We all have resistant writers in our classrooms. This is a fact of teaching life. In the video below learn 13 different ways that you can help resistant writers become much more motivated. Not all of these ways will work. You need to try different combinations with different students until you’ve found the key to unlock your students’ motivation! Here are more resources related to this topic:

https://amandawritenow.com/50-ways-to-get-kids-writing-more/

http://amandawritenow.com/supporting-writers-at-all-levels/

https://amandawritenow.com/my-students-dont-write-during-writing/

https://amandawritenow.com/8-ways-teachers-kill-a-love-of-writing/

I've followed and quit so many programs in my life!

Diets, work out routines, parenting guides, teaching curriculum.

Programs are everywhere we turn.

Dictionary.com defines "program" as: a plan of action to accomplish a specified end. In this blog post I want to focus on that term "end".

All programs must come to an end. Quitting programs is the natural progression of growth.

After using the program for a time, we must let our intuition and creativity guide us!

But sometimes we feel, well, guilty for quitting programs or deviating a bit.

I'm here to tell you, we don't need to feel that way.

Quitting or deviating from a program is just the natural progression of learning.

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I get a lot of emails every week asking a wide range of questions. One question that seems to come up over and over again is, what does workshop actually look like in a secondary classroom?

Here’s the simple answer: workshop can look however you want it to look.

You could choose to do workshop every day, once a week, for a month or for six months and then quit! It’s really up to you! It can look how you want it to look. That’s the beauty of being a teacher. We get to decide how our classroom runs. You can pick and choose what resonates with you and what could work for you.

In this post I’ll discuss what it looks like in my classroom but every teacher, school and student has different needs. But, you’re probably still wondering…what does this actually look like on a day-to-day basis? To me it’s simple.

More Information about this episode:

https://amandawritenow.com/what-does-workshop-actually-look-like-in-a-secondary-classroom/

Amanda Write Now homepage:

https://amandawritenow.com/

FREE monthly training hosted by Amanda:

https://www.workshopteacherschool.com/registration-page

I let students socialize the first day of school. Read on to find out why…

After reading this important article by Write On with Miss G (which I highly recommend you read), I thought back to my first day of school, last year. https://writeonwithmissg.com/

Here’s what’s written in my plan book 8/14/2017: introduce self, read My Name by Sandra Cisneros, go over routines/procedures and record names.

The last activity, “record names” ended up being brilliant. Originally, I just planned to record names of students who felt their name was hard to pronounce with the voice recorder app on my iPhone. I wanted to make sure I pronounced my students’ names correctly.

https://amandawritenow.com/what-im-doing-the-very-first-day-of-school-might-surprise-you-and-why-you-should-try-it-too/

Ever spend hours looking for YouTube videos to teach writing? Youtube channels for writing teachers are hard to find! YouTube is an incredible resource bank for writing teachers…but sometimes it can be annoying to sift through all the junk to get to the good stuff. Believe me, this post took hours and hours of sifting! I’ve separated out the channels based on if they are best to show students (student facing) or to keep for your own professional developmental arsenal. Check it out and don’t forget to share with your social media community if you find this post helpful…https://amandawritenow.com/10-best-youtube-channels-for-writing-teachers/

There are so many things we need to accomplish the first week of school. We need to get to the content but we also need to teach students about how our class will run and build relationships and community too. Now you may feel a bit overwhelmed at this point. Not to worry…in this episode you’ll find the tools you need to do all of these things in one class period and with one mini lesson!

You will accomplish four things during your very first mini lesson of the school year:

Students will learn the routines of your class to alleviate any anxiety they may have about being in your class and expectations you have.

They will feel intrigued (maybe even excited) about you as a teacher and your class. Your class will have opportunities to begin building connections with each other and you. Students will be reading and writing on day one! https://amandawritenow.com/your-first-mini-lesson-of-the-school-year-how-workshop-is-like-playing-fortnite-battle-royale/

Teaching writing is tough and differentiating writing instruction is tougher! Student writers have so many varying needs. What do you do when Steven can crank out a well organized, thoughtful literary essay in twenty minutes and John can barely write a paragraph? What do you do when Cindy says she is confused about how to develop a claim and Sarah says she needs help organizing her essay?

This situation can be super overwhelming when 30 plus students are demanding your help or maybe five students are and the other thirty are just displaying avoidance behaviors such as distracting others or maybe reading when they should be writing? In this episode I will give you some simple strategies to remediate these issues and meet the needs of ALL your students! https://amandawritenow.com/5-simple-ways-to-differentiate-writing-instruction-in-the-middle-school-classroom/

Most writing workshop teachers know what a mentor text is (examples of writing in books, short stories, articles, poems etc.). But, what about how to use a mentor text? When I scoured the internet for the answer to this pressing question I found very little. Thus...this post. I came up with a five step process for using any mentor text. I hope it inspires you to try the process yourself! https://amandawritenow.com/teach-students-how-to-use-mentor-texts/

Every writing unit should start with mentor texts. Students need many examples of the type of writing we expect them to do. In this article, I’ve compiled my favorite middle school mentor texts. Each mentor text includes grade levels, a summary of the text and skills you could teach. https://amandawritenow.com/mentor-texts-for-middle-school/

Teaching writing is so hard! There are many reasons why, but one of the main reasons is distracting student behavior! With a plan in place, your ability to handle the distracting student behavior can improve.

No matter what though, it is important to realize that students are people who don’t necessarily value what you, the teacher, values. For most students, writing is just not a priority. So, it’s our job to approach students positively, to convince them of the value of writing and support them in finding ways to focus.

Not every strategy works for every student. My advice is to try one strategy and if that doesn’t work, try another and then another. Remember all teaching and learning is a work in progress!

https://amandawritenow.com/5-common-distracting-student-behaviors-during-writing-workshop-what-to-do-about-them/