I attended Kathleen Tolan's "Once You Have Taught Workshops for Years, How Do You Go from Good to Great? Tap the Power of Peer Conferring and Supporting Student Independence and Goal-Setting." Workshop at the TCRWP Writing Institute. Kathleen's session made me realize that once we've been doing this work (i.e., writing workshop) for awhile, it's… Continue reading Moving from Partnerships to Peer Conferring
Category: tcrwp
The Cupcake Metaphor
Find out what sprinkled cupcakes and figurative language instruction have to do each other!
A Virtual Publishing Celebration
It's hard to have a publishing celebration for people who live miles apart from you. Therefore, a virtual publishing party is the best I can do for Anna and Beth today. Please stop by to leave a congratulatory comment for them since their books have been published.
Learning from the Summer Institute via #tcrwp
I was not able to attend the Writing Institute at TC this week, but I was able to live and learn vicariously through a steady stream of Tweets and blog posts - teachers are nothing if not generous with their learning...
Goals & Techniques Cards
Reflecting on my first experience using TCRWP's goals & technique cards for informational writing with a small group of writers.
What should I teach next?
There are a few weeks left in the school year. Here are some tips for working through the If... Then... books if you'd like to plan your own unit of study.
A Quick Guide Workshop Lingo, Part II
Have you ever wondered what some of the writing workshop lingo means? Here's another look at some commonly used workshop jargon.
Throwback Week: How To Read A Unit of Study
Learn some tricks for reading the Units of Study, whether you're new to the units or have been using them for many years.
Work Smarter: 5 Tips for Checking Writer’s Notebooks Efficiently
Grace Chough led a session, "Turning Writer's Notebooks Into Workbenches, and Using Them to Work Deliberately Towards Big Goals," at the June 2014 TCRWP Writing Institute. She shared lots of smart thinking about the work students do in writer's notebooks. But there one particular thing she said that resonated with me since I used to… Continue reading Work Smarter: 5 Tips for Checking Writer’s Notebooks Efficiently
Inquiry-Based Centers in Grades 3-8
Inquiry-based centers introduce kids to mentor texts while helping them find their own mentor texts.
You don’t have to write, you get to write.
After your students decorate their writer's notebooks and you review your expectations, the notebooks go home. This is exciting! Who doesn't love writing in a new notebook?!!? I'll tell ya, there are plenty of students who aren't enthralled with the idea of writing at home every night since they don't think they have anything to say… Continue reading You don’t have to write, you get to write.
Flash-Drafting Leads to Large-Scale Revision
Flash-drafting helps get thoughts down on the page quickly so writers are open to large-scale revisions.