October is the time when the mismatch between our expectations--what we think kids can do--and the reality--what our kids can actually do--sets in. How can we help our students (and ourselves) bring expectation and reality closer together?
Category: plan
The Magic of Anticipation
When you think about the writing joy that lies ahead this year, are you spending your time planning, preparing, or anticipating?
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Begin With Strong Planning: Maximizing Writing Time Blog Series
Actually doing the work of writers is where writers strengthen their skills—and this takes at least two thirds of the total minutes in any workshop. The more clear we can be while unit planning, the more strategic our instructional time will be, leaving more time for writers to write.
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Three Ideas for Planning a Multiage Curriculum Calendar for Writing Workshop
In this post, I'll share three things I've learned from my own school district, where we have many multiage classrooms.
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Personal Writing Calendars for Each Student
With a personal writing calendar, each kid can see what is going to happen in the unit of study, and has the power to adjust it.
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The Importance of Knowing the Standards: Expand the Possibilities of Genres You Teach
In expanding the possibilities of our different writing units, let us not forget the important guide points the Common Core State Standards - or whatever your local iteration of those standards are -Â provide us.Â
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Literacy Coaches: Thinking Ahead to May & June — Already?!
Here are three things I'm working on, right now, in the first week of February.
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Finding Purpose Before We Write: Making the Most of Planning & Rehearsal
Writers need a purpose. A foundation. Yet sometimes we rush kids through the planning and rehearsal phase of writing. What are some ways to support kids in heading into writing grounded in purpose? Read on to learn a few strategies...
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Conferring Notes: The Key to Unit Planning
Crafting a system for conferring notes can be a catch-all of sorts, a strategy for ensuring that teammates engage in the highest leverage instructional conversations before the unit begins—even if they haven’t had extended time to unit plan together.
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Teaching Shares: Ending Strong
Working within a tightly segmented middle school schedule (or any pre-planned schedule) can sometimes pose a challenge to "fit in" an opportunity for closure. With this special challenge in mind, how can we perhaps be more intentional about this important time in our workshops?
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Listening Bit by Bit
Using video and visuals helped this young third-grader lead his class in a lesson on rehearsal and planning.
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End of Year Reflections and June Planning
As we approach the end of another school year, many of us begin making plans for outgrowing ourselves. But what might be some lenses to think through when taking on such a task? I have a few ideas . . .
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 