The fact is, just like athletes that show up to the first day of practice, writers bring different skill sets. Some arrive to middle school not knowing where to put a period, while others already know how paint vivid pictures with words that knock our socks off. How do we plan for such a wide variety of writers?
Celebrating differences among our writers can sometimes be difficult for teachers of writing. But by expecting and planning for differences, we can set our students on trajectories more matched to who they are as writers. Here are a few ideas…
Once we teach students about goals and the importance of them in our lives, we can use the accompanying language in all aspects of their, and our own, learning.
Asking my students to set their own goals creates one more opportunity for each of them to be in charge of their learning and reflect on their growth as a writer.
As I looked ahead and began to attempt to set goals for the upcoming school year I realized I needed a plan. What is your summer learning plan?
Do you need help sustaining a writing habit? Take a lesson from Jerry Seinfeld & “don’t break the chain.”
So, you’ve studied your students’ writing, analyzing their work for strengths and next steps. Maybe you took home a giant stack of writers notebooks, or a huge pile of on-demand writing assessments, or maybe you’ve just finished reading their published pieces. Now what?
Four ways to help you discover what makes your students tick as writers.
See how my students set personal editing goals.
A preview of our new blog series
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” -Jack London
If we do nothing else, we do this one thing…Read this post to find out what it is!
Writing is a big animal. A subjective animal as well when it comes to teaching our youngest writers.
First a little reflection on OLW ’11… I chose this word because I felt like it encompassed everything in my life. The list of words in the tape along the bottom of the… Continue reading
Many years ago I began making a list of intentions instead of resolutions for the new year. It is just a slight word change and yet it makes a difference in my mind.… Continue reading
Raise your hand if your administration makes you do goal setting at the beginning of the school year? Okay. Now raise your hand if your administration collects the goal setting you do as… Continue reading
Megan from Read, Read, Read tagged Ruth and I for a summer goals meme. I guess I’ll get to it for the Stacey part of “Stacey at Ruth at Two Writing Teachers.” Here… Continue reading
What are your hopes and dreams for this new year? Leave a link (to your blog post) with your 2008 H&D’s by posting a comment.
In Stacey’s last post (right below this one), she wrote, “So what I’m taking away from today is . . . “ and I thought, what a good reflection for the end of… Continue reading
