues to be an important and authentic purpose for writing, especially in the age of digital and instantaneous communication.

Melanie wrote about ways that writers can explore feelings and get at the heart of their thinking through writing.

Betsy reminded us that writers can and should use writing to create change in their worlds.

Beth wrote about the authentic and beautiful work writing partners do.

Kathleen shared ideas for how to weave writing into busy classroom schedules.

I wrote about teaching children how to write for audience.

And Deb wrapped up the series on Sunday with a post about all the ways we and our students write with purpose beyond workshop time.

Thank you to all who left comments during the week. The winner of the Georgia Heard’s Heart Maps: Helping Students Create and Craft Authentic Writing, donated by Heinemann, is Deserie Bradvica. She commented on Beth’s post about writing partners, “Good reminder that the ‘small’ decision we make for students may have huge impacts for their writing, their thinking and their feelings.”

 We hope you will join us at 8:30 tonight for our #TWTBlog Twitter chat. The questions are below.

Here is the link to the Storify from the Twitter chat: