Craft & Draft

Welcome back to Craft & Draft! Today Pam and Jacob are coming together to discuss the heart of their reading and writing workshop—the conference!

Both Pam and Jacob treat their conferences as sacred ground these days. It drives their instruction, in the moment teaching, and builds a community of learners who respect each other and take charge of their daily practice…but it didn’t start that way. They both had to learn the art over time, slowly molding it more and more with authentic practices that inspired students to want to discuss their reading and writing over time.

Pam began with writing conferences, while Jacob began through the reading conference, and in this episode, they detail their journey, lessons, and current processes with conferring—all for you to nod along with and learn from in equal measure.

Enjoy!

The post #9 Conferring is the Heart of Our Workshop 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. 

We are continuing to check over our lesson plans to see what is ahead. We see that in our curriculum our students will need to present a critique of a literary work, film or drama.  

Jacob looks over the standards and discusses with Pam how to bring novelty to the lesson. Jacob has a knack for making his writing lessons engaging for his students. In this lesson he explains how he is going to let the students choose how they will present their critique.

Join Jacob and Pam as they bounce ideas back and forth to create a unique way to present the art of the critique to their students.

The post #8 Planning to Teach Critique to 7th Graders 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. 

Creating lessons is what teachers do, so in this episode planning the next lesson is what we are doing!

In the curriculum, Pam is eyeing her plans for non-fiction. Specifically, how to make an engaging unit around reading and writing within the boundaries of informational text.

To plan for this teaching, Pam has brought the standards, her ideas, and expertise, to the table to discuss openly with Jacob, brainstorming ways to approach future lessons. Jacob offers his ideas and insights on the lesson idea, and together they develop a writing workshop lesson that will inspire students to want to write more, and engage with informational text in a meaningful way.

They explore avenues that will help their students learn in depth about their topic and see it through multiple genres and perspectives. 

Join Jacob and Pam as they share a lesson idea that will provide students with opportunities to explore a topic of their choosing. Maybe you will come away with a new idea for your students too!

(Bonus: you get to hear about our admittedly failed attempts at “farming.” You don’t want to miss it!) 

The post #7 Lesson Planning to Teach Informational Text 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, oral storytelling, and real world teaching.

In this episode, we hold nothing back in our DEEP dive into everything English—from the origin of oral stories to how the novel is new technology. If you are a word nerd like us, you will find a lot to enjoy in this one!

We had so much fun diving in the deep end on this one, and we hope you do too!

The post #6 Oral Storytelling and the Brain appeared first on Craft & Draft.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… and everything in between! 

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, we look back to our past to help us see how we can balance our teaching during these different and difficult times. We recognize how our role as teachers is paramount to our students’ success.  We share our present experiences with our students that show how this can be our best time in education, even though it is definitely one of the most challenging! 

If you need a pep-talk, you’re in the right place.

Join us as we talk about our craft and how much it helps us enjoy life!              

The post #5 The Best of Times, The Worst of Times appeared first on Craft & Draft.