This spring, I had the opportunity to work with teachers from southern Erie and Cattaraugus Counties. Our initial sessions challenged teachers to define writers’ craft, the process, and the values and habits of masterful writers. Then, we considered how the progression of these skills and dispositions builds and evolves as experience is gained. Teachers returned to their classrooms with new ideas to consider and test. As I prepared to see them again last week, I hoped that…
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…
This chart often takes center stage in the primary classrooms I coach in. Drawing is writing at any level, but this is especially true in pre K-2 classrooms. Each point on this anchor chart is a critical mini-lesson, and I don’t typically teach them all at once. The chart is typically built over time, as teachers define and model these strategies for very new and inexperienced writers. I’ve learned that using shapes helps little writers…
This year marks my twentieth year keeping notebooks with writers. I’ve only been satisfied with the quality of our notebook keeping for about two years though. This is how that happened: Thanks to this pin, elementary writers at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio now divide their notebooks into categories, reserving a specific number of pages for their work within each. It’s making for far more intentional use, and even more importantly, it’s enabling even our…
“A notebook is a very special thing,” I told them. “It’s so special that we should take care to plan the cover carefully. No pictures of pizza please, and don’t just scribble your name across the front. Take your time. Think on it for a while. You will want to create a cover that will inspire your writing ideas. Your cover can help others understand who you really are and what matters to you.” WNY…
This year, I’m supporting teachers across several districts as they work to implement the new Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Text created by Lucy Calkins and her colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. In each district, it’s been important to bring teachers together regularly to unpack each unit and plan for future instruction. Debriefing has been just as important. The chart below is one that I used…
This chart was designed for yesterday’s session with intermediate level teachers who are just beginning to implement writer’s workshop. They are unpacking the Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing written by Lucy Calkins and her colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project this year, and the chart provided a tidy snapshot of the anatomy of a quality mini-lesson.
These are my first and favorite conversations with writers at the start of a new year. Before we crack into our new notebooks, before the first genre studies begin, we take some time to talk about what it means to be a writer and what it means to live a writer’s life. Teachers often ask me how I manage to write every day, and I always say that this depends on what people think it…