Getting Students to Write- Helping Elementary and Middle School teachers improve student writing.

By Melissa Morrison, Elementary, Middle School Writing Consultant, Literacy CoachEducation How To

Getting Students to Write- Helping Elementary and Middle School teachers improve student writing. episodes

April 14 A Thank You to Listeners
This is my last "episode" of Getting Students to Write.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few years of recording this podcast. Being able to share ideas with fellow educators as well as speak with so many fabulous educators about writing instruction has been a fantastic experience.
I hope you will continue to learn and improve your practice, and that writing time will be the best time of you day!
If you have anything to share about how the podcast has impacted your teaching, I would absolutely love to hear it!
**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!
Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)
Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite
3 min
April 07 Handwriting as a Main Character with Holly Britton
All teachers have had students who struggle with handwriting, regardless of their grade level. What we learn in this episode is that this is not just a problem of messiness, but of a lack of motor as well as cognitive skills that prevent learners from reaching their potential.
Holly Britton, a handwriting instructional specialist, talks about this and so much more in this informative episode.
About Holly Britton:
The Squiggle Squad’s program designer, Holly Britton, M.Ed., is a curriculum and instruction specialist with teaching experience in all grades K-8. She is an author and conference speaker and a former home educator of four now-adult children. Holly brings over 22 years of private and public educational experience to this program. Holly relishes time with her friends and family including her horse, Shasta.
www.squigglesquad.com
Linkedin
Substack
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa
TikTok Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!
YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa
LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!
46 min
March 31Replay! Ep 97 Little Things Make a Huge Difference
Implementing effective writing instruction is a big task. There are many moving parts and lots of important young writers to take care of!
Struggling writers? Struggling teacher?
I find it helpful to know and remember that often times the little details are what also make a huge impact on your student writers.
This episode shares examples of those small practices and hopefully helps to spark even more ideas for you to implement.
Listen in to hear about writing tips such as:
including your writers
positive energy
student collaboration
and more!

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!
Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)
Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
15 min
March 24Two Things Can Be True: An Interview with Leah Mermelstein
"Two seemingly paradoxical things can be true at the same time...and that tension, we are never going to resolve that."
In this episode, Leah Mermelstein helps us sort through one of the biggest issues of teaching writing. We hear and learn about so many different practices, many of which seem to be in opposition, but knowing we don't always need to choose one over the other, it opens us up to a more effective way of teaching writing.
Hear all about:
Tried and True curriculum practices
Accepting paradoxical thinking
The importance of studying students' writing
Leah's core beliefs

About Leah:
Leah Mermelstein is a literacy thought leader, published author, and expert in writing, reading, and language development. She partners with educators, tutors children, and supports families in fostering literacy growth at school and at home.
For over 30 years, Leah has delivered professional development nationally and internationally, translating literacy research into effective classroom practice and curriculum. She helps educators and families connect the learning dots so students can reach their full potential.
Leah holds a Master’s in Cultural Diversity and Curriculum Reform and a Bachelor’s in Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is trained in the Science of Reading and Sounds-Write and holds a supervisory license from Rowan University. She has authored five instructional books on reading and writing
Leah's Website

About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
46 min
March 17 Replay: Am I Over Scaffolding My Writers?
Episode Replay of one of my favorites!
You want to help your writers, but often the more help you provide, the more you inhibit their learning. This can happen even more so with struggling writers.
Listen in to hear how to provide support that truly helps!
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
20 min
March 10 A Passion for Writing! An interview with Ana Siqueira
What a fantastic discussion with a fantastic educator and writer, Ms. Ana Siqueira.
Ana shares her journey of being an author and what is most important to her as a writer AND teacher of writers!
We talk all about:
-collaboration between writers
-writing needing to be FUN
-not being great the first draft
-ways for writers to be inspired
-the effectiveness of peer critique and how to get it started
Ana provides practical and effective ways to support the writers in your classroom!
ABOUT ANA SIQUEIRA:
Ana Siqueira is a Spanish-language teacher and an award-winning children’s book author based in Tampa, Florida. Her books include Bella’s Recipe for Success (Beaming Books 2021), If Your Babysitter is a Bruja (S&S 2022), Abuela’s Super Capa/ La Supercapa de Abuela (HarperCollins 2023), Our World Brazil (Barefoot Books 2023), La Mala Suerte is Following Me (Charlesbridge 2024), Vera la Valiente is Scared (Beaming Books 2025), Sticky Hermana (Charlesbridge 2025), Mami’s Heart (HarperCollins 2026), If Your Abuelo is an Astronaut (Simon&Schuster 2026) among others. She also has a chapter book series coming out titled Carolina and the Creepy Creature Catchers. Ana co-founded Latinxpitch, a pitch event to promote Latin authors and illustrators. She is a global educator and PBS Media innovator. She lives in Tampa Bay with her husband and loves to play with her Cuban-Brazilian-American grandkids.
Website: Ana Siqueira – Ana – The Teacher and the Writer

About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa
TikTok Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!
YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa
LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!
35 min
March 03 Replay! Episode 60 What You Say Matters: The Language of Writing Instruction
This episode holds the key to transforming your writing instruction from WRITING-focused to WRITER- focused!
This is how we truly grow our elementary and middle school writers!
What we say shows so much to ourselves and our writers about what we value.
We want our writers to know that we value them and what they do as writers!
What we say also forms what we think. Focusing our language on the writer will help you to focus your instruction on them as well!
If we want to grow our students to be successful writers, we must make this change in our writing instruction.
Grab the free resource mentioned in the episode HERE
**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!
Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)
Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa
TikTok Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!
YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa
LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!
21 min
February 24More Freedom Equals Real Writers: Interview with Ralph Fletcher Pt 2
The second half of my conversation with Ralph Fletcher is full of takeaways for every teacher of writing!
If you have writers struggling to write or to grow as writers, Ralph shares several ideas for moving writers from reluctant to engaged and thriving.
Listen in to hear:
How more freedom helps reluctant writers more than increased structure
The case for writing for pleasure
Why differences in writing are a good thing
The keys to a great writing conference

About Ralph Fletcher:
Ralph Fletcher has been a mentor to teachers and young writers everywhere. He has helped hundreds of thousands of teachers understand the importance of letting go and trusting their writers. Ralph's professional books are part of this tradition.
Ralph frequently works with young writers in schools, and speaks at education conferences in the U.S. and abroad, helping teachers find wiser ways of teaching writing. Ralph is the beloved author of many bestselling teacher professional books and resources including:
Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide
What a Writer Needs, Second Edition
Mentor Author, Mentor Texts
Craft Lessons
Breathing In, Breathing Out
Teaching the Qualities of Writing
Lessons for the Writer's Notebook

Students know Ralph as the award-winning author of more than 20 books for children and young adults, including Fig Pudding, Twilight Comes Twice, The Writer’s Notebook, Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid, and most recently Marshfield Memories: More Stories About Growing Up.
www.ralphfletcherbooks.com
Ralph Fletcher's newest book: Tapping the Writer Within (coming February 2026)
**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!
Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)
Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa
TikTok Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!
YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa
LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!
29 min
February 17What Writers Need: Interview with Ralph Fletcher Pt 1
"The best teaching comes when we teach at the point of our own learning."-Ralph Fletcher
The one and only author and writing expert Ralph Fletcher joins us in this episode to share his beliefs on all things writing and writing instruction.
In this first part of our discussion, Ralph shares many insightful ideas that help us support our students as writers. A few topics:
Benefits of teachers as writers
Importance of a writing community
Choice
Learning by writing
Why writers need to feel like writers

There is so much to learn from this conversation about setting a foundation for writers that builds on writer's identity, community and the practice of writing. Every K-8 writing teacher will benefit!
About Ralph Fletcher:
Ralph Fletcher has been a mentor to teachers and young writers everywhere. He has helped hundreds of thousands of teachers understand the importance of letting go and trusting their writers. Ralph's professional books are part of this tradition.
Ralph frequently works with young writers in schools, and speaks at education conferences in the U.S. and abroad, helping teachers find wiser ways of teaching writing. Ralph is the beloved author of many bestselling teacher professional books and resources including:
Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide
What a Writer Needs, Second Edition
Mentor Author, Mentor Texts
Craft Lessons
Breathing In, Breathing Out
Teaching the Qualities of Writing
Lessons for the Writer's Notebook

Students know Ralph as the award-winning author of more than 20 books for children and young adults, including Fig Pudding, Twilight Comes Twice, The Writer’s Notebook, Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid, and most recently Marshfield Memories: More Stories About Growing Up.
www.ralphfletcherbooks.com
Ralph Fletcher's newest book: Tapping the Writer Within (coming February 2026)
**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!
Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)
Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!
Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa
TikTok Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!
YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa
LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!
48 min
February 10Independent Writing Series: Observe, Assess, Decide
When starting to implement Independent Writing in your classroom for the first time, it is important to know what is really happening with your writers as a class as well as individually.
This episode will provide practices for:
Observing writers and gathering information
Assessing based on whole-class and individual needs
Deciding next steps

When combined with the ideas shared in previous episodes from this series, these practices will help solidify independent writing time for your students and help you to support students at a deeper level.
If you are looking for ways to make writing time more engaging and productive, to support struggling writers, or to help writers grow, this is for you!
**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!
Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)
Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite
About Melissa:
Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.
Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.
Teaching to Transform, LLC was founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.
If you would like to learn more or refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!

Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa
TikTok Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!
YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa
LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!
18 min

About Getting Students to Write- Helping Elementary and Middle School teachers improve student writing.

From the publisher's feed

Are you a K-8 Elementary or Middle School ELA teacher wondering how to get your students to write? This podcast is for teachers looking for a way to revamp and transform their writing time! You don't need daily lesson plans or prompts-you just need to understand what writers need!