Predictable Barriers for Writers– and Some Ways Around
Identifying barriers and teaching into ways through, around, or over them will help writers not only with their immediate process, but also with their future endeavors.
Supporting Writers Across the Writing Process
For every writer, the writing process is a little bit different. As teacher writers, we all struggle at different points and our students are no different. Today I offer a few tools for supporting writers at different points of the writing process . . .
Building Stronger Writing Partners
As schools begin to restart, I have been thinking a lot about ways to begin building community within our new COVID reality. Specifically, I have been thinking about ways we as teachers might harness the structure of writing partnerships as a means by which to help create meaningful, supportive connections between writers. Here are a few ideas . . .
Thinking About and Honoring Individual Writing Processes
Some great and reflective conversations could happen if students consider both their current writing processes and how to change them in order to become more productive.
The Unpredictability of a Writer’s Process
Writing has been a struggle for several weeks now. Today I take you through my process to get where I am now and the journey I intend to continue.
The Writer’s Process: Expand the Possibilities of the Genres You Teach
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?
Spicing Up Revision
During the revision phase of the writing process, I find that many writers will often ‘tinker’ rather than really revise for meaning. Perhaps you’ve see similar behaviors in your middle school writers? Read on to learn a few tips for spicing up revision!
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…
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. … Continue Reading Doing the Same Work as Our Students
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 … Continue Reading Living the Life of a Writer
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.
