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…
Planning a unit of study is like planning for anything in life. You can’t predict exactly what will happen, but you can project what you think will mostly likely happen, based on what you know.
Four practical priorities for this summer.
There is an adage: if the teacher is working too hard, the students aren’t working hard enough. There are many cases where this is true: in a writing conference when the teacher is… Continue reading
It’s all about the link. Make sure your minilessons link to ongoing work. Link to making choices. Link to all the other minilessons. Link to the charts and resources in the room. Most of all link your minilesson always to problem solving and independence.
If we do nothing else, we do this one thing…Read this post to find out what it is!
We will be starting a unit on informational writing to wrap up the school year. I wanted to demonstrate a different way of finding a topic, a narrow topic. I find that young… Continue reading
It’s been several months since I’ve written for Two Writing Teachers. In December my son was born, and I was on maternity leave until a few weeks ago. Then, in March I pushed aside all excuses… Continue reading
I’ve been trying to think through how to explain thinking in scenes to young writers in a way that makes it accessible. It seems they either write two scenes and call it done… Continue reading
I’m super fortunate to be working with a couple of third grade teachers (Hi Sandy & Dan!) who are interested in helping their writers to naturally develop more sophisticated writing processes. Their students… Continue reading
I’m sorry, I just realized I missed a blog post last Wednesday. Yes, I know it’s been nearly a week, but the truth is I just realized it. Oops. So on to the… Continue reading
Last month at MRA, I listened to Jacqueline Woodson speak about her writing process. It wasn’t the first time I heard her speak and I hope it won’t be my last. She is… Continue reading
I have been in a lot of different writing workshops lately. Just this week I’ve been in 13 writing workshops and have met with 13 different teachers in either reflective practice meetings or… Continue reading
This summer I heard Penny Kittle speak about using storyboards. This week I’ve tried them out in classrooms. They aren’t all that different from one of the ways I talk to kids about… Continue reading
I did the strong emotions lesson (using Skittles) on Friday. My demonstration was way longer than it was supposed to be (on paper), but I felt that I needed to be exceedingly explicit… Continue reading
I wrote a post about structures and routines to teach kids in September within the context of Writing Workshop yesterday morning. There have been a few questions about “The Conferring Scarf.” Therefore, I… Continue reading
The view of the water from the back of OceanCliff Originally uploaded by teachergal We got all of our writing and reading teaching points solidified for the rest of the school year when… Continue reading
Kelly asked about plan boxes. Since I happen to have one of my student’s old notebooks at my apartment this evening, I photographed six plan boxes to share with you. You can view… Continue reading
My students are going to be drafting while I’m out of the room doing reading assessments this-coming Thursday. Hence, I’m a little bit panicked since I don’t like being out of the room… Continue reading
Lester L. Laminack wrote a book about it. I had 14 of them my junior year alone. The Governor went on TV last night asking all schools north of Kent County to close…… Continue reading
