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What are the books that have shaped you as a teacher of writing? Reflecting today, in thanks, for the authors and books that have influenced my life as a teacher.

In my day-to-day teaching I often get swept up in trying to load students up with next step after next step… after next step. Sometimes, what might benefit some students most, however, is clear… Continue reading →

Learn some tricks for reading the Units of Study, whether you're new to the units or have been using them for many years.

Call it jargon, call it terminology, call it what you will. We have our own made-up words for things sometimes.

Long ago, most teachers I knew had a ritual that they held near and dear to their hearts. At the end of every writing workshop, a child sat in the Author’s Chair and… Continue reading →

How do you help your students establish their identity as writers?

Last week I wrote a post titled How To Plan A Minilesson From Scratch, and I outlined a very simple way to plan minilessons, based on the work of my wonderful colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Now, I am going to backtrack a bit and revisit just a teensy weensy bit of what I said. I wrote, "Every minilesson can pretty much go the same way." And this is absolutely true, most of the time. Except for those times when it's not true.

As the school year comes to a close, many of the schools I work with are launching into a week or so of in-service, summer institutes, and other professional development. It’s “curriculum season”… Continue reading →

It’s been several months since I’ve written for Two Writing Teachers. In December my son was born, and I was on maternity leave until a few weeks ago. Then, in March I pushed aside all excuses… Continue reading →

First drafts usually contain the words anybody can write. Revision is the key to crafting writing that sounds just like you.

Anna Gratz Cockerille, a new member of the TWT team, introduces herself to the community and writes about new beginnings.

I purchased the original Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3 – 5 when they were published in 2006. In the early days, those books were like a Bible to me. I… Read More →

A couple of weeks ago I was re-reading the chapter about genre studies in The Art of Teaching Writing, New Edition (Heinemann, 1994) by Lucy Calkins. Once I was finished, I flipped to… Read More →

I’ve been working on a few sample minilessons to give my grad students next month when I start teaching “Children’s Literature in Teaching Writing.”  I’ve been making tweaks to the traditional minilesson structure… Read More →

I’ve been working hard to prepare lectures for my graduate students that address the  Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, with regard to the teaching of writing.  While I have read through the… Read More →

I’ve been working hard to prepare lectures for my graduate students that address the  Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, with regard to the teaching of writing.  While I have read through the… Read More →

One September, I was creating a chart with my students about the things good writers do.  They said things like “good writers write long and strong” and “they add details.”  I was initially impressed.  These kids seemed to know some of the things it took to be a strong writer.  But then, I conferred with [...]

“A pen is better than glasses as a tool for seeing.” –Lucy Calkins, Keynote Address, July Writing Institute, 6/27/11 I walked into the Levien Gymnasium yesterday morning and was greeted warmly by Tisha, of the Thinking Aloud Blog, who I had never met in person ’til yesterday.  We chatted for a few minutes prior to [...]

This week’s guest blog post is written by Lynnelle Snowbarger who is in her tenth year of teaching fifth grade in the Jenks Public Schools.  A frequent participant in the Slice of Life Story Challenge, Lynelle also documents her journey with her students at the Bohemian Teacher Blog. Teachers don’t join the profession because of [...]

When I started teaching I owned a handful of picture and chapter books.  I came armed with this handful and my love for Judy Blume.  I knew I liked to write, but really had no idea how to help a child become a stronger writer.  Over time, with a lot of guidance and professional development, [...]

I consider myself fortunate to have learned more about the art of conferring with young writers from some of the best folks out there: Carl Anderson, Lucy Calkins, and Jen Serravallo.  As many of you know, I spent a week of my summer studying more about conferring with Carl Anderson at the TCRWP Summer Institute [...]

I realize I’m a bit late to the “Those Shoes Party,” which is a touching text written by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. Those Shoes was published in 2007 and is the story of a little boy who desperately wants the shoes that nearly everyone else in school has. The [...]

When I woke up this morning, I realized I never created an assessment rubric for memoir! My first thought was :How could I forget to do that!??! My second thought was: The Publishing Party is this Friday and there’s no rubric! YIKES! It’s 6:02 a.m., and the problem is finally solved since [...]

Kate and I were creating charts after school this afternoon for tomorrow’s big memoir drafting lesson. (Though I previewed it for my kids today.) Calkins & Chiarella’s Book makes reference to three kinds of structures for memoir: 1. Hybrid texts which combine exposition and narrative. (I likened this to a hybrid car and drew [...]

I did some slight tweaking to our memoir unit of study. This is this year’s “final” version. Session 1: Writers read and listen to student memoirs and then write in order to inspire their own writing. Session 2: Writers find their life topic by thinking about people who are important to you. One way writers do [...]