Timely Tricks for Tight Transitions

The Backstory: As a former classroom teacher and current literacy coordinator, the issue of limited time for writing has been a persistent concern across buildings, grade levels, and school years. There are “big picture” issues to tackle–scheduling, intervention supports, and other demands on students’ time–but there are also the day-to-day routines that can significantly impact the focus and productivity of student writers. 

Over the years, I’ve found a few practices that have consistently helped save precious minutes of writing time for students of all ages and skill levels.

Practice #1: Set the Stage

• How It Works: If students are out of the room before writing, have them set out their writing materials before they go to lunch/recess/other classes.
• Why It Works: This practice not only saves precious minutes when students return to the classroom, but it also gets kids in the mindset for writing. (Bonus: This also allows teachers to pre-plan some conferences when students are out of the room during a plan/prep time.)

Practice #2: Slow Release

• How It Works: Keep kids in your gathering area until they know what they will work on when they transition to their seat or another independent writing space. If anyone remains on the carpet, structure this as a small group or quick one-on-one conference to check in to help students establish a plan and focus for the day.
• Why It Works: This transition reduces the time it takes to redirect students who move to their own writing space without a plan for the day. It keeps kids focused on their work from the moment the lesson ends and allows the teacher to collect some quick data about which students need additional support.

Practice #3 (older writers): Prior Commitment

• How It Works: Have kids jot down their next step at the end of writing time to get them quickly back to work the next day, This can be high tech (a Google doc, Seesaw, etc.)  or low tech (a sticky note on the front of the writing piece) depending on the preferences of the teacher and the writers.
• Why It Works: This approach prevents the time it takes to help kids get back into their writing and it keeps momentum from a previous writing session. It also supports students in being reflective at the end of a day of writing and intentional in their next writing move.

Go Deeper: These are just a few tried-and-true routines for making transitions smooth and efficient for writers. For more ideas to streamline transitions and routines in to benefit writers, check out some of these other TWT Blog posts:

• Unboxing Fresh Routines series (fall 2025)
• The Importance of Establishing Routines (Stacy Shubitz, 2019)
• A Game Plan for Writing Workshop Transitions (Beth Moore, 2016)