Choice Lit Topic: 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.
Results
Writing for Reflection at the End of the Year
The end of the year is a struggle for me. I worry I haven’t taught enough, talked enough, or shared enough. I want to keep them with me. I know...
Alternatives to Daily Editing as a “Bell-Ringer” Activity
“I just don’t understand it,” muttered David, a fourth-grade teacher, as he sat frowning down at some student writing. “The daily editing exercises have emphasized commas in a series almost...
Developing Individualized Convention Checklists with Students
Melanie Meehan works with third graders to develop personalized conventions checklists.
An Individualized Conventions Checklist
A refrain I hear all the time is “I teach conventions, and they don’t show up in student writing.” As the writing coordinator for our district, I am in classrooms...
The Beauty of Imitation
Recently, I read an article titled “Ode to Imitation” in Flow magazine that started out with this: We’re often told that we should be original, independent, and innovative. But sometimes copying is...
Fourth-Grade Small Group: Writing Paragraphs
In this seven-minute video, Aimee Buckner uses a mentor text to demonstrate how writers construct lively nonfiction paragraphs. The small group has been pulled together because the students need more practice in adding details to their writing.
Supporting Talk Around Writer’s Craft
We believe that immersing our students in reading texts like writers will help them innately develop the knowledge and language to talk well about writing. This type of immersion work...
Modeling Nonfiction Writing for English Language Learners: Part 3
Stella Villaba models nonfiction writing for her first- and second-grade English language learners, and in the process integrates vocabulary instruction into her lesson. This is the final video in a...
Strategies for Elaboration in Opinion Writing
I was in a fifth-grade classroom today, and the teacher handed me an essay a student had written. The essay was well structured, but it was definitely short. Given the...
Listen In: Magnifying a Moment in Writing
Sometimes using a prop can help young students understand a revision strategy. Heather Rader helps second grader Sammi understand how to "magnify" a moment when revising her writing.
Modeling Nonfiction Writing for English Language Learners
Stella Villalba models nonfiction writing for her first- and second-grade English language learners, and in the process integrates vocabulary instruction into her lesson. This is the first video in a...
From Compliments to Challenges: The Conferring Card
Melanie Meehan uses a conferring card in her writing conference with Cara to ensure she has a record of the strengths and revision possibilities they discussed.
Setting the Stage for Meaningful Peer Feedback
Peer-to-peer feedback is something we value in our classroom. We expect that the feedback that peers give to one another can lead to meaningful revision, just like the feedback we...
Slow Down
It’s easy for me to get caught up in a rush, both personally and professionally. There’s always something to check off my to-do list: another standard to cover, another appointment...
Planning and the Tuesday Effect
I used to hate Tuesdays. I began hating them when I was a brand-new teacher. I would spend all weekend crafting a week’s worth of the most perfect lesson plans....
Getting Creative with Writing Celebrations
During my years of being involved in writing workshop, end-of-unit celebrations have typically consisted of students reading one of their finished pieces to an audience. I love to be invited...
Maintaining Momentum As a Writer
Author Jennifer Richard Jacobson meets with a group of fifth graders and gives advice about how she keeps generating new ideas and writing.
Wonder and React
During the first part of our information writing unit, we tried hard to get our fifth-grade students to ask questions. The classroom teacher and I modeled wondering and reacting to...
Time for What Matters
As a high school teacher, I see my students for 42 minutes each day. That’s 3½ hours in a good week (without pep rallies, blood drives, and so on) to...
Building Stamina in Middle School Writers
I am sitting in writing workshop, deep in thought as I confer with a seventh-grade writer. Just as I trhink we're really getting somewhere, starting to work together to move...
The Intersection of Social Studies and Language Arts
Our state has revised its framework for social studies significantly over the past four years. As I worked as part of a state-level team on the new frameworks for Connecticut,...
