Thoughtful Teaching of Test Writing as a Genre: School Leadership Blog Series
Test writing is a genre and has a specific audience and our students are better prepared to meet the demands of the genre when we teach into it.
Personal Passion Creates Magic: School Leadership Blog Series
Leaders must model the same passion for learning that we expect teachers to model for students. Leaders build relationships, they get to know their team, and they encourage passion.
I Wrote This: School Leadership Blog Series
Finding a way to actively model the things that we want for our teachers, students, families, and community members helps move everything forward…but most of all, it really makes you a better you.
What It’s Really Like to Be a Writing Teacher: School Leadership Blog Series
Only by being immersed as writing teacher do you truly know what it’s like—which is why, if I were in charge of the world, I’d want every administrator to spend some time as a writing teacher. It is the only way to know how to support the people who are doing it every day. Oh, the things they would learn!
Art Journaling – A Summer Holiday Writing Idea
Are you worried about how much learning loss in writing will greet you after the summer break? Has your idea bank of ideas to gone dry?
Summer Writing Goals
This year, they were going to be the first group of 5th graders to break the summer curse.
The Importance of the Notebook
My hope is that my students leave knowing more about themselves as writers and as people…that they have used the pages of their notebook to find answers to questions. Have you written in your notebook today?
Diving Into Kidblogs
As the year winds down, I am reflecting on our classroom blogging experience and what I’ve learned.
What Gifted Writers Need
These young students come to me ready to write. They just need permission.
Third Grade Writing Units of Study – A First Look
Our guest blogger takes a look at the 3rd grade Units Of Study
Blogging Adventures
What challenges do your student bloggers face? How are you supporting their growth as blog writers?
Setting the Stage for Summer: Write from the Start!
So I stepped back and let the writers get to work. The chatter was about organizing notebooks, planning where they like to write and sharing writing over the summer.
“Write Beside Them,” said Penny Kittle. And so I did…
After reading Write Beside Them, Tara Smith realized she had to connect her teacher and writer identities. No longer would it be enough to share mentor texts and confer. She realized she needed to share her writing life with her students and walk them through her thinking as she wrote.
Slow and Steady
Nicole Frederickson, a middle school teacher, doesn’t believe in diagnostic writing assessments at the beginning of the school year. Find out why she builds a community of writers before she assesses her students.
Inspiring Independent Writing in a Jam-Packed Curriculum
Kristen Robbins Warren honors her middle school students’ independent writing lives by incorporating three literary rhythms (Monday Morning’s Muse, Wednesday’s Writing Window, and Friday Favorites) into the school week.
Letting Go As Student Interests Take the Wheel
Kindergarten teacher Valerie Geshwind helps her students find their passions and their voice by honoring their interests, engaging them in a play-like writing workshop, & by supporting them as individuals.
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR: PUBLISHING PARTIES
Beth Moore offers a collection of ten publishing party ideas you can use to celebrate your students’ writing.
Launching a Year of Writing With Poetry
Jenny Maehara believes poems are wonderful as a launching point for writing because students can write many poems in a unit and feel like prolific writers from the start. Find out how students can learn the habits of writers and the routines of writing workshop while crafting meaningful pieces using a balance of different details and thoughtful structure in Jenny’s guest blog post.
Anchor Charts in the World Language Classroom? Mais Oui!
Learn how literacy coach Mindi Rench has helped middle school world language teachers to construct charts with their students, which has helped students’ writing in French and Spanish.
What Would They Say?
What would your students say if they were asked what writing workshop means to them? Find out what a group of first graders value about writing workshop in Betsy Hubbard’s guest blog post.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 