Revising for Meaning
At the heart of all great writing is meaning. Writers select details carefully and deliberately, depending on the message we wish to convey to readers. How can we let meaning guide revision? Read here about a few ways…
Category Archive: writing process
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The Writing Process for Perfectionists
To put it simply, the writing process can be excruciating for our perfectionists. If we aren’t careful, we can unintentionally curb the enthusiasm of a writer who leans toward perfection.
Five Tips to Building a Rereading Habit
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.
Reflecting Through the Lens of Writing Process: Looking Back and Moving Forward
Reflection can help foster both a writerly identity and act as a discovery process for possible future goals. This is likely true for any endeavor, whether it be coaching soccer or writing. This week, we as co-authors have been doing some thinking about the power of self-reflection. One possible lens for reflection is the writing process itself…
Misunderstandings Within The Writing Process
The writing process is not always linear, it is not a circle of steps, it is not something that needs to be done the same way twice. The writing process might be different everytime a writer sits down to start. It might be different for someone writing a poem one day and an essay a week later. The writing process is as unique as the writer. Embrace the process and its endless possibilities as students move forward.
Doing the Same Work as Our Students
I made many mistakes during my first year of teaching. I’m too embarrassed to blog about most of them since I cringe when I look back on my first year of teaching. I got so… Continue reading
Writing Takes Guts: My Writing Backstory
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?
Writing Through the Hard Parts
How can we teach our students to trust the writing process?
Cultivating Authentic Work Habits: Starting with What Matters Most in Writing Workshop
Your students should work and feel like real writers.
So, Why Do I Write? Discovering the Writer’s Life
When the co-authors of Two Writing Teachers invited me to join the team, I was overwhelmed. When Julie Johnson asked me to co-author an iBook through the Columbus Area Writing Project, I was again submerged in fear. I found myself wondering if these writers had read my writing. I mean, if they had read my ramblings on my personal blog they wouldn’t be inviting me, right?
Do writers ever lose their doubts?
When to Pop Out of the Notebook
As much as I LOVE notebooks, even I have to admit there is a time in every writer’s process when it is time to pop out of the notebook and onto a laptop or lined paper.
Living the Life of a Writer
At this point of the school year, your writing workshop is probably in full swing. You are chugging along through your writing curriculum, and you are probably using checklists and rubrics to assess… Continue reading
Enticing Kids to Revise, Revise, Revise
One of the biggest challenges you might face in writing workshop is this: getting kids to see the power and purpose of revision. Here are a few tips for helping kids understand how important and rewarding revision can be, organized by writing process phases.
An Eraser-Free Workshop and the Language We Use for Talking About It
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: True Confessions of a Professional Writer
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.
Work Smarter: Use checklists throughout a unit of study …and beyond
I’ll begin by being honest – I don’t like checklists. It’s a personal thing. Checklists make me anxious, they fill me with the fear of impending failure. As soon as I’ve taken the… Continue reading
Sometimes we don’t write in writing workshop
On our first full day of sixth grade, I hand each of my students a reading and writing survey and ask them to tell me a little bit about themselves as readers and… Continue reading
Sharpen Your Workshop Routines: The Importance of Talk Within the Workshop Process
Writing is hard. Letting our ideas float in the space around us makes the words come to the page more easily.
Role reversal: Writing Workshop with Linda Rief at the Boothbay Literacy Retreat
As a writing teacher, I know that I must write – and I do: blog posts, book reviews, a Slice of Life every Tuesday, letters to my students in the reading journals and… Continue reading
An End of the Year Writing Check
At the end of the school year, we are often faced with pages and pages of student writing. Most of it may have gone home already, but now is a great time to… Continue reading