Writing conferences used to scare me. Big time. In fact, for me, it was the most-dreaded element of reading and writing workshop. How would I even start? What would I say if the student had a question I couldn’t easily answer? Would the other students really be working while I moved around the room discussing […]
Category: Writing Workshop
Reading and Writing Workshop: The Essentials of Getting Organized
I found Rebekah’s visual guide to planning for writing workshop tremendously helpful, and I know many of you did, too. In an effort to be transparent and share the systems that work for us, this week I am going to write a little bit about the various organizational tools that help my workshops run more smoothly […]
A Visual Guide to Planning a Writing Study
“You can’t teach writing this way if you’re not organized.” – Donald Graves (Atwell 2014, p. 26). Before I immersed myself and my students in writing workshop life, I heard other teachers say things like, “Oh, writing workshop is organic. The writing happens. It just works.” They advised me that conferences with student writers gave […]
Sequencing and Scaffolding Writing Studies
Whether you work with students for two years or are searching for an effective way to organize writing instruction in your classroom, you have no doubt thought about sequencing your writing studies so they build on one another. This year I have the privilege of teaching a group of 8th graders whom I will also […]
Turning Mentor Texts into Book Talks
After losing days of school due to snow, I’m in a familiar we’re-never-going-to-get-everything-done panic. I feel this way every winter. The fact is this: none of us have enough time with our students. We constantly feel the pull of more-to-do; we live in the tension of what we have to teach and what we want to […]
I’ve found some mentor texts…now what?
You’ve collected some awesome mentor texts to support your writing study. You’ve photocopied them and passed them out. Then what? How do we connect students with mentor texts in a way that will actually help them write? What are the first steps? My students have been immersed in a mentor text writing study for […]
Meaningful Revision in Five Days
Tara Smith of Two Writing Teachers once posed the idea of an in-between study, a study that occurs during the brief pause at the end of one unit and the beginning of another. In the middle of December, I found myself with an extra week before exams began — not quite enough time to start something […]
Happy Birthday, Moving Writers + Some BIG News!
One year ago today, we started a blog. Inspired at NCTE13, we felt compelled to join the global English teacher conversation. So, we picked a name, paid a graphic designer $5 for a logo, and hung a sign in our little corner of the Internet. We started writing. And we have loved it. We love […]
Finding Time for Technology in Writing Workshop
I think my students would tell you that our classroom is a happy, productive place. They would also tell you that it’s predictable. Monday through Thursday, we write during notebook time, read mentor texts and take notes during the lesson, and write and confer during workshop. We do this for 46 minutes four times a […]
Questions from NCTE14: “How can writing workshop fit into the curriculum I’m given?”
At NCTE, Allison and I spoke to two different teachers who both shared that they want to use writing workshop in their secondary classrooms but teach in school systems with very specific curricular demands — “You must teach these novels”, and “You must do this many timed writings in response to prompts”, and “You must […]
