Are you looking for more than "use describing words" and "tell me more" when it comes to helping students elaborate in their writing?

In this episode, Melissa dives into strategies for improving writing elaboration for students by first considering a few overall understandings and techniques for opinion, narrative and informational writing and then sharing specific strategies for ways to elaborate.

Emphasizing the importance of purposeful writing and understanding the audience, Melissa offers a range of techniques and specific strategies tailored for different genres. She also introduces practical elaboration strategies like twin sentences, using question words, and acting out scenarios, along with more advanced techniques such as developing characters in narratives and organizing information in informational texts.

This episode is jam-packed with helpful elaboration strategies for writing in the elementary and middle school classroom!

AND! Listen in for a chance to receive a FREEBIE-Melissa's writing strategies one pager!

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

Raise your hand if you have felt unsure, ill-equipped, or stressed out when making decisions about writing instruction.

Teachers tend to place too much responsibility on themselves when it comes to instruction in general, and definitely with writing instruction! This creates unnecessary stress that can be alleviated by establishing student autonomy and agency.

Involving students in their learning and putting more of the responsibility on them will:

• Increase engagement and motivation
• Make learning stick
• Lesson your mental load
• Increase student growth

In this episode, Melissa shares examples of ways to include writers in their learning that you can implement tomorrow.

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

What does a conference sound like you ask? Listen in to hear Melissa provide a detailed example of a "Re-teach Conference."

Quite often, the strategies you have taught are not being implemented in each student's independent writing pieces.

The purpose of a "Re-teach" conference is to provide follow-up, explicit instruction on a previously taught writing strategy from a whole-class mini-lesson.

Because the strategy being used has already been taught, the preparation is quite minimal...WINNING!

In this episode, Melissa will discuss how and why to choose this conference for your writers as well as the benefits of implementation.

Not only is the Re-teach conference easy to put into practice, it is also highly effective for your writers!

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

"I don't know what to write about!" is what is heard in classrooms all over.

In this episode, Melissa emphasizes the importance of supporting students in having the independence to generate their own ideas for writing.

She discusses the negative impacts of consistently providing students with topics and offers practical strategies to help students generate ideas on their own. When students are involved in creating their own topics, their engagement is increased.

Highlighting the significance of understanding the purpose behind different types of writing, Melissa provides techniques such as:

• using emotions
• studying the world around them
• making lists of their most important things in life
• asking big questions
• and taking inspiration from reading

This is such an important episode for all writing teachers from Kindergarten to High School!

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

Are you wondering where to begin when conferring with your writers?

This episode will teach you all about the Compliment Conference and how to use it as not only a way to encourage your writers but also as a formative assessment for your writing instruction.

This conference has four simple steps:

1. Open the conversation
2. Identify evidence of a successful writing behavior or action
3. Share the compliment with the writer
4. Thank the writer for their time.

Melissa also shares how to plan for the Compliment Conference as we as utilize the conference as data for further instruction.

Next up the in the Writing Conferring Series:

• Anchor Chart Conference
• Research, Decide, Teach Conference

Don't miss out on this series!

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

Raise your hand if you have students coming up to you or sitting and staring or raising their hands during independent writing time!

There are so many reasons why students are not fully independent writers, and this episode provides a variety of ideas and strategies for creating a classroom full of writers who are!

Melissa shares four ideas for supporting independence during writing time:

• Implement procedures
• Expect It!
• Give it time and have patience!
• Prevent obstacles
• Find out the true reason for lack of independence

Whether you are teaching Kindergarten or 8th grade, if you are looking for ways for your student writing time to be more self-sufficient and effective, this is the episode for you!

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

Welcome to the first episode in the Conferring Series!

This series will discuss a variety of conference types for writing to help you feel more confident in meeting one-on-one with your writers in order to meet their needs.

This first conference, the Writer's Inquiry Conference is all about getting to know your writers.

It is extremely helpful for students to feel at ease and accepted in their writing community, and building a relationship with you is the way to start.

Melissa will share the components of the conference as well as specific questions to include in your discussion.

Bonus: Ideas for how to administer a Writer's Survey for an additional and efficient way to get to know your writers.

This episode will help you set the foundation not only for implementing writing conferences with your students, but for successful writing instruction overall.

Additional Professional Development on Writing Conferences:

A Teacher's Guide to Writing Conferences by Carl Anderson, Katie Wood

How's It Going; A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers by Carl Anderson

Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

This episode is the beginning of the Writing Strategies Series and is all about supporting students with the most foundational aspect of writing- Engagement!

Just as with any learning-academic to athletic-learners must be engaged in order to progress.

Drawing from educational research and expert Jennifer Serravallo, I discuss the multi-dimensional construct of writing engagement, including affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social components.

After sharing key practices for your writing classroom that set the tone for engaged writing, I offer various practical strategies to improve student engagement such as:

• choosing meaningful topics
• setting goals
• utilizing tools
• positive talk
• collaborating with peers
• and more!

If you are wondering how to help students who do not want to write or students who are not engaged in writing, this episode is for you!

Sources:

Research Article Students' Writing Engagement S. Ives, S. Parsons, J. Marine, P. Rogers, A. Horton, C. Young 2022

The Writing Strategies Book-J. Serravallo

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

This episode shares the understandings needed in order to get the most out of the two upcoming series:

Strategies for Writing and All About Conferring

There are a variety of common struggles for our writers and I hope to help you by sharing specific strategies for each of them in the upcoming podcast series.

Conferring is a topic I have not yet thoroughly addressed so I will be alternating the strategies series with a conferring one as well.

Before sharing both series, I wanted to be sure to provide some helpful understandings that come along with meeting writers' needs with both writing strategies and writing conferences.

This episode discusses:

• Identifying the true needs of your writers
• Avoiding 'jumping to conclusions"
• Focusing on the writer
• Conferences as conversations

If you are looking to up your writing instruction in your classroom even further, listen in to this episode and be ready to get started!

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to 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

Instagram 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!

You've gotten to know your students as writers, and you've chosen goals for your class.

Now what?

It's time to find strategies for writing that your writers can use to meet their goals!

In this episode, Melissa shares four techniques for finding and choosing teaching points.

1. Leveraging Your Own Writing Experience
2. Mining Mentor Texts
3. Thinking Outside the Box
4. Utilizing Professional Texts

Listen in and feel more confident in your ability to teach your writers!

Professional Books Mentioned in the Episode"

Units of Study in Narrative, Opinion and Informational

Writing Pathways

The Writing Strategies Book

Projecting Possibilities

Lesson that Change Writers

The Unstoppable Writing Teacher

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 started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!