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The realization of this moment gave me chills and led me to share my writing backstory with Dana. Dana listened and encouraged me to open my presentation with this story. I was hesitant, the experience had halted my inner writer for years. What if sharing it again had the same result?

Is it important that teachers who teach writing actually write?

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 →

Glue your butt to the chair, every day, or at least once a week, and you will not only become a better writer--you'll become a better teacher of writing.

This week, we've been re-posting our favorite old posts. I always learn a ton from my friend and co-blogger Stacey Shubitz. This post of hers, from one year ago, is one that I just loved.

After reading Write Beside Them, Tara Smith realized she had to connect her teacher and writer identities. No longer would it be enough to share mentor texts and confer. She realized she needed to share her writing life with her students and walk them through her thinking as she wrote.

Cultivate home-school partnerships around writing by hosting a family writing night this fall.

It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.
 - Isaac Asimov I began a writer’s group last year at… Read More →

With so many fantastic books about the teaching of writing out there, how do teachers who are new to writing workshop know what to read first? Here are 12 books I think all teachers of writing should read.

I’m overwhelmed (in a good way) with the flood of responses to the question I posed on Tuesday.  Thank you for responding with such thought about the way your writing instruction has been… Read More →

In addition to the link you leave to your slice today, would you mind sharing how teaching writing workshop is better when you're a teacher who is also a Writer?

As an instructional coach, a key part of my job is to encourage and inspire teachers. This is one of my favorite things about my job. It isn’t easy to be the person… Read More →

Deb Day has been teaching English and reading classes in northeast Iowa since 1989. In her current position she teaches speech, creative writing , ninth grade English, and coaches contest speech. She is married, the mother of two, grandmother of six, and is owned by Chloe, a one and a half year old Golden Doodle. [...]

Today I met with a teacher who said these words to me: I don’t like writing. I really don’t like writing. Give me math all day long every day and I’m happy, but don’t make me write. I appreciated her candidness. I love it when teachers are honest with me and I’m always humbled that [...]

Kristine Michael taught fourth grade for fifteen years before becoming the Curriculum Director for Granville Exempted Village Schools in Ohio.  Kristine is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in middle childhood who she loves talking books, literacy, and school. A newly confident writer, she’s currently developing character sketches for a fiction book inspired by her years [...]

My afternoon session, “Writing from the Heart: Finding Your True Voice,” at the TCRWP Writing Institute was taught by James Howe (aka: Jim).  During the course of the week Jim provided us with a variety of writing exercises, which lasted from 5 – 20 minutes, to help us write from the heart. One of the [...]

Jen Munnerlyn is a teacher, literacy coach, and international educator. Her family has been working in international education for 30 years beginning with her parents first overseas teaching assignment in American Samoa in 1980.  She is married to a man she met in 8th grade at International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and has her [...]

I’m slowly making my way through the keynote addresses from last week’s Writing Institute.  Today I bring to you my notes and some highlights from Roy Peter Clark’s speech, “The Power of the Parts: How Writers Learn and How Teachers Teach.” Clark wrote a book I’ve been reading for awhile now, Writing Tools: 50 Essential [...]

“Let our testimony be our pen.” – Anonymous African American Male from Chicago I found myself rushing to get my lunch from the Reading Terminal Market so I could eat it while listening to Alfred W. Tatum yesterday afternoon.  My sandwich landed up sitting in the bag for an hour and 15 minutes since I was [...]

“Let our testimony be our pen.” – Anonymous African American Male from Chicago I found myself rushing to get my lunch from the Reading Terminal Market so I could eat it while listening to Alfred W. Tatum yesterday afternoon.  My sandwich landed up sitting in the bag for an hour and 15 minutes since I was [...]

    There’s just a little over a week to go before Thanksgiving. Do you know what you’re most thankful for? Want to ruminate about the things you’re most thankful for through writing? If so, take a cue from Molly Irwin’s Blog, where she writes about the idea of recording the things for which [...]

Ruth and I have completed about 25% our manuscript.  We’re in the midst of working on the section of Writing 180 that deals with conferring.  Even though we’re in the thick of writing, we’re both constantly trying to make our writing better by reading books about writing.  I’m unsure of which professional book Ruth’s reading [...]

On Monday, June 29th, we will begin our summer posting schedule. Therefore, I wanted to take some time to reflect, publicly, on my school year, which ended yesterday at 11:00 a.m. Challenges I’m delighted to have hosted the Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC) this past March. It was fantastic to “meet” so many new [...]

I, clearly, love the idea Mary Tedrow proposes in her article about investing money in quality writing instruction for our Nation’s students. Please read this article about spending stimulus dollars on writing instruction.    Then, let me know what you think by posting a comment.  Is this where you think a lot of stimulus dollars should [...]

The Jewish New Year of 5769 is rapidly approaching. (Hence the reason you won’t be reading much from me over the course of the next few days.) Therefore, I’ve been steeping my mind in reflection about the year that has passed. Therefore, when Ruth posted a link to the Five Big Questions [...]