Craft & Draft

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

Pam reveals that when she was a young high school teacher working in teams was rare. From her experience teachers were competitive and often did not share ideas.  Teachers would close their doors with their independent lessons and teach in isolation.  

Now, working in teams is the norm in many places.  Jacob leads a discussion about what makes a good team member, what makes a team not work and what makes a team successful. He talks about trust and other principles that help build successful teams.

Teachers add value to their teams when they encourage team members, develop trust and do what is best for their students. Building a strong and successful team takes hard deliberate work; however, that work is delicate and must be handled with care, 

Join Jacob and Pam as they try to find the magic that makes a good team. 

The post #33 What Makes a Great Team? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.

Pam and Jacob LOVE professional development—it’s kind of an addiction. They love reading it, going to conferences, and just about everything in between.

But with that love comes a small disdain for bad professional development…

But what’s the difference? What should professional development look like?

Join Jacob and Pam as they try to answer this question, talk about the best PD they have had. and think about what meaningful PD looks like in today’s world.

The post #32 What Should Professional Development Look Like? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

How do we keep our writers nourished? In this episode, Jacob and Pam will be talking about their students who turn and truly see themselves as writers. They begin with the moments when their students come to them with their self-realization and how that makes them feel as writing teachers.  

Our recipe begins with providing many varied writing experiences. Pam shares a few novel techniques she uses to keep pre-writing fresh. Jacob’s students write poetry and publish it on the walls. They offer their students choices: in topics, in genres, and in length. They allow for feedback and much much more!

Join Jacob and Pam as they recognize it’s the teacher who sponsors their writers with a diet of techniques that build writers. Ponder upon your own workshop and create confident writers, too!

The post #31 The Writer’s Diet appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

Spring brings blossoms, singing birds, little bunnies, and tests.  The testing season places extra stress on students and teachers. Trying to figure out how to prepare students for the high stakes test while maintaining an authentic workshop becomes difficult to balance.  The temptation to teach to the test is strong! 

In this episode, Jacob alludes to a book he is reading regarding the history of education and how high stakes testing became a main part of our educational system. Jacob and Pam express how they work through the testing season and reflect on their practices.

They determine that it is important to teach the students to read, write and think for long term gains rather than teach to the test for short term gains. Workshop is the best way to meet all the needs of the students and get them ready for all types of assessments from high stakes testing to those found in everyday life.

Join Jacob and Pam while they share how the high stakes season is impacting their instructional practice.  The struggle to balance the Reading and Writing workshop while preparing the students for the test is real!

The post #30 High Stakes Tests vs Teaching appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

When teachers open up their lessons by offering choices to their students the feedback loop is altered and their feedback opportunities increase. Students grow when they receive effective honest feedback.  The feedback that is offered will vary based upon the individual needs of the students.

In this episode, Pam shares how she altered a lesson as a response to the feedback that she received from her students which in turn changed the types of feedback that her students required. 

Jacob shows how feedback moves beyond critique and teacher feedback helps students learn to explore the world and how to navigate it.

Join Jacob and Pam as they meander through the feedback territory of the reading and writing workshop and expand your feedback loop too!

The post #29 The Feedback Loop appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this episode, Jacob shares that he is teaching with a whole novel! He invites us into his classroom. He shares how he made his decision regarding what novel to use and how he struggled how to set up his workshop.  HIs novel guides his mini-lessons and the students choose their responses. 

Pam confesses that she is in the middle of a whole novel. She shares how her team decided to read a whole grade level novel.  This decision allows her to team teach with other teachers. Pam walks us through her team taught lesson.

They both share how the whole group novel impacts their workshop. Join Jacob and Pam as they share their different approaches to teaching with a whole group novel!

The post #28 A Novel Approach appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss grammar! Yes, that is right, grammar! They share how they address grammar instruction in their writing workshop.  Jacob connects the learning of grammar to the learning of music. Pam shares how she incorporates grammar instruction as her students work through the writing process.

They realize how much they love language, but they recognize that their instruction is not driven by the rules of the language, it’s driven by how the language helps the writer make meaning. Students learn grammar when they need it to make their meaning more clear.

Join Jacob and Pam as they explore how they get their students to engage in grammar. Engage your students with grammar, too!!!

The post #27 Grammar — Meaning — Music appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

Students’ interests inspire Jacob’s reading instruction. Pam finds that connections encourage students to read more.  However they approach reading in their workshops, they strive to keep the reading centered around the reader.  

In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss how to expose their students to a variety of reading experiences. Bringing a multi-genre approach expands the scope of books and genres their students want to read. Jacob reiterates Donalyn Miller– its all about access to books–from the classroom library to the school library and their on-line library.  They both discuss the importance of community and how accountability enters into their reading workshop.

Join Jacob and Pam as they offer ideas about how to expand the reading that occurs in their workshops. Find a nugget or two and empower your readers with the help of a little reading nudge!

The post #26 A Little Reading Nudge appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. 

In this episode, Jacob and Pam answer a listener’s question about getting students to branch out from genres they prefer to write in. They offer suggestions and provide examples from their own classrooms on how to nudge students beyond their comfort zone. They believe that students will grow as writers when they are allowed to explore genres as readers and then as writers. 

Choice drives student centered writing instruction! Professional Development suggests that giving students choice engages them and motivates them to write; however, when offered choices, neophyte writers often choose to write a story over the same topic or genre.

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss the nuts and bolts of providing choices while guiding students through their own writing journey. A venture where students discover what matters to them, find their voice and use writing to better understand the world in which they live!

The post #25 Nuts & Bolts of Choice in Writing (Listener Question) appeared first on Craft & Draft.