A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.
While none of these ideas for information writing require that students go through the entire process of writing an introduction-to-conclusion information piece, they do have the potential to inspire students to do some on-the-spot information writing, and sometimes these short spurts provide the practice or jump-starts that students need.
I was in a fifth grade classroom in February during writing workshop, and a student flagged me down, eager to share her work. Now this is a student who (historically), I have been much more likely to encounter reading on the sly than writing during workshop.
Everywhere I look, the world wants me to engage in self-care. Instagram posts, TV commercials, Twitter threads, email newsletters…all of them chock-full of reminders that even as the world falls to pieces around us, It’s important to fill our buckets, put on our own air masks first, give ourselves grace.
But how about creative self-care? What can we do to make our writing selves feel stronger, happier, more resilient?
In those quick moments between minilesson and work time, as writers are settling in (or not), I pay attention to what is—the current reality. I seek leverage points to both know writers better and to support writers in continuing to grow. Over time, I notice as more and more writers find the processes and strategies that work for them.
Who students are and what their past experiences have been impact them as writers, and those impacts should have implications on instruction. Therefore, it’s worth the time and energy to have systems and structures for learning about students as writers in your classroom.
An eight-year-old writer helps her mom reflect on ways that teachers can help to foster the habits and conditions that nurture children who grow up believing that they have words, ideas, and stories worth writing and sharing.
When it comes to generating ideas for information writing, my experience has been that some students freeze. There are two things I have learned about why this occurs.
It’s dramatic when the light comes on, when a writer suddenly takes a step they had only recently not yet been ready to take. As a teacher of writers, I can’t wait to pounce on those moments, to facilitate the avalanche of growth on the horizon.
As the storytelling culture is developed in the classroom, children are likely to begin to see themselves as authors and to use their voices in braver ways to share their ideas and who they are with their peers.
As I considered what to write this week, I decided to share a piece I was crafting for back to school, as an instructional coach/remote kindergarten teacher this year. The process helped me to focus on what families might need, as they experience writing workshop in new ways (i.e. at their kitchen tables).
More than ever, identities matter, and more than ever, we must rise to the challenge of learning about our students, valuing them, and inspiring them to share all that matters in their worlds.
What do you find most challenging when it comes to the writing process? Have you considered a writer’s process as personal and unique or a step-by-step path rarely disrupted?
We say to kids, “Here’s your notebook! Now you are writer!” We want kids to write in school and beyond. Maybe there are things we can do in school to keep their writerly lives going–even when our units of study and minilessons have moved on to other aspects of the work.
The creative lives we maintain outside of writing fill us up as humans with stories to tell. When we bring this life into the writing workshop, it builds community, and it lays the foundation for lifelong writers who have strategies for sustaining their own writing lives.
How do you when you are a writer? I’ve been following my daughter’s journey and watching her grow in her belief she is a writer. I’m a believer, too.
No longer scared and timid, our work has forged a community of writers.
When it comes to identity and living a writerly life, our work does not begin or end at writing workshop. In this post, I highlight three practical steps for nurturing writers beyond writing workshop.
Do you make time for your writers to reread? Rereading is one of those pieces of the workshop we might be assuming our writers are doing but direction is needed to really make it a habit. Here are five tips to give rereading a place in your writing workshop this year.
When thinking about the year ahead, you may be considering soft starts to the day. In this post, I share the why’s and how’s for having soft start to writing workshop.
When it comes to the teaching of writing in a writing workshop, language is everything. It is through the words we teachers choose that writers are created, built up, encouraged, and inspired.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 