When writing with digital tools, students have the opportunity to design and share writing in a variety of ways that not only add a new aesthetic to writing but more importantly they offer teachers the ability to skillfully and intentionally scaffold writing development.
Category: choice
Language to Convey Choice Versus Assignment
There are many things we can't control in the classroom: the amount of time we have, the number of students, the size (and sometimes temperature) of the classroom space. But one thing we can control is the language we use that conveys choice, versus language that conveys assignment.
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3 Steps to Building A Learning Community: Vision. Intention. Purpose.
The young writers sitting in our classroom will rise above the fears and struggles of being a writer, but it will take intentional planning, repetitive teaching, daily writing, and reteaching. Writing is hard work. Students don't become writers because we have writing workshop. Writers become writers because teachers have clear intentions and a vision of what's possible.
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Red Dot Side, Green Dot Side, Revisited
With very good intentions, we teach kids to do their best to really finish a story before they move on to the next one. However, a little bit of flexibility will go a long way in increasing engagement, volume, and independence in young writers.
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Go-To Digital Tools for Writing Workshop
Digital tools can transform your teaching by allowing students to have a writing community beyond the classroom walls, be innovative, make meaningful connections to other writers and students, have more resources readily available, and have true, authentic reasons for writing.
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How Do We Develop a Writing Identity?
How can we help students develop identities as writers?
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Infusing Information Writing Throughout the Day: Diving Into Information Writing
A recovering hater of information writing, this post is my first step towards bringing information writing to life for my third graders! It is a vision and collection of possibliities for infusing information writing across the curriculum through the day.
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A Quick Little Conference About Choices
I pulled a child-sized chair over to Zach and sat down next to him. "How's it going?" I asked. "Not good," was his reply. "What seems to be the trouble?" Zach explained that he was trying to add dialogue to his story, but his story was about falling asleep on the couch with his puppy,… Continue reading A Quick Little Conference About Choices
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Independent Writers
I used to dream of reaching a point in my writing workshop instruction where kids were all working as writers, but they weren't all doing the exact same thing. This isn't an easy point to reach. Today I witnessed it in Shelley Kunkle's 7th grade writing workshops. She is in the midst of a research… Continue reading Independent Writers
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Topic Choice
So often, we run into students who say, "I don't know what to write about." We work to help them develop topics. We make lists of writing ideas. We encourage them to explore writing territories. They find possible stories. What I've been realizing lately is often my topic choice has more to do with what… Continue reading Topic Choice
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Structure + Choice
Here's what I've been thinking about lately: How do we provide both structure and choice in writing workshop? Both are essential to empowering young writers. Structure is necessary to lift the level of every writer in the classroom. Choice is crucial for writers to learn to write with energy and strength. Yet they sometimes seem… Continue reading Structure + Choice
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The Secret Ingredient to Creating Engaged Writers
I’ve been thinking about student engagement in writing workshop for the past couple of weeks. I started thinking about it as I was reading Guy-Write, Ralph Fletcher’s new book. My thoughts about engagement continued as I sat in Maggie Beattie Roberts’s class about technology and media at the summer Reading Institute. Everything came to a… Continue reading The Secret Ingredient to Creating Engaged Writers
