Your students filled notebooks, found their voices, and grew as writers this year—don't make them start from scratch in September. Try “Dear Future Me…”, a simple end-of-year writing tradition that helps students reflect, celebrate progress, and walk into next year’s workshop already confident, capable, and ready to write from day one.
Category: Reflective Practice
What We Value: The Power of Displaying Student Writing
Why should we display student writing? Because doing so tells our students that writing is important and we value the work they do as young authors.
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Visual-Motor Integration for the Win
Visual-motor integration is a critical component of successful handwriting, and ultimately, successful writers. Build it during any chance you have.
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A Little More Voice in Writing? Yes, Please
Templates and organizers are effective scaffolds for many writers as they navigate their learning of sentence, paragraph, and compositional writing. And, along that pathway, exists the challenge of incorporating their voice, cadence, and interest into their writing.
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Adding Workshop Elements to Non-Workshop Curriculum
If you teach with curriculum that isn’t workshop based, but know that those missing workshop elements would increase your students’ writing development, then it’s time to “workshopify” the curriculum!
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A Trajectory to Duplicate: These Poems Were VERY Good Things
As part of their writing unit launch and identity unit. I worked on poems with fourth-grade students that were inspired by Derrick Barnes’ I’m Every Good Thing. How much fun did I have!
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Wally’s Words of Wisdom: Reflective Practice
The beginning of a new school year is a great time to reflect on Vivian Gussin Paley's "Wally's Stories."
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Building Agency Through a Unit: Unboxing Fresh Routines Blog Series
Regardless of the units, scripts, or minutes you have, the more you can weave evidence-based practices into the writing lives of students, the more they are likely to grow their abilities to communicate.
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Year-End Reflections & Next-Year Goals
Reflection is at the heart of teaching. It is the springboard for improving teacher practice and becoming a more effective educator. Here are some questions to think about as you reflect on the year that is wrapping up and start thinking about goals for the year to come.
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End-of-Year Student Surveys: Reflective Practice
My primary goal this year was to build a student-centered classroom. I’d like my kids’ experience and growth to be the primary driver of my instructional decision-making. So…how did I do? I used a survey to learn more.
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Notice and Wonder: Reflective Practice
When I look at my kindergarten students' writing, I begin with two simple questions: "What do I notice?" and, "What do I wonder?" By leading with inquiry, I am able to see their work more objectively and with less judgment.
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Building the Foundational Strength of Writers
Students can show us a lot of about the cognitive energy they are using to write! The brain has work to do before any letters show up on pages, so the more automated that work can be, the more brain energy can head in the direction of words, sentences, and composition.
