building independence – moving writers

September 10, 2021September 9, 2021Michael Ziegler

New Perspective for an Old(ish) Teacher

Before laying down an opening for this year’s first post, I found myself browsing around the Moving Writers site and checking out some of the lovely work my colleagues are already producing. Hattie found a way to recharge from last year in the form of an outstanding education book that inspired her. David found similar […]

May 7, 2021May 6, 2021Shawna Easton

Using Writing as a Means of Mastery Assessment

When was the last time you took a multiple-choice test? For me, the last time I took a multiple choice test to demonstrate mastery was during our beginning of the year compliance training courses (you know, those courses we have to take every year). Here is the real question though: Did it show my mastery […]

April 2, 2021March 31, 2021Shawna Easton

Three Authentic Audience Web-Based Platforms to Move Writers

Teaching writing, at first, was a struggle for me. It was a struggle because the kids seemed to detest it. When I asked them why I received all sorts of answers, but one answer that kept coming up was that they didn’t feel like the writing was “real”; they turned in all their writing to […]

March 16, 2021April 17, 2021Kristin Bond

Talking to Teachers: Finding Time to ‘Write Beside Them’ and Confer (in an IB Classroom) (during a pandemic)

This is a follow-up conversation with Matt Foss, the IB Language and Literature teacher from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. I spoke with Matt in a previous post where he focused on three main topics: (1) writing beside his students, (2) how remote learning has shifted how he confers, and (3) his goal […]

March 5, 2021March 3, 2021Shawna Easton

Write Where You Are: How Writing Helps Us Process Life

Things are a little stressful in Texas, where I live. We just survived a snow-pocalypse the likes we’ve not seen in a century. Many of us had power outages, no internet, no water, or busted pipes, and this was just during the week of SNOVID! That doesn’t include all of the trials of the aftermath. […]

January 27, 2021January 26, 2021noahteach

Did They Really Love That Lesson as Much as You Think?

In my first semester beat, I’m exploring the life-saving power of routines–but not just any routines. I’m talking about routines that make life easier, more efficient, and more familiar–even in the most daunting of times (cough, 2020, cough). I’m talking about routines that allow students to thrive whether you are teaching in person, virtually, hybrid, […]

January 22, 2021January 22, 2021Michael Ziegler

Guided by (too many) Voices

It’s funny how a few things in school remain mostly normal despite everything else feeling so strange this year. Like the annual arrival of National Honors Society nominations– it was a nice reminder of “normal” when a student in my Zoom last week asked if we could set up a breakout room so he could […]

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021Starian Porchia

To Teach Writing Sin Miedo: Rethinking how we create fear or courage for our writers

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How do we provide students with the opportunities and space to write “sin miedo”? ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What does it mean to write without fear? Where does fear come from in the context of writing in the classroom? What kinds of classroom traumas create or worsen this fear? How do we help […]

January 11, 2021January 7, 2021mrfitzfinkle

Tools Over Rules: Writing as Choice-Making, not Compliance

In fact, students often think of writing as an act of compliance – follow the teacher’s instruction, receive a passing grade.

September 8, 2020August 30, 2020Rebekah O'Dell

What Comes AFTER Mentor Texts?

My best writing advice for teacher-writers (and my best advice for how to stay in the classroom for the long term) is to write about those problems, issues, and shortcomings that niggle you in the back of your head. Angela Stockman calls them the “pebbles in your teacher shoes.” Instead of a series of beautified […]