So I stepped back and let the writers get to work. The chatter was about organizing notebooks, planning where they like to write and sharing writing over the summer.
Category: guest blogger
“Write Beside Them,” said Penny Kittle. And so I did…
After reading Write Beside Them, Tara Smith realized she had to connect her teacher and writer identities. No longer would it be enough to share mentor texts and confer. She realized she needed to share her writing life with her students and walk them through her thinking as she wrote.
Slow and Steady
Nicole Frederickson, a middle school teacher, doesn't believe in diagnostic writing assessments at the beginning of the school year. Find out why she builds a community of writers before she assesses her students.
Letting Go As Student Interests Take the Wheel
Kindergarten teacher Valerie Geshwind helps her students find their passions and their voice by honoring their interests, engaging them in a play-like writing workshop, & by supporting them as individuals.
Launching a Year of Writing With Poetry
Jenny Maehara believes poems are wonderful as a launching point for writing because students can write many poems in a unit and feel like prolific writers from the start. Find out how students can learn the habits of writers and the routines of writing workshop while crafting meaningful pieces using a balance of different details and thoughtful structure in Jenny's guest blog post.
Anchor Charts in the World Language Classroom? Mais Oui!
Learn how literacy coach Mindi Rench has helped middle school world language teachers to construct charts with their students, which has helped students' writing in French and Spanish.
What Would They Say?
What would your students say if they were asked what writing workshop means to them? Find out what a group of first graders value about writing workshop in Betsy Hubbard's guest blog post.
Teaching Reflective Writers
Dana Murphy shares some thoughts about the expectations we place on students when we ask them to reflect on their writing.
What’s in a Name?
Christy Weisiger believes in calling students "writers". Calling students writers gives students automatic entry into the classroom writing community. And that sometimes changes the way they will feel about writing for the rest of their lives.
Teaching Toolkits: Making Instruction Visible
Anna Gratz Cockerille provides tips for organizing and developing teaching toolkits you can use across the school year.
Sharing Voices by Blogging: A Guest Blog Post by Amy Rudd
About four years ago, I heard of a wonderful tool, Kidblog, that could be used as an ad-free environment when blogging with students and the key word that caused me to perk up when I heard about the tool was that it was “free”! The platform also offered settings for the teacher to be as open… Continue reading Sharing Voices by Blogging: A Guest Blog Post by Amy Rudd
A New Way To Learn About Teaching Writing
It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition. - Isaac Asimov I began a writer’s group last year at my school, opened it to anyone who was interested. There are now seven of us. We continued to meet this summer and… Continue reading A New Way To Learn About Teaching Writing