By taking a few simple steps and asking some easy questions, you can pass your knowledge about your current students on to the next teacher and prepare for a new group of incoming writers.
Category: collaboration
Crafting Feedback Together
An effective PLC team is where good teaching becomes great. This is especially true for teachers of writers, since teaching writers is so challenging and complex. We genuinely need each other to continue getting better at what we do.
Teacher Teams: Stronger Together Blog Series
Peer observation is just one of the many ways teacher teams can work together to enhance student experiences. Everyone--even the host--walks away a better teacher.
Coaching à la Carte: Stronger Together Blog Series
In this post I’ve curated some quick coaching possibilities: coaching à la carte, if you will. Each offering on this menu has the potential to have an immediate impact on student learning in the workshop with a minimal time commitment from teachers. It might not be the gold standard, four-course meal of a coaching cycle, but each option is designed to nourish and energize teacher(s), students, and coaches with a quick burst of collaboration.
Increase the Number of Teachers in the Room with Student-Led Small Groups
An extra teacher is always a gift, especially when working with young authors. But what if we looked for teachers within those tiny writers?
Student-Created Learning Progressions: A How to
Student-created learning progressions help foster agency in students and move them forward in their writing.
Mastering the Art of Thin-Slicing
Relying on Malcom Gladwell's work in Blink, Thin-Slicing allows you to look at student work quickly to identify trends and create groups, targeting specific skills to push each writer forward.
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.
Rethinking Materials, Routines, and Collaboration: What Does Independence and Interdependence Look Like From Home?
Our teaching worlds have been turned upside down. For many of us, every system and structure we’ve had in place for planning, teaching and learning has changed over the past few days. As you find our groove in the new reality, here are some practical suggestions that will help bring the many comforts of your classroom home.
Three Ways to Be A Better Colleague
Three ways YOU can be a kinder, more generous, better person to work with.
Listening Bit by Bit
Using video and visuals helped this young third-grader lead his class in a lesson on rehearsal and planning.
Four Writing Workshop Ideas for the Final Stretch
If you're in the final stretch--the last few days or weeks of school-- here are a few ideas to keep kids writing right to the very end.