The realization of this moment gave me chills and led me to share my writing backstory with Dana. Dana listened and encouraged me to open my presentation with this story. I was hesitant, the experience had halted my inner writer for years. What if sharing it again had the same result?
For writers to grow, they must develop writer identities. How do we help them do that?
When I think about what I first want my students to know, what matters most to me as a teacher of writing, more than capital letters or topic sentences or punctuation, I want them to believe they have ideas worth sharing and stories worth telling. I want them to know their voice matters and their words can make a difference. I want them to believe they are writers, right now, whatever their reading proficiency, whatever their language background, whatever their home circumstances. WE ARE WRITERS HERE. We all matter, we all belong, we all can and should write.
A lesson from Kate DiCamillo
Have you lost your muse? Create Now is the kind of book you need to help you transform your creative process and get you inspired to write.
When I visit a classroom, one of the first things I often say to kids is, “Today, please don’t erase. I want to see ALL the great work you are doing as a writer. When you erase, your work disappears!” Often, this is what kids are accustomed to and they continue working away. But sometimes, kids stare at me as if I’ve got two heads.
Trudy Ludwig is an award-winning author who specializes in writing children’s books that explore the colorful and sometimes confusing world of children’s social interactions. Today, we are honored to share Trudy’s thoughts about the writing process.
Before you plan to ask your students to reflect on the kinds of writers they are (for their end-of-year self-assessments), be sure you ask yourself “What kind of writer am I?”
It seems appropriate that today’s post should be related to using your own writing in the classroom. We are, after all, in the midst of the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. And what… Continue reading
This week my colleagues and I are writing posts that we hope will make your life a little easier. We’re sharing some ways to work smarter, not harder.
Read about writers’ tics, and share your own.
How do you help your students establish their identity as writers?
Fostering a nurturing writing community at the beginning of the school year means taking the time to build a community of writers. Here’s an artistic way you can have students introduce themselves, and their quirks, to their peers.
I love the idea of spending the first several days of school learning how to be a writer. By studying other writers’ processes, we can begin to demystify the act of writing.
I had the pleasure of speaking about “Curating and Cultivating a Virtual Community of Writers” with the members of the Chester County Reading Association this afternoon. I talked about the ways blogging, microblogging, other digital technologies allow teacher-writers to interact with each other worldwide.
In my sixth grade class, we cycle through a set of genres every Writing Workshop year: personal narrative, memoir, feature article, poetry, profiles, and persuasive letters and research based essays. Taken together, these… Continue reading
Christy Weisiger believes in calling students “writers”. Calling students writers gives students automatic entry into the classroom writing community. And that sometimes changes the way they will feel about writing for the rest of their lives.
I think the thing that makes a writer is Habit. Yes, that’s habit with a capital H. (I go back and forth between whether it’s habit that makes a writer or belief that… Continue reading
It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition. – Isaac Asimov I began a writer’s group last year at… Continue reading
