It's finally fall- my favorite season! Today I am flashing back to some of my fall posts that I've shared before on TWT.
Category: independent writing
Deconstructing the Rehearsal
Intentionally putting a focus on rehearsal took me on a deeper exploration of its importance in my remote classroom.
Five Ways to Maximize Time If Time for Writing Workshop Gets Cut
Time is a precious commodity in elementary schools. Making the time for a daily writing workshop often means that something else has to get short shrift. However, sometimes, the time for writing workshop gets cut by five or ten minutes. Here are several suggestions for what you can do if writing time gets cut.
Three Ways to Find Joy & Keep Writing
We are now entering week seven in our school district. At the start of the year, there was much to think about and much to worry about. There were many questions to be answered and all of them seemed continuously uncertain. “We don’t know that yet” or “I’m not sure” were phrases that often seemed… Continue reading Three Ways to Find Joy & Keep Writing
Reimagine Tools for Summertime Writing
Many of us will be satisfied if kids choose to JUST WRITE this summer. However, for the students who are ready to do more than just write, we can provide them with a nudge to transform tools they’ve leaned on during the school year so they can become updated tools for at-home, independent use this summer.
A Writer’s Mindset: Nurturing Independence from the Start
Does the mindset of our student writers impact their independence? How does OUR mindset impact their independence as writers?
After a lot of researching, reading, writing, and reflecting I'm sharing some insights and steps toward building a growth mindset in our classroom communities of writers. Join in the conversation!
Ten Possible Minutes: Sacred Writing
Every year brings with it new surprises. I was delightfully surprised by just ten minutes this year. Ten minutes made a big difference.
Never Write About the Same Topic as Your Students–Except Sometimes
The cornerstone of writing workshop is that students get to choose their own topics rather than be assigned a topic by the teacher.
Building Word Superheroes: With Permission and Invented Spelling
Teaching students to take the risks necessary to be inventive spellers means I have to respect the stage of development of the student. I can't expect the students to know (or use) something I haven't taught. It also means communicating to parents about what it means to use inventive spelling and its role in developing writers and readers.
Our Favorite “Back-to-School” Posts
Whether you're already back in school or returning in the next two weeks, I've rounded up some of our team's best blog posts that will help you launch & sustain writing workshop in 2018-19.
Five Tips to Building a Rereading Habit
Do you make time for your writers to reread? Rereading is one of those pieces of the workshop we might be assuming our writers are doing but direction is needed to really make it a habit. Here are five tips to give rereading a place in your writing workshop this year.
Our Most Powerful Tool- Our Words: Looking Back And Moving Forward
In Visible Learning For Literacy, Fisher, Frey, and Hattie, explain “When feedback is delivered in such that it is timely, specific, understandable, and actionable students assimilate the language used by their teacher into their self-talk. (2016, 100)” These words stopped me. When our words become the self-talk of our students, they become the most influential tool we have as teachers.