Teaching Writing
Everyone who writes for Choice Literacy loves teaching writing, because we all write ourselves. We know it is "hard fun," as Donald Murray famously said—exasperating and exhilarating at the same time. The writing workshops you will read about here and see in our videos are busy, noisy, vibrant places. And most days, we wouldn't want to be anywhere else than in the midst of 'em! Here is where you'll find our latest discoveries, insights, and occasional boneheaded mistakes in teaching writing.
Latest Content
Helping Aaron Find His Voice as a Writer…and Mine as a Teacher
Erin Ocon tries a new strategy for dealing with a resistant student in her middle school classroom.
Staying True to Our Beliefs When Working With Struggling Readers and Writers in Grades 3-6
Franki Sibberson writes about the challenges of holding true to our beliefs in working with struggling readers, and shares the questions she asks herself as a way of self-monitoring her teaching with strugglers.
Team Sharing of Writing Curriculum Innovations (TEMPLATE)
Ruth Shagoury finds some of the best learning in her study groups comes when participants share the new things they are trying in their classrooms. She develops a nifty one-page notetaking form to help everyone keep track of ideas they want to test out with students.
Fitness Boot Camp Helps Me Understand Struggling Readers
Franki Sibberson finishes 29th out of 30 participants in her fitness bootcamp mile run. In the process, she learns many lessons about herself and the needs of struggling learners in her classroom.
Rethinking Writing Centers – Winter Follow-Up
Shari Frost questioned the amount of writing going on in many elementary writing centers. She decided to work with a team of literacy coaches and teachers to explore ways to increase writing in classrooms – through better use of centers, or alternative programs. In this follow-up article, Shari presents two different solutions that are working well – one involves introducing writing tools in a more systematic way in centers, and the other is an implementation of a different program entirely for independent work.
Assessing Spelling in Writing Workshops Part 1: Thinking Through the Assessment
Katie DiCesare takes on the challenge of developing a one-page assessment tool to analyze the spelling needs and abilities of each of her 1st graders. This is the first in a series, as Katie takes us through the use of the tool in her workshop.
Literary Nonfiction: Models for Writing
Literary nonfiction is emerging as a popular genre. In this booklist, Franki Sibberson shares mentor texts for writing literary nonfiction.
Reflecting on the First Six Weeks of Word Study
Franki Sibberson explains how she rethought word study during the first six weeks of school, giving manypractical examples of activities and routines with her intermediate students.
To Fart or Not to Fart? Reflections on Boy Writers
"To Fart or Not to Fart?" was the question at the first meeting of Jennifer Allen's boys' literacy study group for teachers, and what followed was a rollicking discussion of writing, taste, and books that hook boys.
Fifth-Grade Word Study Homework
Karen Terlecky’s fifth-grade students share what they learned from their word study homework.
Old Elm Speaks Conclusion: Connecting Poetry, Observation, and Reading
In this second installment of a three-part video series, Aimee Buckner shows how observation skills, poetry, and reading instruction come together with the mentor text Old Elm Speaks by Kristin O'Connell George. In this final excerpt, students share what they wrote after browsing the book and completing some observations.
Helping Struggling Writers
How can we help students who are stuck when it comes time to write? Franki Sibberson shares a couple new strategies, including a book basket of texts selected by students themselves as useful for sparking writing topics in this photo essay.
Writing Strengths Anchor Chart
Suzy Kaback's anchor chart activity builds a sense of community and peer editing connections in her middle school classroom.
Learning Curves and Dips: Planning and Goal-Setting for Writing Workshop
Aimee Buckner describes a simple summer planning and goal-setting process she uses to get ready for launching writer's workshop in the fall.
Helping Students Find Their Own Mentor Texts
Franki Sibberson helps her students learn how to evaluation and discover their own mentor texts in her grades 3 and 4 literacy workshops.
Running and Reading Logs
In this first video in a two-part series, Clare Landrigan meets with a group of fourth graders to talk about reading logs and goals. In this excerpt, Clare uses the analogy of how runners use logs to chart progress and set goals.
Running and Reading Logs Part II
In this second video in a two-part series, Clare Landrigan meets with a group of 4th graders to talk about reading logs and goals. In this excerpt, Clare confers with students over their logs and debriefs with their teacher.
Rethinking Writing Centers
Shari Frost finds writing centers are beloved by many teachers and students. There’s only one problem – very little writing appears to be going on in the centers.
Weekend Headlines: Introduction
In this first of a three-part video series, Katie Doherty and her sixth grade students begin the Weekend Headlines activity. Each Monday, students listen to Katie share some of the headlines from the local newspaper and then share their "headlines" from the weekend.
Becoming More Purposeful with Writing Share
In this whole-class writing-share session from Katie DiCesare’s first-grade classroom, Katie talks about how she has become more purposeful in connecting student drafts with the minilesson from the start of the writing workshop.
Weekend Headlines: Peer Response
In this second part of a three-part video series, Katie Doherty and her sixth grade students continue the Weekend Headlines activity. In this installment, Katie sets up a peer response procedure.
Linking Math and Writing Through Word Problems
In this six-minute video, Franki Sibberson demonstrates how she helps her 3rd and 4th grade students make connections between writing workshop and math problem solving.
Staying Focused in Literacy Workshops
Clare Landrigan meets with a group of fifth graders to talk about what’s going well in literacy workshops, and to set individual goals.
Weekend Headlines: Whole Class Share
In this final installment of a three-part video series, Katie Doherty and her sixth-grade students continue the Weekend Headlines activity. In this installment, students share their writing with the whole class and respond.
Envisioning Writing: Wow Words and Mental Images in 1st Grade
In this minilesson, Katie DiCesare uses the book My Cat Copies Me to help her first-grade students “envision” their writing drafts. The lesson focuses on creating mental images to conjure stronger verbs and adjectives while writing.
Old Elm Speaks Day 2: Connecting Poetry, Observation, and Reading
In this second installment of a three-part video series, Aimee Buckner shows how observation skills, poetry, and reading instruction come together with the mentor text Old Elm Speaks by Kristin O'Connell George.
Writing Comics: Introducing the Activity
In this lesson from a fourth-grade classroom, Sarah Thibault introduces students to a writing activity. Students will be creating their own comic books, after extensive preparation and experience with mentor texts.
Learning from Graphica: Conferring with Students
In this lesson series from a 4th grade classroom, Sarah Thibault introduces students to a writing activity. Students will be creating their own comic books, after extensive preparation and experience with graphica. In this installment, Sarah confers with students during writer's workshop as they brainstorm character traits. Students will be creating their own comic books, after extensive preparation and multiple reading and writing activities.
Learning from Graphica: Class Discussion
This is the third installment of a video series on using graphica in a 4th grade classroom. In this episode, Sarah Thibault debriefs with her class after writing workshop. Students are creating their own comic books, after extensive preparation and multiple reading and writing activities.
Sports Writing Group Discussion
Franki Sibberson finds sports writing is a powerful motivator for boys in her grades 3-4 classroom.
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