Consultant Jen Serravallo often hears teachers say they’re uncomfortable teaching writing. Her solution: promote student engagement and independence. As kids become more excited, she says, “that enthusiasm will spill over to you.” Here are five ideas to get started.
Teachers should be Jedi Masters, called to be believers in our students and promoters of their ability to take charge of their own learning. ELA teacher and author Vicki Kahlenberg shares four writing strategies that foster autonomy through emulation and publication.
When students blend multimedia elements into their writing projects, interest and engagement can zoom up, writes teacher-author Sean Ruday. Ruday highlights a five-step process he uses in PD workshops to help teachers make the tech meaningful and not maddening.
We love to share writing about student writing! Here, in no particular order, are 10 of our readers’ favorite articles. You’ll find a range of posts by teachers, authors and writing coaches. And there’s a bonus for teachers who love to help students fuse words and images.
Students who write in class every day become more skillful at expressing what they feel and what they are learning, says NBCT Mary Tedrow. Using prompts that connect content and personal experience helps students “write their way to an understanding of curricula.”
Writing flow, says author and principal Matt Renwick, is achieved through the habits one builds by regularly participating in the experience. He offers suggestions on how teacher and student writers can establish writing rhythms and find flow in their craft.
Middle grades writers can learn about the writer’s notebook used by many professional writers and get tips about creating a notebook of their own in this Powerpoint slide set developed for teachers by literacy coach Juli Kendall.
Paraphrasing is the first step on Sarah Tantillo’s “stairway” to deep reading comprehension and needs to be deliberately taught early in the school year. She shares a two-step process that can help students paraphrase strategically and offers a tool for student practice.
Recent research finds that hesitant adolescent writers seldom respond positively to mentor texts by “stellar” peers. Instead, poet and educator Sara Holbrook suggests a co-creation framework that scaffolds the student writing process in a collaborative poetry workshop setting.
Literacy expert Regie Routman takes teachers for a ride and demonstrates how to avoid roadblocks that make writing less than doable, effective and gratifying. The destination? Classrooms where students routinely write to think, problem solve, create and explore.
