Craft & Draft

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

Another school year is coming to a close! How can teachers close their year and keep the learning happening in the classroom?

In this episode, Jacob and Pam talk about how to keep the students learning.  Pam shares several of her year end experiences, projects and ideas. Jacob explains how reflective activities help the students remember what they learned about reading and writing.

They both explain how teachers will want to create experiences that connect personally and contain high interest opportunities.  Jacob states that if the workshop teacher has taught their students to love and appreciate reading and writing, then ending the year with longer time periods to read and write will keep students working until the end.

Join Jacob and Pam as they explore several end of year possibilities for reading and writing workshop classrooms!

The post #192 Closing the Year Strong appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss many topics from how to figure out who you people are in a new campus to how to study and deeply understand literature. Most of the conversation is about understanding literature and how to help our students make deeper connections to what they read.

Jacob shares how teachers need to create moments that allow students individualized experiences with their book studies.  Pam speaks on all the ways students can connect to books in general. They each explain how they approach literature in their reading workshop.

Join Jacob and Pam as they make connections to book studies in the classroom!

The post #191 How to Study Literature appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

Do schools ruin poetry? Often…they do. But why? Poetry is an incredible art form. It can be powerful, insightful, and even humorous. So why does the love of poetry die inside school?

We have some thoughts.

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss!

The post #190 Schools Ruin Poetry appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

‘What is an assignment?’ seems like a simple question, until it is discussed. 

In this episode Jacob and Pam dive into the ‘What is an assignment?’ question.  Pam begins by trying to answer the question and soon realizes that the answer is complicated due to the complexity found in education.  Jacob does a quick search to get a more formal answer.

Jacob shares how teachers assign work in various ways. They both share how they have assigned work and graded it in their own classrooms. The consensus is that the work assigned must match the learning goal.

Join Jacob and Pam as they think about assignments and reflect on how teachers will want to use them in their own workshops!

The post #189 What is an Assignment? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

In this episode, Jacob and Pam take a quiz straight from Education Weekly.  The quiz asks questions from teacher salary, to teacher PD preferences.  

The quiz prompts Jacob and Pam to discuss each scenario or topic that is relevant to teachers today.  Their conversation includes whether or not they agree with each other as well as other aspects of the educational profession.

Join Jacob and Pam to see how well we all know America’s teachers! 

Want to see behind the scenes of this episode and us take the test? Click here. 

The post #188 How Much Do We Know About American Teachers? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

Jacob just took some students to visit a few colleges and universities.  The visit propagated the question, “Are schools effectively readying their students for college?”

In this episode, Jacob and Pam talk about why college readiness is still important.  They each share their own college experiences.  They both realize that the experiences are completely opposite from each other.  Pam shares how she played volleyball in college, made friends and networked.  She goes down a short visit on memory lane about how much she enjoyed her time there.  Jacob shares how most of his experience was on-line, so he missed a lot of the social aspects of attending college on-campus.

They both move into what educators need to do to  effectively prepare students for college. 

Join Jacob and Pam as they think through why schools may not be getting students ready for college, and what the schools need to do about it.

The post #187 What is College Readiness? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

Every year in the education world, educators are trying to figure out if they should stay at their school or district or leave. Jacob and Pam discuss the question, “When do you know whether you should stay, look for another place, or quit?”  

In this episode, Pam shares how she made decisions to move to other schools and districts throughout her career.  She explains how sometimes she moved for reasons outside her control and at other times she moved because she wanted to achieve a professional goal.

Jacob also explains how he has made his decisions to stay or move throughout his career.

Join Jacob and Pam as they offer a little advice to those who are facing the choice to stay, move, or quit.

The post #186 It’s That Time of Year: To Stay or To Quit appeared first on Craft & Draft.

In this bonus episode for our Craft and Draft patrons we answer Courtney’s question regarding the test taking season.

Jacob shares how he begins broad in his workshop and then narrows his scope as his students approach the test.  This approach allows him to create a workshop atmosphere full of exploration, discovery and creativity.

Pam shares how she focuses the students toward the standard and helps them ‘work’ the test.  She uses the ‘Think Aloud’ strategy form Laura Robb to model how to read test questions.

Join Jacob and Pam as they share these techniques and other test prep ideas. Respond with some ideas that use, too!

***This episode was previously  published only for Patreon supporters.

The post #185 Test-Prep Strategies! (Patreon Episode) appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

It seems that the notion, ‘Students can’t read’ is always at the forefront of public conversations these days.  So much so writing instruction seems to have taken a back seat in the classroom. 

In this episode, Jacob and Pam talk about how writing is the flipside of the literacy coin.  You can not have one without the other.  They both make an argument that student centered sponsored writing assists students with their ability to read.  Jacob shares how he and his principal at his past school made writing across the curriculum mandatory. He speaks about the positive results the school received due to this practice.  

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss the role of authentic writing instruction and how it needs to be maintained in the Reading and Language Arts classroom!

The post #184 Reading or Writing: What Matters Most? appeared first on Craft & Draft.

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

Reading workshop is designed to help students to create their reading loves and sponsor a love for reading; however, the other side (so to speak) says that this philosophy is not helping students be better readers.

So the question remains, “Should teachers teach a love for reading?”

In this episode, Jacob and Pam meander through the topic of teaching a love for reading.  Jacob shares how it seems with the claims our children can’t read, English and Reading teachers are being blamed. Pam responds with some personal stories from home and the classrooms where she learned to read. 

Join Jacob and Pam as they discuss the love of reading and how it should or should not be taught in the classroom.  Let us know what you decide!

The post #183 Does it Matter if Teachers Teach a Love for Reading? appeared first on Craft & Draft.