Lighten your mental load by placing more agency in your writers’ hands. Here are simple ways to empower your writers and make your life easier.
Category: agency
Student-Driven Feedback: A Ready-To-Go Tip
Today's post offers a simple shift to give young writers more ownership over the types of feedback they get from teachers and peers.
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“Is This Good?” Building Self-Reliance in Student Writers
Picture a writing workshop. Students hum along on various pieces. Inevitably, a student approaches to ask: “Is this right?” “Is this good?” My experience and wisdom matter as a teacher. My support and guidance are critical. Still, I’d hope that students’ sense of pride and accomplishment wouldn’t depend on what I think of their work. I’ve discovered some conversational tools and classroom strategies that help me foster students’ sense of confidence and trust in themselves. I’m sharing them with you here.
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Grammar Notebooks
Grammar notebooks are not the cure-all for the persistent refrains about retention and transfer. However, they do support agency and accountability as students build their understanding and appreciation of words and language.
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Transferring Agency from School to Home: Amping Up Agency Blog Series
If you are looking for ways to increase a young writer’s agency at home–either as an educator or as a parent–here are some things you might want to consider.
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Tools and Resources That Support Student Agency in the Kindergarten Writing Workshop: Amping Up Agency Blog Series
You've probably heard a young child say, "I can do it all by myself!" in one breath, and then in the next breath they are asking you for help. As children make sense of the world and learn how to do more things for themselves, they crave structure and support from adults. Providing children with a variety of tools and resources and teaching them how and when to use them, supports students in developing a sense of "big kid-ness" and agency over their own writing.
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The Language to Develop Agency: Amping Up Agency Blog Series
Teachers can build and increase students’ agency by using specific phrases at when conferring, leading small groups, or holding reflection/share sessions at the end of a workshop.
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PBL in the Writing Classroom
Real world, authentic opportunities to engage in writing with the goal of enacting change is something all students can really sink their teeth into. PBL and writing workshop go hand in hand.
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Freewrite Fridays: The Freedom Writers Deserve!
Happy Friday! Learn about how Freewrite Fridays offer writers a much-needed pause at the end of a week.
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Pre-Unit Immersion: Involving Students in Noticing, Noting, and Naming
Immersion is helpful for strong writers who need less explicit instruction in order to try out new writing concepts as well as for writers who strive to complete their written work. Sometimes seeing a completed piece is exactly what they need in order to kick their executive functioning into gear.
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Student Agency, Self-Assessment, and Small Group Instruction
Nudging students toward self-assessment and goal-setting leads to students' increased understanding of what they are working on and why they're working on it. That intentionality is a critical aspect of learning!
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A Small Group in Action: Elaboration Strategies, Here We Come!
Having walked around a classroom of fourth-grade writers yesterday, I had pinpointed four writers who were all ready to think about elaboration strategies. This post describes the first session of a few to inspire these fourth-grade writers to use more elaboration strategies.
