Two Writing Teachers Podcast

We explore the profound benefits of participating in the month-long writing challenge. Listeners will discover the power of making connections and gaining a true understanding of being a writer while cultivating a writing practice. The episode briefly overviews the Slice of Life Story Challenge's origins and purpose, pointing listeners to last year's Digging Deeper Dialogue for a more in-depth understanding. Whether new or returning, challenge participants will find a supportive global writing community filled with educators at all stages of their careers who want to connect and grow themselves as writers.

Click here for an overview of the 17th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge hosted by the co-authors of Two Writing Teachers.

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Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Bring the power of play into your writing instruction. Melanie explains how to teach kids to play PROVE IT in an effort for them to show evidence of the skills you're teaching in their writing. 

Check out these posts on TWTBlog for more ideas:

• Ways to Teach Conventions: Our Favorite Things
• When Conventions Aren't Sticking–Some Tips and Tricks

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Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Let's explore ways to energize your writing workshop! In this episode, we discuss strategies for revving up individual minilessons and units of study by opening up options, changing perspectives, bringing in magic, promoting collaboration, and creating authentic purposes for students to think about their audience. 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge -- Scroll down to Challenge #3 for more information.
• Collaborative Writing -- Discussed in this Conversation with a Colleague episode.
• A Pathway for Opinion Writing
• Mentor Texts for Navigating Second-Person Point of View
• Past Tip for Tomorrow Episodes:
  • Independent Writing Projects
  • Mid-Workshop Interruption
• Quote from Haim Ginott
• Some Narrative Writing Fun
• Some Summer Writing Motivation (Writing Contests)
• Thinking About Audience
• Three Ideas for Energizing Writing
• Writing as a Gift Center

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Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

In the final episode of 2023, Stacey discusses the importance of shedding anything that isn't serving us and applies this idea to the classroom, specifically focusing on providing students with a diversity of writing supplies. She offers three suggestions for obtaining different types of notebooks at a lower cost or for free. Stacey also emphasizes the significance of paper choice as an accommodation for students, highlighting the developmental needs of young writers and providing resources for different paper formats. This episode will leave you ready to embrace changes and create an environment that empowers students to express themselves more fully in the year to come.

SHOW NOTES

• Find a Buy Nothing group in your area.
• DonorsChoose Posts from the #TWTBlog Archives
• Little Letters for Lunch
• Examples of Recycling Centers: Art of Recycle and Lancaster Creative Reuse
• Paper Choices & Materials on Beth Moore’s Literacy Together 
• Paper Choices for Opinion and Argument Writing: Reaching Your Writers
• Paper Choices: What’s up with that?
• Paper Power: A Digging Deeper Dialogue
• The Importance of Paper: A Tip for Tomorrow Episode

*****

Thanks to our affiliate!

Marley Spoon: $235 off through 5 boxes -- Makes the first box portion price start at $4.99. Click here or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=6988&id=1261005. 

*****

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Let's explore the importance of information writing and address common problems writers face in this genre. The episode delves into the need for explicit instruction in note-taking, emphasizing the purpose of notes as a tool for critical thinking rather than mere proof or text transfer. It also offers various approaches to enhance information writing by incorporating lists, exploring different text features, and integrating tricks like twin sentences and transitional phrases. 

Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• A Peek Into My Evolving Chartbook
• Big Blue Whale 
• Big Red Kangaroo 
• Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts
• Have Charts, Will Travel. Mentor texts? Even better!
• Mentor Text Charts (in Google Docs)
• My Dog Spot 
• The Journey Is Everything: Teaching Essays That Students Want to Write for People Who Want to Read Them
• Sketch Note Sampler Album by Paula Bourque
• The Power of Story

*****
Thanks to our affiliates!

• Babbel: Get up to 55% OFF your subscription by clicking here. 
  • You may also copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://babbel.sjv.io/c/4684049/1057532/13589. 
• Marley Spoon: $235 off through 5 boxes -- Makes the first box portion price start at $4.99. Click here or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=6988&id=1261005. 

*****

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

This Tip for Tomorrow explores the art of essay writing beyond the traditional structure and formula. Stacey delves into "writing to think" and how students can infuse microstories into their essays to enhance their ideas. From choosing relevant stories to crafting concise microstories, she provides practical guidance on engaging the reader and connecting these stories to the central message of the essay. By balancing storytelling with other writing techniques, students can create impactful essays that take their readers on a journey of thought.

Go Deeper:

• Essay: What I Think, What I Am by Edward Hoagland 
• Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay: Expand the Possibilities of the Genres You Teach
• The Journey Is Everything: Teaching Essays That Students Want to Write for People Who Want to Read Them by Katherine Bomer

*****

Thanks to our affiliate!

Marley Spoon: $235 off through 5 boxes -- Makes the first box portion price start at $4.99. Click here or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=6988&id=1261005. 

*****

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

In this episode, we address the challenge of finding enough time to teach writing workshop daily in elementary school. We discuss the importance of writing instruction for students' literacy development and provide practical strategies for teachers to maximize their writing instruction time. This episode covers topics such as establishing efficient writing routines, ways to prioritize writing instruction, integrating writing across the curriculum, utilizing technology for writing instruction, and offering practical examples and activities to promote writing in various subject areas. 

Research mentioned in this episode:

• Changing How Writing Is Taught
• Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers

Go Deeper:

• Jump Into Writing
• Leaning into Spontaneous Writing Moments
• Maximizing Writing Time Blog Series

*****
Thanks to our affiliates!

• Marley Spoon: $235 off through 5 boxes -- Makes the first box portion price start at $4.99. Click here or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=6988&id=1261005. 
• Libro.fm: Use the TWTPod Code
  • Receive 2 audiobook credits for $14.99 USD with your first month of membership. 

*****

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

This Tip for Tomorrow episode explores ten practical tips for keeping minilessons brief and effective. Stacey discusses the importance of preparedness, including having all teaching materials ready and communicating clearly with students about what they should bring to the meeting area. She highlights the benefits of assigning "talking partners" and minimizing interruptions during the lesson. In addition, she delves into using checklists, teaching management skills, recording lessons for self-reflection, and time management. Listen now for essential tips to optimize your minilessons and enhance student engagement.

More on Minilessons:

• Structuring a Minilesson: A Digging Deeper Dialogue
• TWTBlog Archive of Minilesson Posts 
• Welcome to Writing Workshop: Engaging Today's Students with a Model That Works by Stacey Shubitz and Lynne R. Dorfman

*****

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.

Sarah Valter, one of our TWTBlog co-authors, joins Melanie this week to discuss ways to inspire word explorers, the children in our classrooms who, for various reasons, need additional support or scaffolding to commit words to the page.

For more inspiration, check out these books, podcast episodes, and blog posts:

• Discover What Writers REALLY Need By Kidwatching
• Embrace an Asset-Based Approach: A Digging Deeper Dialogue
• Every Child Can Write: Entry Points, Bridges, and Pathways for Striving Writers by Melanie Meehan
• Example of using video in the classroom for narrative storytelling
• Word Explorers

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Thanks to our affiliate, Babbel! Get up to 55% OFF your subscription by clicking here. You may also copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://babbel.sjv.io/c/4684049/1057532/13589. 

*****

Send us Fan Mail

Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us ratings/reviews on your favorite listening platform.

You may contact us directly if you want us to consult with your school district. 

• Melanie Meehan: [email protected] 
• Stacey Shubitz: [email protected]

Email us at [email protected] for affiliate or sponsorship opportunities.

For more about teaching writing, head to the Two Writing Teachers blog.