Reaching Your Writers Blog Series

Why Writing Matters: Reaching Your Writers

Kids need to know why writing matters. And we need to not only know, but presence that ‘why’, both for our students and for ourselves.

Reaching Your Writers Blog Series · writing workshop

Reaching Your Writers Blog Series

All week here at Two Writing Teachers we will be sharing how to reach ALL of your writers.

charts · opinion writing · progressions · standards · teacher writing · writing workshop

Sitting Side By Side With Standards

There is power in knowing and understanding standards because within them, we can extract teaching points, learning targets, and even success criteria. In this post, we'll thing about how we can use the standards so set up anchor charts, as well as learning progressions in order to establish clarity and navigable pathways for writers.

plan · purpose · story mountain

Finding Purpose Before We Write: Making the Most of Planning & Rehearsal

Writers need a purpose. A foundation.  Yet sometimes we rush kids through the planning and rehearsal phase of writing. What are some ways to support kids in heading into writing grounded in purpose? Read on to learn a few strategies...

high frequency words · word study

The Snap Word Train

Over the years, kindergarteners have shown me that the kinds of environmental tools that they will actually use are: ones which are at their level, ones which they have meaningful memories (or ownership) creating, ones which they can see themselves in (via photographs or interests), and ones which they can touch and interact with. Such… Continue reading The Snap Word Train

slice of life

SOL Tuesday!

Welcome to the first Tuesday in November!

conferences · conferring · plan · record keeping · writing workshop

Conferring Notes: The Key to Unit Planning

Crafting a system for conferring notes can be a catch-all of sorts, a strategy for ensuring that teammates engage in the highest leverage instructional conversations before the unit begins—even if they haven’t had extended time to unit plan together.

conventions · quick write · word study · writing workshop

Trying It Out! Using Ideas From Professional Resources

How do you keep learning and growing as a teacher of writing? How do you apply what you've learned from reading professional texts? Today I am sharing the way I am applying my learning from professional texts with my third grade students.

independence · spelling · stamina · volume

“Just-Keep-Swimming” Spelling Strategies

Just like Dory, in the movie Finding Nemo, young writers can easily lose their way and forget where they were headed, especially if they stop for too long and lose their momentum.

conferring

Positive Feedback That Moves Writers

Specific feedback helps students replicate what you want them to do in their writing.

Slice of Life Story Challenge

IT’S TUESDAY! JOIN US FOR THE SLICE OF LIFE STORY CHALLENGE!

Welcome! Join today's Slice of Life Story Challenge by... writing a post, sharing the permalink in the comments section, and visiting at least three other slicers to leave a comment for them.

Talking · writing workshop

A Book That Will Inspire Better Talk and Listening– and a Giveaway

Every now and then, a professional book comes along that has the potential to really change how I teach. You have a chance to win a copy of Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk by Shana Frazin and Katy Wischow, and I know you will love this book!