Welcome back to Craft and Draft podcast with Jacob Chastain and Pam Ochoa. Last week they shared how they used the CRAFTBOOK. As promised, this week they sit down and discuss  the details of the DRAFTBOOK. The DRAFTBOOK empowers our students to become writers.  We share how the students utilize it during their writing process.

In this episode, Jacob shares how his students enjoy writing and uses their DRAFTBOOKS to hone their writing skills.  Pam discusses how her students develop an ownership of their DRAFTBOOKS and how they create authentic pieces of writing. Both express how this system makes the teaching of writing enjoyable for both the students and the teachers.

As we mentioned last week, the podcast can only translate only so much of the system.  We hope that dedicating an episode to each aspect of the system will help our listeners implement the journals and help you enhance your Reading and Writing Workshop.

As a note: we do apologize for the slight “hiss” from our audio. As with all things teaching, things went wrong and we went with the flow! Hopefully it does not impede too much on your listening. 

The post #20 The Draftbook appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Welcome back everyone, to the Craft & Draft Podcast! After a nice full list of episodes detailing Pam and Jacob’s philosophy, background, and focus in their classrooms, they figured it was about time to sit down and give some solid details on what their Craftbooks and Draftbooks are.

Today we are talking CRAFTBOOKS, and next Friday, we will cover the DRAFTBOOK. The following week, we will detail how they intermingle into publishing, remediation, and retention.

Of course, a podcast can only translate so much of their system, but after dedicating an hour to each, and many more afterwards working out details and actual examples on the show, they believe listeners will be able to use and modify their journals long before they officially release a how-to with their upcoming book.

Whether you are a new listener, or are already a fan, this episode is sure to give you insight into the powerful Craft & Draft system, why Pam and Jacob created it, and why they believe it is a fantastic tool for new and experienced workshop teachers.

The post #19 The Craftbook 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 received a question about Writing and Reading Workshop. This teacher just like so many other teachers is required to implement specific programs and curriculum requirements.  Trying to fit everything into a day’s lesson often takes us out of a true workshop model.  

Jacob leads a discussion about how he and Pam experience similar curriculum requirements. From these experiences Pam shares how she looks at all the elements and finds a common theme and begins with writing.  Jacob explains how he eliminates the extra and keeps what is most important for his students. The heart of all workshop classrooms is creating authentic readers, writers and thinkers.

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss advice to a listener’s call for help. The struggle is real for all workshop teachers.  If you find the same struggle in your workshop then we hope this episode helps you too!

The post #18 More Programs, More Problems (Listener Q&A) 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 share books from Donald Graves to the present. We share books that you may want to add to your professional development library or a back to school gift for your colleague. Not only do we share our planned list, we throw in quite a few bonus books too!

We share how we use these books and how they help us to hone our pedagogical skills in a writing reading workshop.  We stand upon the shoulders of some great researchers whose work lives on today in our classrooms.  When we reach back to these powerhouses through their books, we transfer their work to our students and inspire our students to read and write

Join Jacob and Pam as they help you shop for your back to school professional books.

THE BOOK LIST FOR YOU: 

The post #17 Top PD Books to Buy With Those Gift Cards appeared first on Craft & Draft.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Craft & Draft podcast where we talk reading — writing workshop every single FRIDAY of the week!

In this episode, we take on the task of unsticking the stuck writer.

We know it happens. You know it happens. Writers get stuck. They have choice and freedom to tackle any idea or subject, and they just don’t move. Or possibly, they start, and just can’t continue.

As a teacher, it might be hard to know what to do to help these writers, and it is for us too. However, over the years, we have developed, found, and borrowed TONS of ideas that help us when we reach this stage with students, and we share many of them in this episode.

If you are struggling with getting students moving in their writing, or writing at all in writing workshop, this episode is for you.

The post #16 Unstick the Stuck Writer appeared first on Craft & Draft.