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 Workshop Share: Talking About Revision Tools
In this video of a discussion after writing workshop in Franki Sibberson's classroom, intermediate students share the tools they used in revision.
Guilty Pleasures
TV. These two letters can make a grown adult's eyes roll. It can make a child shout for joy or cry in frustration. Educators cringe as we try to compete...
Organizing Writing Groups
Many times I'll form a writing group based on what I'm noticing as I observe children in writer's workshop. They will tell me what they need in conferences, or I'll...
Getting Started with Your Own Writer’s Notebook
It's summer and school is out - at least in Georgia. There are a zillion things I love about the summer: waking up without an alarm, having my morning java...
Using Foam Boards in Writer’s Workshop
Foam boards are an inspiration that came from my friend Ann Marie Corgill. She shared this idea with me when she was working at the Manhattan New School in New...
Assessing Student Writing
The standards and testing movement almost made me lose sight of the "workshop" part of writing workshop. It's been hard to keep the energy, joy, and excitement of a thriving...
Mix It Up: Helping Young Writers Learn to Confer with Peers and Teachers
When writers put words to paper, they are writing to an imagined audience. The audience might be themselves at another point in time; it might be a specific friend; it...
Introducing Bull’s-Eye and Waves Written Responses in Synthesis Work
My students helped me understand that to synthesize what you are reading, you have to stand in two places at once: in your own shoes and in the shoes of...
Webbing to Learn: A Writing Strategy to Chart Thinking with Young Learners
Teachers and teacher educators used to think that a web structure was too advanced for our youngest school learners, and reserved this work for more academically experienced students. A couple...
Reflection Sheets: A Tool for Assessment and Conferring
I use reflection sheets a few times a month with my third- and fourth-grade students in reading and writing workshops. The students answer a few questions around some issue we...
Revision Tools: Providing Options to Students
From old favorites like highlighters to new resources like kangaroo bags, this whole-class session with Franki Sibberson's grades 3-4 students highlights cool tools that will inspire learners to dive in...
The Lines are to Write My Words: Phonics in Context
New journals. The excitement of a whole blank book of pages waiting for words and drawings to fill them. The kindergarten children seem eager to have their own new journals...
Inviting Students to Organize Books and Materials
Are you always looking for something in your classroom? Maybe it's that special pair of scissors, your attendance/grade book, or the long overdue library copy of Cynthia Rylant's The Journey: Stories...
Tips from the Pros on Starting Your Own Writer’s Notebook or Teaching Journal
Your writer's notebook gives you a safe place to ask: What really matters? What haunts me? What in my life, in this world, do I never want to forget? Your...
Planning for a Year of Author Studies (TEMPLATE)
I plan author studies for my students at the start of the year. I think about the range of authors we might study, what authors work best at different times...
Creating Anchor Charts with Sticky Note Responses from Young Readers
Learners who focus on comprehension strategies rely on different tools. One of the most popular is the three by three inch sticky note. High school teachers like Cris Tovani and...
Up Gross and Personal: Dealing with Dicey Topics in Writing Workshops
Teachers have a high tolerance for the disgusting. We scrub down the mysterious puddle on the rug after a literature discussion, we endure the dead mouse passed around during recess,...
Writing About a War-Torn Home: Zerina Talks About Finding Her Writer’s Voice
English language learners enter our classrooms with histories from many different cultures—sometimes as immigrants from other countries. Although there are many reasons why families choose to immigrate, none are more...
Conferring with Anna
Anna is a five-year-old student in an Oregon kindergarten classroom who speaks Vietnamese at home. In this conference with Ruth Shagoury, she shares writing about her classmates and a snake,...
Spacing Words: A Minilesson with Young Writers
In this two-minute video, Andie Cunningham reinforces the concept of spacing words with her kindergartners using her own writing and a brainstorming web.
Let’s Get Some Attitude
"All our attitudes come out in language," says English maven Robert MacNeil. Not just thoughts. Not just ideas. Not just imaginings. Attitudes. Maybe that's part of what's missing in those...
