This week, the co-authors and I from Two Writing Teachers will be sharing ideas and inspiration to guide you as you begin to encourage your writers to keep going through the summer. As teachers, we know that the routine changes in the summer and often times the writing habit evaporates. Students go from writing every day to writing very little or not at all. This greatly impacts the progress children made throughout a school year and learning is often lost. We know that independent practice is a key to fostering a writerly life. This week we hope to pump you up as students begin to pump the brakes on their writing life, helping them coast across the bridge from the end of the year to the beginning of the next.
Starting tomorrow I will kick off the series with a post about how students can be involved in setting themselves up for a summer that is rich with writing. Tuesday, Beth will support you with summer reading and writing connections. On Wednesday, Stacey will share low-stress ways that take the child’s lead to support writing in the home environment. Deb comes to us on Thursday to inspire the reluctant writers in your room with support for fine motor and sensory integration needs. On Friday, Kathleen will share ways we can create incentive and novelty through the summer for our students. If you ever needed a list of books to inspire summer writing, Lisa will be tempting you to go to the bookstore with her suggestions on Saturday. Melanie plans to give practical ideas on how to partner with parents on Sunday as we wrap up our series. Lanny will not be joining us for this blog series due to a death in his family. We look forward to him returning soon after and send him positive thoughts as he spends time with family and friends.
Next Monday I will share a round-up of the posts with a little bonus that will help you communicate even more with parents as you send your students off for the summer. We will then host our Twitter Chat that evening, May 8th at 8:30 p.m. EDT/5:30 p.m. PDT, #TWTBlog. We hope you will join us and share your own thoughts and ideas as we keep the learning going!
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
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This giveaway is for a copy of Joy Write: Cultivating High-Impact, Low-Stakes Writing. Many thanks to Heinemann for donating a copy for one reader. (You must have a U.S. mailing address to win a copy of this book.)
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For a chance to win this copy of Joy Write: Cultivating High-Impact, Low-Stakes Writing, please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, May 7th at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Betsy Hubbard will use a random number generator to pick the winner whose name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Monday, May 8th.
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Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so Betsy can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Heinemann will ship your book out to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)
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If you are the winner of the book, Betsy will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS – JOY WRITE BOOK. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. Unfortunately, a new winner will be chosen if a response isn’t received within five days of the giveaway announcement.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
Wow! This is a wonderful way to utilize a blog site. I am sure students will greatly benefit from this.
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Can’t wait for all the posts!
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This is just the right time to inspire us. I’m really looking forward to reading more.
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Summer reading & writing plans are challenging. I look forward to getting more ideas for making this enjoyable and manageable for our students & staff!
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I’ve got some writing momentum going, and I’m counting on TWT’s blog series, Tuesday SOL, and this community to keep me going through the summer! Thanks!
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Thank you for all that you guys at TWT do to inspire and inform. Thank you also for the chance to win this amazing book!!
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I’m looking forward to this topic. I will be talking to parents at the end of the month about summer learning and hope to get some ideas from this blog series.
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Looking forward to keeping the momentum going with reading and writing, even as the school year winds down! Once again, thank you for keeping us motivated!
And love and prayers go out to Lanny and his family during this time.
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I am so excited for this blog series. Each year I am trying to improve how we engage kids in summer learning. We don’t hold a formal summer school so trying to find ways to keep getting kids access and encouragement is key for sustaining our summer programs!
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Once again I am totally looking forward to the blog series! Can’t wait to read the ideas and suggestions this week!
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I am very excited (and thankful for the support) about your upcoming posts. Perfect timing. I would also like to be entered in for the “book give away”! 🙂
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I am super excited about this blog series. We have a summer learning night every year for parents and I am hoping to have some fresh ideas to share!
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Looking forward to reading your fresh ideas for how to keep writing going throughout the summer for our students! Thank you!
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Thanks!
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This is right on time! As we are preparing to finish up the school year, sharing ideas with teachers about preventing the summer slide is on my agenda as Literacy Coach. This series will be perfect! I can’t wait to see what TWT have to say!! We always learn so much from you! I would love to be able to read Ralph Fletcher’s Joy Write over the summer as well to provide more support for teachers in preparing for next year. I’ve heard some great things about it! Again, perfect timing!
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Excellent idea! The best way to keep students’ interest alive!Thank you for this opportunity!
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If there’s one thing I’d like to have more appreciation for, it’s writing. They don’t know how much they’re missing by not jotting down a few sentences every day. Cheers!
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I am so thankful that I found the TWT blog. What wonderful PD you are all offering one another and goodness knows how many other educators out there! I’m excited for all the posts designated to this week.
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Sounds like a great series of post, can’t wait. Thanks for the opportunity for the give-away book too.
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I am looking forward to reading this series. This is really perfect timing!
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I am the facilitator of our elementary parent involvement committee, and home-based support was the topic of my doctoral dissertation, so I am very interested in your suggestions on how to keep writing alive outside of school! Let’s do this–and help me win this book for my summer reading!
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What a great idea for a series! I’m looking forward to reading all these posts, and I’m also dying to get my hands on the give-away book. Thanks again for providing just the right information at just the right time!
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