A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.
In this topsy-turvy year, when I was not expecting to teach a remote kindergarten class, I was also not expecting to discover strategies for upping my feedback game with writers—strategies that I plan to continue using once the world has righted itself and workshop is in-person again.
It is the final day of the March Slice of Life Story Challenge! In the announcements today we have a video message, a badge, and more prizes!
Today is day 30 of 31! So close to the finish line. . .
It’s day 29, and we can’t wait to write, share, and give. Join us!
It’s day 28 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge! Today the winners of the Mentor Prize are announced!
Day 27 is getting awfully close to day 31. . . Keep writing, Slicers!
It’s day 26 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Let’s get writing!
Do you remember when you first became a reader of Two Writing Teachers Blog? I do. I was a second grade teacher, and I was launching writer’s notebooks with my students for the first time. I stumbled across a TWT post through (smart) luck via Google, and discovered a gold mine.
How can I be clear about aligning what families hear me teaching with what their children are doing with the feedback both they and I offer kids along the way?
What are the ways I can let writers know that I SEE them, that I understand and appreciate all that they are bringing to the page and the process? How might my feedback serve as a mirror, reflecting back to writers a clear image of who they are, of what is important to them, of evidence of their growth?
It’s Tuesday, it’s busy, and you might be talking yourself out of making space to write. . . Push back against the idea that there isn’t time for you to create. Carving out time for yourself as a writer is important. We hope you will take a few minutes to craft a slice of life to share with the #TWTBlog community.
It’s Tuesday! Invest time in yourself, teacher-as-writer, and share a slice of life with the #TWTBlog community.
Write. Share. Give. We invite you to join the #TWTBlog community in the Slice of Life Story Challenge today! (It’s always worth the time!)
#TWTBlog is looking for volunteers to be part of our Welcome Wagon for the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. If you’ve sliced in prior years, we hope you’ll consider joining this important team!
A silver lining of teaching remotely has been opportunities, like this one, to elevate authentic reasons to read and write. Kids are curious about how others do things, and they have so much real-world expertise to share. A strategy such as this one gives our youngest writers access to topics that might otherwise exceed their emergent writing skills.
Ahhhh, it’s the first Slice of Life Tuesday of the new year. What an opportunity to kick off 2021 writing and celebrating the community here at Two Writing Teachers Blog. We also have a roundup of OLW posts from #TWTBlog Co-Authors.
When this scenario happened to me (years ago), it did give me pause. As a teacher of writers, I am not the conventions police—I have always been the kind of writer who values content over conventions in the workshop. This is not to say I do not teach conventions or have high expectations for their use. However, it would be fair to say that this particular situation challenged me to think about grammar, punctuation, and spelling differently—shifting the way I approached conventions in the classroom going forward.
My strategy for meeting the needs of advanced writers: personalization. Strategic, pre-planned opportunities, set like a vision trap to capture the imagination of each writer. Once caught, these writers can be reeled in to a level of complexity they had no idea they were ready (and willing) to try.
There’s no question it is challenging to get to know writers deeply via Zoom. And yet. . . something is working, because all of my remote kindergartners are writing. They are all making books. And while I might not have an hour each day to be side by side with them in the classroom, there is no question I am finding ways to get to know what kind of writers they are and what they need.
Each year, Two Writing Teachers Blog pauses to mark the events of September 11, 2001. It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years. However you choose to honor the loss and the heroism of so many, we are with you.
