Janet Ahn and I share our strategies and ideas for teaching the youngest writers in remote settings.
Category: strategies
Journal Writing Strategies While Living Through a Pandemic
"Writing about distressing events and how we feel about them is the only kind of writing that clinically has been associated with improved health," Louise DeSalvo
Entry Points to Build Independence: Reaching Your Writers
Where are the places your writers find themselves stuck? Identifying our writers' sticky spots can help us determine entry points for writers to pull themselves out of being stuck and instead strive!
What’s in a Strategy?
Do your writers know how strategies can help them reach their destination? Better yet, do they know where they are going?
Memory Chains: A Strategy for Writer’s Notebooks
Here’s a fun strategy you can try to generate writing in your notebook this summer. Come back-to-school time, you can teach your students how to use this strategy if they get stuck.
What Are They Looking At? Tackling Slow Starters
Helping students take back their writing time when they are a slow starter.
Showing Not Telling: Demonstrations Matter
We've all likely taught 'show, don't tell' lessons in our narrative units. But showing not telling can have instructional meaning, as well...
The Writing Strategies Book + Giveaway!
Ever wish you could have all the best strategies from your favorite writing teachers in one place? Atwell, Fletcher, Ray, Calkins, Heard and more are among the many hat tips in Jen Serravallo's newest publication, THE WRITING STRATEGIES BOOK. Come take a look at how Jen expertly weaves her own expertise and ideas along with tried and true favorites from the best of the best.
The Reading Strategies Book
Have plans mid-June? Cancel them and prepare to run to your nearest bookstore. The Reading Strategies Book by Jen Serravallo is a must and is intended for grades K-8!
Structure + Choice
Here's what I've been thinking about lately: How do we provide both structure and choice in writing workshop? Both are essential to empowering young writers. Structure is necessary to lift the level of every writer in the classroom. Choice is crucial for writers to learn to write with energy and strength. Yet they sometimes seem… Continue reading Structure + Choice
Supporting ELL Students in Writing Workshop
One of the best closing sessions I attended at the Writing Institute was given by Amanda Hartman. "Scaffolds and Supports We Can Put in Place to Support Our ELLs (K-2)" was a 45-minute session that provided teachers with practical ways to support English Language Learners, or ELLs. While the session was targeted to primary grade… Continue reading Supporting ELL Students in Writing Workshop
Follow the Dialogue
Tomorrow morning in Reading Workshop, I'll be teaching a lesson with the following teaching point: Readers keep track of who is speaking in a text, regardless of whether or not there are dialogue tags. The reason they do this is so they always know who is speaking. I'm going to be using two passages from… Continue reading Follow the Dialogue