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Will you be teaching your students to write about history soon? Read this first!

Janiel Wagstaff's books will help you teach primary writers about the four types of writing in an engaging way. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win her series of Stella books.

Janiel Wagstaff's books will help you teach primary writers about the four types of writing in an engaging way. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win her series of Stella books.

Research-based writing need not be collections of facts. Teach your students to interpret as they research and to use their ideas to expand their writing.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 25th Annual Comprehensive Literacy and Reading Recovery Conference in Illinois.  One of the sessions I attended was led by the brilliant and endearing Christopher Lehman.  His session centered… Continue reading →

When my principal handed me a copy of Bethany Barton’s I’m Trying to Love Spiders, I was intrigued.  She had chosen this book as our Everybody Reads title for the month and I was… Continue reading →

For all those classrooms where students are working hard on their informational writing: may your students' work blow you out of the water!

When I tested Jennifer Serravallo’s Independent Reading Assessment (Scholastic), I was an immediate believer. Finally, here is a reading assessment that gives rich, clear information about upper grade readers, using an authentic reading… Continue reading →

The books featured in this post, all of which were published in 2015, represent a variety of information writing. All of these are texts that can pull double- and even triple-duty in your classroom, thereby allowing you to use a text during read-aloud time so you can revisit it during a writing workshop minlesson and/or in a content area.

A recovering hater of information writing, this post is my first step towards bringing information writing to life for my third graders! It is a vision and collection of possibliities for infusing information writing across the curriculum through the day.

I’ve long believed teacher-written texts can serve as excellent mentor texts during a unit of study. While I’m a huge advocate of student-written mentor texts, sometimes student writing doesn’t have everything we need… Continue reading →

How do you encourage students when beginning the writing process for information writing? Give them choices!

We are thrilled to launch our latest blog series, Diving Into Information Writing. Click on for a preview of the week to come on Two Writing Teachers.

Take some time to celebrate what your students have accomplished, thanks to your teaching, in writing workshop. Name something -- big or small -- you're proud of from this school year.

Reflecting on my first experience using TCRWP's goals & technique cards for informational writing with a small group of writers.

I’ve been a fan of Robert Burleigh‘s writing for the past few years. I was delighted to receive an advance review copy of Trapped! A Whale’s Rescue, his newest picture book that’s out later… Continue reading →

Recently, Stacey and I were chatting via email about why the teaching of conclusions isn’t presented as a separate minilesson in Bringing History to Life, the information writing unit in the 4th grade Units of… Continue reading →

In almost every classroom I have coached in, kids get really excited about adding text features to their informational writing. They love adding pictures, labels, maps, and table of contents to their writing.  But… Continue reading →

In almost every classroom I have coached in, kids get really excited about adding text features to their informational writing. They love adding pictures, labels, maps, and table of contents to their writing.  But… Continue reading →

Tony Johnston and Wendell Minor's new book, Sequoia, will be published later this month. Recently, both of them were gracious with their time and granted me interviews. Hear what they have to say about writing and illustrating. Get a sneak peek at this exquisite text you can use to infuse your students' informational writing with poetry.

It’s likely that in many writing workshop classrooms, the year is launching with narrative writing. Coming just around the bend, perhaps very soon for teachers who began the school year in early August, is expository… Continue reading →

It’s likely that in many writing workshop classrooms, the year is launching with narrative writing. Coming just around the bend, perhaps very soon for teachers who began the school year in early August, is expository… Continue reading →

Want some fresh ways to channel your students to write about history? This post offers some light and fast tips that could easily be turned into weighty and meaningful instruction.

We will be starting a unit on informational writing to wrap up the school year. I wanted to demonstrate a different way of finding a topic, a narrow topic. I find that young… Continue reading →

First graders use a mentor text to get crafty during a unit on informational writing.