When Ideas Collide
I’m not someone who rides horseback but I often get to let go of the reigns and see where I might end up. My students never disappoint.
Category Archive: plan
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Plan Boxes as Management Tools
Do you struggle with students working — rather than socializing — during independent writing time? If so, here’s a solution to keep your kids engaged as writers so you can maximize the number of students you meet with during independent writing time.
Not All Writers Are the Same! Ideas for Differentiating in the Writing Workshop (Part 1)
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…
Unit Planning: Writing Workshop Fundamentals
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.
Literacy Coaches: Schools out. Now what?
Four practical priorities for this summer.
Sharing the Work: Assigning Teacher Leaders for Unit Planning
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
Minilessons: It’s All About the Link
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.
Get Out Your Calendars! It’s June Planning Time!
If we do nothing else, we do this one thing…Read this post to find out what it is!
How Do First Graders Choose Narrow Topics?
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
A Mini-Crash-Course on Oral Storytelling
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
Scene Changes
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
Planning Idea
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
Letting Them Teach Me
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
Plotting Short Fiction
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
Highlights from the Week
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
Storyboards.
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
Sharing Lists of Emotions
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
What’s a “Conferring Scarf?”
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
Inspired to Create a Book List at OceanCliff
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
Plan Boxes Defined
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