September 11, 2020
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.
A Letter to Families as we Launch Remote Writing Workshop
As I considered what to write this week, I decided to share a piece I was crafting for back to school, as an instructional coach/remote kindergarten teacher this year. The process helped me to focus on what families might need, as they experience writing workshop in new ways (i.e. at their kitchen tables).
Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge
It’s Tuesday! Please join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Write. Share. Give.
Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge
It’s Tuesday! What might you write and share today as part of our #TWT community? We welcome your voice and your stories.
Point-Less by Sarah M. Zerwin: A Review and Giveaway
Sarah Zerwin is workshop to her core, and she has found ways to ensure that her assessment practices are not sending conflicting messages to kids. Point-Less will challenge readers to reflect and inspire them to advocate for change.
Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge
It’s Tuesday! Time to invest in your own writing life with the Slice of Life Story Challenge.
Seen, Valued, Heard: Leveraging Shared Writing to Build Community
In my experience, many young writers struggle to use a writer’s notebook as a tool. They’re excited to have a notebook but unclear about what to “do” in there. Shared writing can be a powerful way to teach writers how to generate ideas for writing and to get themselves started, based on the books we are reading and discussing as a community.
Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge
It’s Tuesday! Gift yourself time to write, share, and give. (It will be worth every minute!)
Building Each Other Up, Cheering Each Other On
THIS is what teachers need right now. This is my work as a coach, and this is what we can all do for each other in this challenging time.
Thinking Big About Writing
The writing work in our building is transforming, and it is exciting to be a part of the change, to witness the impact on kids as we make our workshops increasingly authentic and compelling.
We are constantly reflecting on what’s working—what’s leading to measurable shifts in how we plan for writing (and how kids experience writing)—as well as where we might be getting stuck: places there is genuine motivation to transform the task, and yet, our best intentions are still missing the mark in some significant way.
Conferring Notes: The Key to Unit Planning
Crafting a system for conferring notes can be a catch-all of sorts, a strategy for ensuring that teammates engage in the highest leverage instructional conversations before the unit begins—even if they haven’t had extended time to unit plan together.
(Writing) Life Imitates Art: Finding Inspiration in Ralph Fletcher’s Instagram
The creative lives we maintain outside of writing fill us up as humans with stories to tell. When we bring this life into the writing workshop, it builds community, and it lays the foundation for lifelong writers who have strategies for sustaining their own writing lives.
