We have a new feature, Conversations with a Colleague, to share today! In this episode, Leah Koch, who is one of our newest Two Writing Teachers co-authors, joins Stacey to talk about student-led small groups, as well as goal setting with primary writers. 

Here are several Two Writing Teachers blog posts and past podcast episodes that deal with the topics discussed in this episode:

• A Few Tips for Small Group Instruction: Expanding the Reach With Small Group Work
• Ideas for planning Small Group Instruction
• Increase the Number of Teachers in the Room with Student-Led Small Groups
• Increasing Student Agency as Writers: A Digging Deeper Dialogue
• Small Groups, Big Engagement: Expanding the Possibilities and Potential 
• Student Agency, Self-Assessment, and Small Group Instruction
• The Power of Goal-Setting

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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.

The 16th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, or SOLSC, will begin on Wednesday, March 1st, 2023 at Two Writing Teachers. Participants, who we call Slicers, chronicle moments by living a wide-awake life for 31 days in March. They publish their writing on their own blog, share a link to their story daily over at Two Writing Teachers, and then provide at least three other Slicers with comments on their blogs. 

In today's pod, you'll learn more about the challenge and how you can join us so that you part of a global community of educators who write and share stories.

LINKS:

• Overview of the 16th Annual SOLSC
• Things to Think About When Creating a Blog for the SOLSC
• Tips to Help New Participants Hit the Ground Running in March
• FAQs about the SOLSC (Scroll down to the part of the page that says "Challenge #2.)

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 Tip for Tomorrow, you'll learn how to help students create and use a personal editing checklist that will help them fix up their writing in ways that meet them where they are as writers.

For more on personal editing checklists and the editing minute, check out these posts on Two Writing Teachers:

• Something Do-Able to Try: The Editing Minute
• Three Ways to Introduce Personal Editing Checklists in Writing Workshop
• Using Personal Editing Checklists At Home

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.

Happy New Year!

Students may have forgotten some of the routines and procedures used in the classroom. Taking the first few days to reteach routines after a school vacation benefits everyone so that writing workshop runs smoothly again.

Book: Welcome to Writing Workshop: Engaging Today's Students with a Model  That Works
Pod Episode: Plan Boxes will Inspire You: Tip for Tomorrow

Check out these Two Writing Teachers blog posts for more information on routines.

• A Game Plan for Writing Workshop Transitions
• Classroom Routines Made Simpler with QR Codes
• How to Get Kids to Write More Each Day
• Interactive Modeling
• Sharpen Your Workshop Routines Blog Series (contains links to six posts)
• The Importance of Establishing Routines
• The Silent Hero: Routines and Procedures
• Writing Workshop Expectations

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.

Are you tired of thumbs-up/thumbs-down as a self-assessment strategy? Here's a suggestion for a self-assessment system you can teach students so you can get a more nuanced view of their understanding.

For more on self-assessment, check out the following posts on Two Writing Teachers:

• How Many Stars? Tools for Self-Assessment and Goal-Setting
• Self-Assessment: Assessment Strengthens Writers
• More on Student Self-Assessment

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.

Conventions are one of the hardest things to teach kids to do well in an exciting and authentic way. We have some ideas for teaching kids how to write with conventions without resorting to worksheets. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Co:Writer Universal
• Common Core Language Standards K-5 (See pg. 26.)
• Patterns of Power Family of Resources by Jeff Anderson et. al.
• Practical Punctuation: Lessons in Rule Making and Rule Breaking in Elementary Writing by Dan Feigelson
• Writing and the Writer, 2nd Ed. by Frank Smith

Visit the Two Writing Teachers' archive to read past blog posts about conventions. 

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.

For more about google forms, check out the following posts on Two Writing Teachers:

• Continuing to Think About Google Forms
• Ideas for Getting Started With Google Forms

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.

Do your students write with pens or pencils in your writing workshop? While some people wouldn't consider handing a pen to an elementary student, using them in the writing workshop has many benefits. You can find out more by listening to this Tip for Tomorrow and by reading what some of the TWT co-authors have written about the benefits of having students write with pens.  

• A Writing Tool that Honors the Writing Process Itself
• An Eraser-Free Workshop and the Language We Use for Talking About It
• More Barriers Along a Writer's Pathway... And More Ways Around
• Pens Versus Pencils: Which One Is Better for Writing Workshop?

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.

You can grow your students’ agency in writing workshop by thinking deeply about the curriculum, growing your instruction, and nudging students toward self-assessment. 

Here are several Two Writing Teachers blog posts that deal with some of the topics discussed in this episode:

• Creating Clarity for Writers
• Different Ways to Use Checklists in Writing Workshop
• Increase the Number of Teachers in the Room with Student-Led Small Groups
• Intentional Practice in Our Writing Classrooms
• Six Ways to Make Charts More Student-Centered
• The Importance of Charts in Our Classrooms: Resetting Our Workshop Practices
• Making the Most Out of Charts: Maximizing Independent Writing Time
• The Power of Goal Setting
• The Power of Progression: Expanding the Reach with Small Group Work
• The Power of Silent Teachers: Helping Writers Increase Productivity and Build Independence Through Interdependence with Tools in the Classroom
• Three Ways to Introduce Personal Editing Checklists in Writing Workshop
• Writing Checklists: Tools for Independence and Goal-Setting

Additional Resources Mentioned:

• Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Writing by Melanie Meehan
• How to Personalize Instruction with Seminars (Cult of Pedagogy Podcast)

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.

If you're interested in reading more about  writing as a gift, please read Heather's post about it, Narrative Writing Makes a Beautiful Gift. 

Subscribe to our podcast at https://twtpod.buzzsprout.com. 

For more about the teaching of writing, check out the blog! 

https://twowritingteachers.org 

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Melanie Meehan: https://twitter.com/MelanieMeehan1

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.