"You are an expert at your own life. Nobody else is." --Jen Bryant
Category: writing workshop
Starting the year with Slice of Life writing.
As I mentioned in my post last week, my students’ first day of school writing surveys revealed a strong aversion to writing and a sense of “I have nothing to really write about.” So, we have spent most of our writing workshop time collecting writing ideas and storytelling; my sixth graders have learned, much to… Continue reading Starting the year with Slice of Life writing.
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Top Five Lessons to Teach to Writing Partners of All Ages Right Now
Writing partners can be an important source of inspiration and support for your kids. It's the rare kid who truly wants to work alone all the time. Writing requires an audience, someone to give a response, someone to read your work. There's no need to wait to get writing partners going. There are no "prerequisites" to… Continue reading Top Five Lessons to Teach to Writing Partners of All Ages Right Now
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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 writers. Their answers, as they slowly filter in over the course of the week, allow me valuable insights. I learn about how… Continue reading Sometimes we don’t write in writing workshop
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Fox’s Garden Book Review and Giveaway!
Give a wordless book a try during your next writing workshop and see the possibilities.
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So, what does it take to be a great writing teacher? Students’ point of view.
For the past many years, writing workshop in our middle school ended in sixth grade. They would, of course, continue to write in seventh grade, but that every other day of writing workshop ritual - the writer’s notebook, the sketching and exploring of their writers’ identities through different genres of writing - would now be… Continue reading So, what does it take to be a great writing teacher? Students’ point of view.
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Okay, But What Would You Do?
This week has been full of writing workshop conundrums and dilemmas!
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Back to School
I've culled the TWT archives for posts you might want to read during the first month of the school year.
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Minilessons: It’s All About the Link
It's all about the link. Make sure your minilessons link to ongoing work. Link to making choices. Link to all the other minilessons. Link to the charts and resources in the room. Most of all link your minilesson always to problem solving and independence.
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Kindergarten Writing Workshop: The First Weeks
What is the breakdown of your first two-three weeks of workshop? Here's a peek into my plans for my kindergarten students.
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There Are More Ways Than One To Teach A Minilesson
Last week I wrote a post titled How To Plan A Minilesson From Scratch, and I outlined a very simple way to plan minilessons, based on the work of my wonderful colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Now, I am going to backtrack a bit and revisit just a teensy weensy bit of what I said. I wrote, "Every minilesson can pretty much go the same way." And this is absolutely true, most of the time. Except for those times when it's not true.
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Interactive Writing: Don’t Close the Door
Interactive Writing? Yeah, I wasn't a believer. I will admit this openly; I had kind of fought against it and did not see it working in my classroom until many years ago. What is Interactive writing is essentially when the teacher models reading and writing strategies while sharing the pen with students as they create… Continue reading Interactive Writing: Don’t Close the Door
