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
Listen In: Jeffry’s Ocean Story
As a literacy coach, I'm lucky to be in the same class once a week for writing workshop throughout the year. Sometimes I refer to it as my "lab classroom,"...
Power Tools
One of the benefits of living in the South is the warm weather most of the year. Two of the downfalls, though, are the humidity and mold. Usually, opening the...
Tracking Young Children’s Writing and Development
It's important to us to be aware of each child's writing growth as they progress through the year. Knowing what a child is attempting, experimenting with, and mastering helps us...
Mentor Texts and Teacher Modeling: The Listing Strategy
In this video from her fourth-grade classroom, Aimee Buckner teaches the "listing" strategy, using the book This Is the Tree: A Story of the Baobab as a mentor text. Aimee...
Common Core Conversations: Increasing Argumentative Writing
"Let's argue more often!" Does this exclamation bring up some feelings for you? Are they positive? Maybe . . . if you won debates in high school. Perhaps the word...
The Difference Between Conferring and “Touching Base”
Sometimes when I talk with teachers about creating "the luscious feeling of endless time," they look at me like I've lost my mind. They tell me they love the idea,...
Whole Class Interviews: Building Community in Writing Workshop (TEMPLATE)
As I begin to set up my classroom, I can't help but think back to Jonathan's comment on our last day of school a few years ago in June. We...
Important Book, Important Notes: Guiding Young Students Through Notetaking
For about six weeks last winter, my daughter Lindsay was doing research on dogs during her self-directed learning time in kindergarten. She checked out a pile of Eyewitness books about...
Breathing New Life into the Writer’s Notebook
By the time they step into our classroom, my sixth graders have kept writer’s notebooks ever since they were in second grade. They arrive knowing that a writer’s notebook is...
Tweeting an Author
Katherine Sokolowski helps Amelia send a tweet to a favorite author.
Building Community Around Food and Poetry
The chef James Beard is quoted as saying, “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” We must all eat food to live, but food is much more than just...
Conferring in Kindergarten: Drawing to Learn
Hayley Whitaker confers with a kindergartner and helps him make meaning through drawings.
Gratitude Week
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. —William Arthur Ward “I’m going to write to Mrs. Fox. I had her in kindergarten.”...
The Hermit Crab Essay: Finding a Shell to Share a Vulnerable Story
When I was in fifth grade, I went to a Girl Scout overnight at a science center. As we were leaving, they gave every girl a hermit crab in a...
Using Fiction Writing to Change Attitudes About Writing
I began my writing blog in 2011 and was absolutely terrified to share my writing with the world. Slowly, I became more comfortable. I joined weekly challenges on other blogs...
Managing Independent Projects (SHORTS)
If you had been able to walk around our classroom last Friday, you might have paused to see Sophie sketching a picture in a comic strip panel. As you glanced...
Jose the Late Bloomer
Jose was a first grader, the youngest English language learner in my class. I can still remember his messy hair and quiet yawns. He seemed to like school, but it...
Writing as an Act of Resistance and a Source of Strength
I want to record what others erase when I speak. —Gloria Anzaldúa Writing has always played a significant role in my life. Since I was a little girl, I’ve kept...
Trusting the Letting-Go Moments
Last year we started school with lots of joy and inquiry. My students arrived and were greeted with monarch eggs and milkweed on the windowsill. Sticky notes were available to...
Talking Through Characters
Our sixth graders are getting ready to write realistic fiction stories, and one of the important parts of the process is getting to know their characters. In the past, I...
Lifting the Quality of Peer Response
Helping children learn to listen to each other well and give feedback takes a great deal of time. For many years, I just assumed that kids intuitively knew how to...
