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
Doing the Writing in a Unit
It may seem simple to you, but every time I look at that shelf, I am filled with pride. The shelf hangs—perfectly straight at eye level in my bedroom. On...
Writing on Someone Else’s Topic
An email message in my inbox said, “Shari, can you write something about why it’s good for children to touch their foreheads? I think it has something to do with the...
And This Makes Me Think
If you could see me right now, you would know I’m sitting cross-legged on my unmade bed, my hair up in a messy knot, with three tabs open on my...
Invitations vs. Accountability
My reading life is full of invitations. A friend recommends a book. I get invited into a book club. I see an announcement for the next #titletalk Twitter chat in...
Getting to the Heart of Theme
When I was in junior high way back in the day, the biggest and most important papers we had to write about the books we read all focused on one...
Writing Routines: Drafting Autonomy
This past year, I've taken time to evaluate my role in the writing workshop. One question I’ve asked myself is Am I interrupting students writing by continually conferring with them?...
Conference Records That Stay with Kids
As I waited for the transition to writing workshop, I looked around the kindergarten classroom. It was packed! Not only were class sizes large—34 five-year-olds had prepared their desks for...
Leads Minilesson
This fifth-grade minilesson from Franki Sibberson is a lovely mix of mentor texts, Franki's own writing, and honesty about the writing process.
Content and Context
For years, my tennis partner tried to get me to change the grip on my forehand volley. She’d rotate my hand, we’d hit a few, and then we’d move into...
Improving Turn-and-Talks
The turn-and-talk strategy is often used during minilessons. During a turn-and-talk, the teacher poses a question or concept and then asks students to turn to another learner and talk about...
Independent Project Hiccups
Some teachers in our school have thrown in the towel on independent projects. Often our colleagues lament the many issues that come up when students are choosing their own genre...
Using Tech to Find Authentic Audiences for Student Writing
Stanford professor Andrea Lunsford organized a project in which she collected and analyzed almost 15,000 writing samples. They included formal (i.e., assignments, essays) and informal (i.e., emails, blog posts) examples....
Managing Independent Projects
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...
A Variety of Share Sessions
Sharing in writing workshop is a powerhouse for producing energy, excitement, and new learning to sustain writers. I’ve always pressed teachers to tap into a variety of share sessions to...
The Writing Workout
I overuse it as an analogy, but it’s hard to ignore how often principles of fitness and teaching mirror each other. Recently, validation for my tendency came in the form...
Why We Like Independent Writing Projects
It’s Friday morning during writing workshop, and 21 writers are scurrying around our room, gathering their materials: writer’s notebooks, writing folders, special revision pens. Some students take out a Chromebook,...
Backward Chaining
For the last few weeks, I’ve been working in a fifth-grade classroom throughout a research-based essay unit. My focus has been on a group of six students who were far...
Object Poetry Lesson in Second Grade
Linda Karamatic explores poetry with her second graders. She displays poems students have written and teaches them about fresh language using a poem about a pencil sharpener. ...
Grammar Instruction in Fourth Grade
Melanie Meehan coaches a fourth-grade teacher who is trying to improve his grammar instruction.
Choose Your Own Grammar Adventure
It is winter. You are an English teacher, and you are starting to notice that lazy grammar errors are sneaking into your high school students’ writing. You review a few...
Inspiring Students to Revise
If I had a dollar, maybe even a quarter, for every time I heard a young student tell me they’re done with their writing piece, I think I could retire....
