charts · opinion writing · progressions · standards · teacher writing · writing workshop

Sitting Side By Side With Standards

There is power in knowing and understanding standards because within them, we can extract teaching points, learning targets, and even success criteria. In this post, we'll thing about how we can use the standards so set up anchor charts, as well as learning progressions in order to establish clarity and navigable pathways for writers.

Talking · writing workshop

A Book That Will Inspire Better Talk and Listening– and a Giveaway

Every now and then, a professional book comes along that has the potential to really change how I teach. You have a chance to win a copy of Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk by Shana Frazin and Katy Wischow, and I know you will love this book!

paper · progressions · strategic conferring · Teachers who write · writing workshop

Intentional Practice In Our Writing Classrooms

Intentional practice leads to better performance. Writing instruction follows a similar pattern, and by about six weeks into the year, teachers know their students. Just like soccer coaches, teachers can start to develop some responsive instruction, both from the figurative sidelines, as well as through direct instruction.

curriculum planning · process · writing workshop

Three Ways To Increase Instructional Clarity

Teaching is an art, and sometimes tweaks don't work as we hope or envision. However, I hope that these three ideas do increase the clarity of instruction in ways that help all students learn to be independent confident writers.

slice of life · Slice of Life Story Challenge · Toni Morrison

It’s Tuesday! Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts.

NCTE · writing workshop

It’s Tuesday! Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge

Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts.

minilesson · repertoire · writing workshop

The Importance of Repertoire for Teachers

We can change up how we are teaching depending on the situation and circumstances, but in order to do that, we have to know some choices and moves we can make. Knowing this, there are a few quick ways we can think about repertoire within our whole group instruction.

September 11th · writing workshop

Pausing to Remember 9/11

While every day is an opportunity to practice kindness, put our arms around the people we love, and cherish all that is good in our lives, perhaps today is an especially good day to remember the importance of doing those things.

slice of life · Toni Morrison · writing workshop

It’s Tuesday! Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts.

slice of life · Toni Morrison · writing workshop

It’s Tuesday! Join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts. This month, I have collected some quotes from Toni Morrison to inspire us. Some of them come from a 1993 interview in The Paris Review. If you have time, the entire interview… Continue reading It’s Tuesday! Join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge!

writing workshop

How do your students learn?

The more that we understand the distinctive characteristics of the intelligences, the better we can recognize ways to differentiate for learners, honoring the spectrum of learning styles that exist in not only our classrooms, but also our world.

charts · Nurturing Independence From the Start Blog Series · repertoire · strategy charts · writing workshop

The Importance of Repertoire: Nurturing Independence From the Start

The truth in writing -- and in many aspects of life -- is that there isn’t really one way to do anything. The strongest writers understand their options and are flexible and intentional with their choices. That’s repertoire!