Over the last four years, I’ve provided sustained support to 5 rural, 2 suburban, and 3 urban school districts as they’ve aligned curricula, instructional practices, and assessments to the Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts. Last week, as I began work in a new district, I was invited to chat informally with teachers, administrators, and parents about all of those experiences. They wanted to know where things went well, where things went off…
I founded the WNY Young Writer’s Studio with two great intentions: First, I longed to create a lasting community where children could choose to write about the things that mattered to them in ways that were deeply rewarding. I envisioned a place where young writers would continue to learn from one another month after month and year after year, far beyond the confines of a workshop or institute. I wanted to created a place where…
1. Is your relationship with quantitative data exclusive? 2. Are you unwilling to recognize flaws in your quantitative data or in your relationship? 3. Do you dress your quantitative data up and show it off to impress others, even though you don’t know it very well? 4. Do you blame quantitative data or the assessments that produced them for your own shortcomings or failures? 5. Does your relationship strip you of your confidence or leave…
Registration for the upcoming season is now open at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio, and while I often share the work of the kids in our community, I don’t often speak to what teachers do there. Why is that? Well, our teacher groups are kept intentionally small because the commitment teachers make to our program is HUGE, and the work that they do there is their own. Whenever I blog about Studio teachers, I do…
Last spring, several groups at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio made a careful study of dialogue. Rather than charting the ideas that might have emerged from my teacher-driven mini-lessons, writers researched this topic using varied tools. They looked for evidence of these stratgies in beloved mentor texts, and they interviewed real writers. Then, students added their findings to the chart below. This small shift in practice was incedibly rewarding. How are you making your writing workshop more student…
First, I want to thank those of you who have dropped by over the last few months, subscribed to my email list, and added my blog to your readers. I’ve really enjoyed having a space to connect with a wider audience this year, and each month, my page views and my ad revenue continues to grow. Here’s why this matters to me. As I plan future posts, I’m interested in blogging about what matters most…
Primary teachers know that drawing is writing and that even our littlest writers have wonderful and very important stories to tell and opinions to share. It’s important to mention that the anchor chart below, which I’ve shared before, is one that is typically constructed one lesson at a time, over the course of days or even weeks. How fast you move depends on the needs of your writers and the time available for instruction. This…
I spent much of last week curled up on my couch designing writer’s workshop units while nursing a killer cold. One gorgeous silver lining: I’ve discovered lemon ginger tea. Another? I’ve had some time to think about how we do workshop a bit differently at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio. Over the years, we’ve become a community that is truly writer-centered. Shifting away from traditional workshop structures and leading from behind was more than a…
During conversations with teachers last week, one mentioned how overwhelming it is to move writers through the revision process and how, all too often, what comes from the effort is more a reflection of the teacher’s thinking and work rather than the writer’s. “If I don’t do the work for them, their revisions are never deep enough. Their final drafts are still pretty weak,” she said. Truer words are rarely spoken, and this is why…