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IB

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EKC

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TCRWP

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EKC

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EKC

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EKC

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Jennifer Serravallo

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IB PYP

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Chris Gadbury

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The Virtual "Warm-up" Phase to a Conference

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The Virtual "Warm-up" Phase to a Conference

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What do we learn about Kiya? How is this phase a helpful addition to the architecture of a virtual conference?

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EKC

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Debbie Miller

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Introduction: We Can Do This

Asking Beautiful Questions

Paying Attention to What Doesn't Feel Right

Asking, "What If?": Creating Space for Possibility

Chapter One: What If Each Day's Teaching Focused on Children's Agency?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Disengaged Child

What's the Best That Could Happen? Agency Fosters Engagement

Imagining New Possibilities for a Child

Conferring to Support Access and Choice

Paying Attention During Independent Work Time

Conferring to Inquire and to Offer Community

Postscript

Chapter Two: What If We Made What Children Make and Do Our Priority?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Workshop Planning

What's the Best That Could Happen? Meaningful Work

Planning for What Children Will Do First

Planning for What Teachers Will Do During Work Time

Figuring Out What to Teach

Playing with the Sequence

Taking Ownership

Chapter Three: What If Our Classroom Environment and Routines Offered Choice?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Frustration over Supplies

What's the Best That Could Happen? Managing Their Own Work

Being Intentional in Our Language

Cocreating Routines

Designing Agentive Environments

Chapter Four: What If We Owned the Units We Are Asked to Teach?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Units We're Given

Are These the Right Goals?

Which Texts Work Best?

How Will We Know When We're Done?

How Can This Happen Within Daily Workshop?

What's the Best That Could Happen? Perfection in Imperfection

Chapter Five: What If Read-Aloud Sustained Children's Independent Thinking?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Wisdom in Children's Thinking

Expecting Brilliance

Finding Time for Read-Aloud

Reading Aloud for Joy

Teachers and Children Thinking Aloud

What's the Best That Could Happen? Being Inspired to Act

Conclusion: In Pursuit of Beautiful Questions

We all have difficult moments in our teaching, and without a question to drive us forward, we can get stuck. But that difficult moment might be the question we need to ask ourselves. Questions can bring a positive attention, creating a presence in the moment. When I ask children, "Are you the kind of kid who...?", I'm inviting them to imagine a new possibility for themselves, one in which they have more power than they did before. I want those new possibilities for teachers, too. Are you the kind of teacher who is ready to try something new, something that will make your students stronger, more joyful readers and bring you greater joy in your work? I think you are.

Asking questions leads to opportunities-it's about growth, openness, and a willingness to change, which top-down models don't allow. It's a way for us to focus our thinking and be present in the lives we've chosen to live. Asking the question is the essential behavior of teaching. It's not a perfect call-and response but a messy business of wondering, stumbling, and figuring things out. It requires bravery and commitment, but that's what teaching is. It's a joyful, creative, purposeful profession. If you feel you've lost even some of your passion for teaching, I would love to help give it back to you. So, in this book, we'll talk about creating beautiful questions about the teaching of reading. To help you take on the process of asking beautiful questions, I'll share how I got to some beautiful questions about teaching reading and what I did with them as I worked with teachers in classrooms across the country.

This book is about owning our teaching and making decisions based on who we are and what's best for the children in our classroom today. That all sounds ambitious and brave... and the work is-teaching is-but it happens in so many small and simple ways. My wish is for you to think about what you do and ask your own beautiful questions, so that you and your children can thrive and view yourselves and each other as valuable, idea-filled, creative, and contributing humans who own your teaching and learning. Be open and receptive to possibilities! Think: "What if we did it this way?"

"A one-of-a-kind book, full of wisdom and heart. Debbie Miller inspires educators to step back and question everything-challenging us to rethink and reinvent the ways we teach. What's the best that could happen? Read this book and it will help you find your own answer to that beautiful question."

-Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question and The Book of Beautiful Questions
"Debbie Miller is a magician with children, and in What's the Best That Could Happen? she hands us her magic wand. With honesty, humility, and optimism, she shares her thoughts and actions about teaching and learning. Run-don't walk-to conjure up this essential book!"
-Stephanie Harvey, coauthor of The Comprehension Toolkit series, From Striving to Thriving, and Strategies That Work
"Debbie Miller is suggesting something revolutionary. She is suggesting the way to ensure all students learn is to intentionally and persistently expect not just capability but brilliance from them."
-Gretchen Morgan, author of Innovative Educators: An Action Plan for Teachers

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"One of the great joys of teaching is anticipating children's brilliance." In What's the Best That Could Happen?, Debbie Miller confronts a challenge all

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Where do you see inquiry and agency? What might you teach next?

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Kiya [2] - Research, Decide, and Compliment.mp4

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Watch the rest of this conference with Kiya. Where do you see inquiry and agency? What might you add to your own practice?

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EKC

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Tracking 1:1 Conferences & Small Groups When Time is Tight

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Tracking 1:1 Conferences & Small Groups When Time is Tight

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EKC

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TCRWP

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EKC

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EKC

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Jennifer Serravallo

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I Wonder: Student Samples to Practice Mindset

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I Wonder: Student Samples to Practice Mindset

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EKC

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Ralph Fletcher

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Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

Introduction: A Personal Note The Big Chill

Chapter 1: My Beautiful Balloon
Chapter 2: Trouble in Writing Paradise
Chapter 3: Faulty Assumptions
Chapter 4: The Play Imperative
A Writing Greenbelt
Chapter 5: Greenbelt Writing
Chapter 6: The Slice of Life Challenge
Chapter 7: A Classroom Notebook
Chapter 8: Feral Writing
Chapter 9: I'm-Trying-to-Figure-This-Out-Writing
Chapter 10: The Reluctant Writer
Chapter 11: The Big Picture
Chapter 12: Ralph on Ralph: A Self-Interview

Some professional books aim to explain and instruct. Others challenge orthodoxies and hope to prompt readers to revise their thinking. In this book I hope to do both. In Part One, I stir the pot, create discomfort with established writing dogma, and suggest better alternatives. In Part Two, I introduce a new concept: greenbelt writing. We'll explore writing that is low-stakes, informal, student-centered. We'll see that it is an ideal place for students to:

* find their stride as writers

* experience the joy, pleasure, and passion of writing

* define/identify themselves as writers.

In the second half of the book, we'll look at various kinds of greenbelt writing, some sparked and structured by teachers, others student-generated. I call this latter category feral writing, and I believe we have undervalued its importance in growing student writers.

Low-stakes writing is important because it builds muscles that strengthen other kinds of writing. But such writing is often tentative and represents a kind of thinking- on-paper. If we want to encourage it, we need to respond to it differently than we would to the traditional writing assignments.

What kind of writers do we hope to see in our classrooms? Will they flourish or languish, be engaged or bored? Can we provide the necessary conditions so they can develop a genuine love of the craft? Having them go through the motions as we check off the various genres-is that really good enough? No, it's not. We can do better than that. I want to create the kind of writing classrooms where they can look down at the sentences they have written, and cherish every last word.
- From the Introduction

"I just love this book. The big ideas of it, the tiny details and helpful, practical advice tucked inside. It is a much needed antidote to some of the program-driven, choice-barren writing classrooms that have begun to dominate the scene. The world needs this pro-writer, pro-teacher, pro-joy manifesto now more than ever."
-Jennifer Serravallo, author of The Writing Strategies Book and The Reading Strategies Book

"The most important words I've read in a book about teaching writing in a long time: 'Instead of giving reluctant writers more structure, let's give them more freedom.' Every child should be lucky enough to have a teacher who has read Ralph Fletcher's Joy Write. It's a throw-back book in the best possible way, reminding us of the foundational principles upon which writing workshops were built-namely, the importance of student choice. With Ralph's sage guidance, teachers will be inspired to create 'writing green belts' in their classrooms, filled with writing 'in the wild' of the very best kind: self-initiated projects that help students craft clear, strong identities as writers."
-Katie Wood Ray, author ofStudy Driven

"In Joy Write, Ralph Fletcher will show you how to give your students what they need right now, in addition to providing them with the tools they need to be successful writers in the years to come. If your writing workshop feels weighed down by the demands of the CCSS and test preparation, Joy Write will help you regain the 'sparkle and sizzle' of your writing workshop so your students will feel energized and joyful about writing again."
-Stacey Shubitz, co-founder of Two Writing Teachers; author of Craft Moves

"For years now, Ralph Fletcher has been one of the finest writers and wisest advocates for authenticity in teaching writing. In his new book, Joy Write, his words once again brilliantly and compellingly guide us towards teaching writing that's playful, personal, and meaning-based. If you want to nurture writers that don't just fill in the blanks but instead cherish the process, Joy Write is an essential read."
-Georgia Heard, author of Heart Maps and Awakening the Heart

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Conferring to Amplify Inquiry & Honor Agency

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Conferring to Amplify Inquiry & Honor Agency

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Carl Anderson

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Descriptors of Balanced Literacy Components

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Descriptors of Balanced Literacy Components

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EKC

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Matt Glover

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Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

Part One
Ch. 1: Increasing Engagement Through Choice of Genre
Ch 2: Choice of Genre Through Craft and Process Studies
Ch. 3: Teaching in Craft and Process Studies

Part Two: The Units
Ch. 4: Launching Writing Workshop: Fostering Self-Direction
Ch. 5: Reading Like a Writer
Ch. 6: Using Strategies to Find Topics
Ch. 7: Finding and Developing Independent Writing Projects
Ch. 8: Launching the Use of a Writer's Notebook
Ch. 9: Independent Genre Study
Ch. 10: Planning
Ch. 11: How to Have Better Peer Conferences
Ch. 12: Revision
Ch. 13: Genre Overview
Ch. 14: Illustration Study
Ch. 15: Using Illustrations and Text to Create Meaning in the Upper Grades
Ch. 16: How to Make Paragraphing Decisions
Ch 17: General Craft Study
Ch. 18: Using Punctuation as a Crafting Tool
Ch. 19: Using Text Structures as Crafting Tools
Ch. 20: Author Study

"How do you ensure that children become engaged enthusiastic writers? Read Matt Glover's book Craft and Process Studies. Delightful to read and highly practical, it shows us how to teach writing so that children become and continue to be engaged while expanding their writing repertoire. It is the antidote to orthodoxy in the writers' workshop. Thoroughly illustrated with concrete examples and videos, it offers multiple versions of units as flexible frameworks inviting us to innovate responsively and purposefully."-Peter Johnston

"After reading Craft and Process Studies, teachers will walk away with a thousand ideas to help them 'genre bust.' That's my term! Matt's argument that students need significant periods of time to write outside of conventional genres is strong, rational, and compelling."-Ellin Oliver Keene

"In Craft and Process Studies, master teacher Matt Glover recovers a key, maybe the key, principle of writing instruction-choice. Too often, students are marched through genre units, often presented as distinct types, with little opportunity to write about what matters most to them. Genre becomes not a resource, but a constraint. A means becomes an end. Matt retains the idea of a units of study, focusing on processes and issues of craft that can apply to whatever genre the student might choose. In the best tradition of mentor texts, these units build insights inductively, by a careful study of what authors actually do. What's more-we get to see Matt in action, conducting conferences and mini lessons in over forty video clips."-Thomas Newkirk

"Matt has long been a passionate advocate for student choice, and in this book he shows teachers how to put choice at the center of all their planning and decision making. What a gift to be able to learn from Matt's years of experience doing this work in so many different classrooms. There's no question you will think so much more expansively about the teaching of writing after reading this book. If you've ever felt like your students were boxed-in by the narrow confines of genre study after genre study, you'll find so many possibilities for breaking out of that box and supporting student writers with smart, bold studies that lift the level of their work in genres they have chosen for themselves."-Katie Wood Ray

"Matt Glover's Craft and Process Studies is my new favorite book on the teaching of writing! Not only does Matt make a compelling-and essential-argument for including units of study in our writing curriculums that give students the opportunity to choose the genres in which they write, but he also shows us how to do this by detailing seventeen beautifully realized units of study on process and craft." -Carl Anderson

"Writing is a content area, and Matt's generous, joyous, crystal-clear, and thoughtful compendium of all things worth teaching about craft and process in addition to genres, will help teachers build a compelling and robust year of learning for young writers. Stunningly, if students could be in classrooms that follow his map for how such units could go, I believe that genre knowledge would take care of itself! After you read and underline every other sentence, as I did, you will want to meet with your colleagues immediately to begin planning your next writing study."-Katherine Bomer

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Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more. Part One Ch. 1: Increasing Engagement Through Choice of Genre Ch 2: Choice of Genre Through Craft and Process Studies Ch. 3: Teaching in Craft and Process Studies Part Two: The Units Ch.

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EKC

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Jan Burkins & Kim Yaris

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Free Virtual Guided Reading Book Collection

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This posts describes a collection of WHO’S DOING THE WORK? guided reading books for K-2 that are available for free on this site.

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Inquiry & Agency Cohort: Inquiry-based Lesson Planning Sheet

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Ralph Fletcher

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How Photography Enhances the Teaching of Writing

Enhance your writing instruction through photography.

In Focus Lessons, Ralph Fletcher makes the link between writing and photography clear. He offers new ideas about taking pictures to spark creativity, using a camera as a writer's notebook, learning to "read" images as mentor texts, and helping students develop writing from photos.

He also shares fifteen craft lesson ideas that bring these ideas to life in your classroom.

Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

"Writers, like photographers, are image makers."

We teach our students to write using words and sentences that create a desired effect. You might encourage them to zoom in on a small moment, focus on a specific detail, or experiment with a new point of view. The language of writing has a natural link with photography.
Linking Photography with Writing
In Focus Lessons, Ralph Fletcher makes this connection clear. He offers new ideas about how this link can enhance your instruction.

Using a camera as a writer's notebook

Taking pictures to spark creativity

Learning to "read" images as mentor texts

Helping students develop writing from photos

Craft Lessons Ideas
Ralph also shares fifteen craft lessons that draw on the photographic world. Each lesson highlights a different technique like creating tension, using arresting details, or setting a mood. Then he shows how to achieve each one-in both photography and writing.

"A series of savvy decisions are required to produce a memorable photograph," says Ralph. "That's true with writing, as well."

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

Introduction Part One: The Journey

1) Getting Close: A Personal Note

2) Steep End of the Learning Curve

3) The Camera as Writer's Notebook

4) Upon Reflection
Part Two: The Classroom
5) Craft Lessons

One: Beware the So-What? Pretty Picture

Two: Consider the Point of View

Three: Capture Arresting Detail

Four: Bring Something Strong

Five: Create Tension

Six: Play with Foreground and Background

Seven: Take a Wide Perspective

Eight: Zoom in Close

Nine: Create the Right Mood

Ten: Include an Extra Element

Eleven: Embrace Surprise

Twelve: Show Motion

Thirteen: Draw in the Viewer

Fourteen: Use Gesture to Reveal Character

Fifteen: Tell the Truth

6) What's Happening in This Photograph?

7) Photographing to Learn

8) How Photographs Spark Writing (or Do They?)

9) Double Exposure: Ralph Talks to Ralph

Reviews

"Focus Lessons is one of the most interesting and best-written books on the teaching of writing I've read in years. I love how Ralph Fletcher shows us the connections between the craft of photography and the craft of writing, and how we can use photography to enhance how we teach writing to students of all ages. (And getting to see Ralph's stunning photos is a special bonus!)"

-Carl Anderson, author of A Teacher's Guide to Writing Conferences

"In this age of visual literacy, Ralph's new book is perfect. Ralph connects photography to writing in a way that helps teachers see the power in both words and images. He helps us see the possibilities that this natural connection gives us and encourages us to invite each student to explore the world as photographers and writers."
-Franki Sibberson, teacher, coauthor of Still Learning to Read

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Enhance your writing instruction through photography. In Focus Lessons, Ralph Fletcher makes the link between writing and photography clear. He offers new ideas about taking pictures to spark creativity, using a camera as a writer's notebook, learning to "read" images as mentor texts, and helping students develop writing from photos.

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Stacey Shubitz

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Jan Burkins & Kim Yaris

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Your Research-based Guide to Developing Skilled Readers. 300+ strategies with learning progressions support 13 reading goals, with each strategy cross-linked to skills, teacher tips, prompts, research, and reading levels—everything from fluency to literary analysis.

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Introduction
A Very Brief Introduction to Principles, Research, and Theory, and How to Use This Book
The idea for a book of writing strategies exists many times over. This one is possible only because of the great books that have come before it. There are books suggesting writing strategies meant for professional writers and college students, such as those by Noah Lukeman, Roy Peter Clark, and Janet Burroway, among others. There are countless examples of excellent compilations of writing strategies in books written for teachers of writing, such as Fletcher and Portalupi's Craft Lessons Series, Barry Lane's After "The End" (1993), Carl Anderson's Strategic Writing Conferences series (2008-2009), Donald Graves' many books, Katie Wood Ray's Wondrous Words (1999) and other titles, Katherine Bomer's books, Georgia Heard's books, Nancie Atwell's In the Middle (2014) and other resources, Lucy Calkins' Units of Study series, and many more. My aim in this book is to offer my favorite, most useful collection of strategies that span all aspects of the writing process, all genres and modes of writing, and that will work well with students in grades K-8. I want to offer you a little bit of everything. I streamlined the language and examples, and I present the strategies in a format that is organized so that the busy teacher can find just the right strategy at just the right moment. Of course, you'll elaborate on the streamlined language and make it your own.

But wait-before you dive in, I'm so glad you're taking the time to spend a few moments with this "Getting Started" introduction. In this introduction, you'll gain a helpful overview of the thinking that undergirds this book's ideas as well as an overview of its organization. You'll learn about strategies and all the aspects that I chose to include to elaborate on them-mentor texts, prompts, lesson language, teaching tips, and more. You'll learn how to navigate the pages of the book so you can find what you're looking for quickly and easily, for this is not a read-every-single-page kind of book (unless you want it to be). You'll get a quick crash course on some important terminology and concepts that will help you use this book to its fullest- thoughts about writing as a process, and modes and genres of writing, for example. And finally, you'll learn how to adapt what's in the book to fit your students' writing time in the classroom, no matter what form that time takes.
Click here to download more of the introduction of this book.
Goal 1: Composing with Pictures

Strategy Go back to your picture(s). Point to the part or picture that teaches something important about your topic. Touch or turn to the next part. Tell what new fact about your topic this part of the picture or this page teaches.

Lesson Language If I wrote or drew to teach, then when I read my writing back I'm going to make it sound like a teaching book. I'm going to tell my reader the facts I wrote about. Let me show you. I drew a picture of a big T. rex. I know a lot about them so I added a lot of details in my picture. I'm going to touch one part and teach what that part says. "The T. rex had very large jaws with big sharp teeth." Now I'm going to touch a new part and teach what that part says. "The T. rex had very short arms. It would only run using its hind legs."

Goal 2: Engagement - Independence, Increasing Volume, and Developing a Writing Identity

Strategy First, identify the problem you're having. Then, check the spot in the room, a resource, or a friend that might help you solve the problem. Try a solution. If it doesn't work, try something else.

Teaching Tip This strategy, like "Use the Room" that appears earlier in this chapter, assumes that there are things in the room that can be helpful, and that you've taught children how to use them. For example, in a primary classroom a word wall may help a writer to spell high-frequency words. If you've introduced and used mentor texts, then having these available for children to reference on their own could help them. Sometimes the problem might be that they need to work in a new spot in the room because of the amount of distractions at their current spot. Brainstorm possible problems with your students, and come up with a list of resources and solutions. Or, this strategy can be like a culmination of past teaching from this and other chapters.

Goal 3: Generating and Collecting Ideas

Strategy Decide on a new place to visit. Go there with no more than a notebook and a set of listening ears and observing eyes. Let yourself pick up on conversation and details of the person. Jot down what you observe, and also what you imagine, about the people you see.

Teaching Tip This strategy will take you outside of the classroom, so it would work well as a whole-class lesson followed by a field trip, or as a suggestion to a student, group, or class for independent writing outside of the school day.

Goal 4: Focus/Meaning

Strategy Think about a memory and all the events that are part of that memory. Think about what's important about that memory, or the big idea the memory leaves you with. Identify the one part of the memory that feels the most important. Write some ideas about what's important about it, and why it's important. Try to write just that one smaller part of the larger moment. Tell it bit by bit.

Teaching Tip The amount a writer will be able to reflect on the overall significance of a small moment will depend on her maturity level and experience with writing. For younger children, you may want to suggest choosing a small moment that will make a good story, rather than one imbued with a deep or heavy significance, or simply encourage them to narrow down the window of time

Goal 5: Organization and Structure

Strategy Before beginning to draft, visualize the shape of what you're going to make. Create some sort of quick visual, in pictures or in words, to represent the overarching structure. As you write, check back to see where you are in your plan.

Teaching Tip This is going to be most helpful after students have learned a variety of ways to structure their pieces and have been introduced to a variety of graphic organizers that would help them to organize, or shape, the information into a structure.

Goal 6: Elaboration

Strategy Think about the subtopics for which you'll want to collect information. Write each of your subtopics as a heading on a notebook or booklet page. As you find new information for your topic, think, "What page in my notebook should this go on? Which subtopic does it provide details for?"

Lesson Language I just found this interesting fact: Ballerinas really wear out their shoes. Many go through as many as 2-3 pairs per week! I'm going to look across the pages of my booklet to see where this would best fit. Would it belong in the section called "Types of Ballet Positions?" No, that's not about the positions. Would it go in the section called "Famous Ballets?" No. "What Ballerinas Wear?" Well, I do talk about pointe shoes in this section, so it might be cool to add this fact about how many pairs of pointe shoes the average ballerina needs. I'll keep the fact here.

Goal 7: Word Choice

Strategy Find all the action verbs in your piece. Focus on any that you think aren't as clear, precise, or exact as they could be. List several options for what might replace that word (use a thesaurus if you need it!). Choose the word that best matches your meaning.

Teaching Tip For this strategy to work, children will need to understand what an action verb is, so identification of verbs is a first step in this strategy. Many teachers weave in some instruction during other balanced literacy components such as word study, read-aloud, and/or shared reading. You could also plan to teach direct minilessons to the class or small groups for those who do not understand parts of speech.

Goal 8: Conventions - Spelling and Letter Formation

Strategy When trying to spell a word, try to visualize where you've seen it written and how you've seen it written before. It may help to close your eyes. Then, in a margin or on a piece of scrap paper, write how you think it's spelled. Try it a second or maybe even third way. Look back at what you've written and ask yourself, "Which of these tries looks right to me?"

Prompts

Check off the parts that look right to you.

Write the word as you think you've seen it before.

Which parts look right? Which part looks off?

Do you think there are some letters missing?

What part of that word is tricky for you?

The part you're trying to spell is also in the word _______. Does that help?

Goal 9: Conventions - Grammar and Punctuation

Strategy Find two sentences that talk about the same topic. Think about the relationship between those sentences. Choose a connector word and try combining the sentences into one. Reread and decide if you like the combined way or original way better.

Lesson Language Here's one spot in my draft where I have two sentences that I
think go well together. I wrote: "A dog is something that can keep you company. A dog
can cheer you up." What's the relationship between those two sentences? They both have
to do with something that is positive about owning a dog, so I think they are related. I'm
adding more information on. I'll try using and to combine those sentences: "A dog can
keep you company and cheer you up." Here's another spot: "I would love to have a dog.
My mom won't let me have a dog." What's the relationship between those two sentences?
The second sentence gives more information that feels in contrast to the first. I'll combine
them with however: "I would like to have a dog, however my mom won't let me." The
new sentence I made seems clearer and more to the point.

Goal 10: Collaborating with Writing Partners and Clubs

Strategy Talk with your partner about your goals (for the writing period, for the week, and/or for writing work to take place at home, and so on). Discuss together how you might get that work done. Write the goal, and make the promise...then check in with your partner soon.

Teaching Tip Reflect on your own life and goals you've set out to accomplish. Now think about how successful you've been and whether or not you made your goals public ahead of time. I know that when I share my goals with my partner, my friends, my colleagues, my editor, I am more likely to get things done. The built-in accountability, the opportunity to celebrate together, the lifeline of support in case something does not go according to plan-these are invaluable.

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Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo.

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Collection of strategies that span all aspects of the writing process, all genres and modes of writing, and that will work well with students in grades K-8. Organized so the busy teacher can find just the right strategy at just the right moment.

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Tammy Burke

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Managing Conference Notes (So That You Can Actually Use Them)

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Katie Egan Cunningham

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Children come to school to become better readers, writers, and thinkers, but they also walk into classrooms hoping to be happy. Katie Cunningham argues that happiness must be as much of a priority in teaching as proficiency or achievement. When teachers intentionally design curriculum with joy at it…

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Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning

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Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning

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Peter H. Johnston

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In productive classrooms, teachers don't just teach children skills: they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.

Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool: language. Throughout, Peter Johnston provides examples of apparently ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom. Grounded in a study by accomplished literacy teachers, the book demonstrates how the things we say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for what children learn and for who they become as literate people. Through language, children learn how to become strategic thinkers, not merely learning the literacy strategies. In addition, Johnston examines the complex learning that teachers produce in classrooms that is hard to name and thus is not recognized by tests, by policy-makers, by the general public, and often by teachers themselves, yet is vitally important.

This book will be enlightening for any teacher who wishes to be more conscious of the many ways their language helps children acquire literacy skills and view the world, their peers, and themselves in new ways.
eBook Available Through Major Retailers
We offer ebook editions for most of our print titles so you can access on your computer, tablet, or e-reader from several major retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, OverDrive, and ebooks.com. View the full list of retailers here. For eBook purchases of 10+ please email us for a quote. Purchases of 20+ qualify for a bulk discount.

If you previously purchased an ebook from Stenhouse.com, they will remain available in your digital library.

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In productive classrooms, teachers don't just teach children skills: they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool:

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain

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Zaretta Hammond

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From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain

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In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction.

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Jan Burkins & Kim Yaris

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Following up on Reading Wellness, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explore how some traditional scaffolding practices may actually rob students of important learning opportunities and independence. Who's Doing the Work? suggests ways to make small but powerful adjustments to instruction that hold students accountable for their own learning.

Educators everywhere are concerned about students whose reading development inexplicably plateaus, as well as those who face challenging texts without applying the strategies they've been taught. When such problems arise, our instinct is to do more. But when we summarize text before reading or guide students when they encounter difficult words, are we leading them to depend on our support? If we want students to use strategies independently, Jan and Kim believe that we must question the ways our scaffolding is getting in the way.

Next generation reading instruction is responsive to students' needs, and it develops readers who can integrate reading strategies without prompting from instructors. In Who's Doing The Work?, Jan and Kim examine how instructional mainstays such as read-aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading look in classrooms where students do more of the work. Classroom snapshots at the end of each chapter help translate the ideas in the book into practice.

Who's Doing the Work? offers a vision for adjusting reading instruction to better align with the goal of creating independent, proficient, and joyful readers.

Learn more about Who's Doing the Work? Lesson Sets.

Learn more about Who's Doing the Work? Independent Library Collections.
eBook Available Through Major Retailers
We offer ebook editions for most of our print titles so you can access on your computer, tablet, or e-reader from several major retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, OverDrive, and ebooks.com. View the full list of retailers here. For eBook purchases of 10+ please email us for a quote. Purchases of 20+ qualify for a bulk discount.

If you previously purchased an ebook from Stenhouse.com, they will remain available in your digital library.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Following up on Reading Wellness, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explore how some traditional scaffolding practices may actually rob students of important learning opportunities and independence. Who's Doing the Work? suggests ways to make small but powerful adjustments to instruction that hold students accountable for their own learning.

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Kate Roberts & Maggie Beattie Roberts

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Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence

What's DIY Literacy? It's making your own visual teaching tools instead of buying them. It's using your teaching smarts to get the most from those tools. And it's helping kids think strategically so they can be DIY learners.

Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

"We have never seen teachers work harder than we do now. These tools inspire kids to work as hard as we are."
-Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts

What's DIY Literacy? It's making your own visual teaching tools instead of buying them. It's using your teaching smarts to get the most from those tools. And it's helping kids think strategically so they can be DIY learners.

"Teaching tools create an impact on students' learning," write Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts. "They help students hold onto our teaching and become changed by the work in the classroom." Of course, you and your students need the right tools for the job, so first Kate and Maggie share four simple, visual tools that you can make. Then they show how to maximize your instructional know-how with suggestions for using the tools to:

make your reading and writing strategies stick

motivate students to reach for their next learning goal

differentiate instruction simply and quickly.

Kate and Maggie are like a friendly, handy neighbor. They offer experience-honed advice for using the four tools for assessment, small-group instruction, conferring, setting learning goals, and, most important, helping students learn to apply strategies and make progress without prompting from you. In other words, to do it themselves.

"It is our greatest hope," write Kate and Maggie, "that the tools we offer here will help your students to work hard, to hold onto what they know, and to see themselves in the curriculum you teach." Try DIY Literacy and help your readers and writers take learning into their own hands.

(click any section below to continue reading)

In Depth

As literacy consultants, we have never seen teachers work harder than we do now. And we have watched teaching tools help them feel as though all of their hard work is worth it. In part, the tools help get traction going with teaching and learning. In larger part, the tools inspire kids to work as hard as we are. These tangible, colorful, personalized offerings of our teaching are individual gifts to students. They communicate the message of I see you. I see your next steps. Let me help you. Here is this. These teaching tools invite kids in on the work of the class in a way that is tailored to them, allowing students to take control of their learning and do it themselves.

When we take on DIY projects, from remodeling a bathroom to making a new teaching chart, we know that part of the joy in this project is going to come from our own efforts. And while many times the hallmark of a DIY project is it's imperfections, these flaws often become marks of character, points of pride, and evidence of learning.

One key to experiencing joy is working hard and seeing that hard work pay off. When mathematicians solve a problem they've been grappling with for months, when a musician perfects a performance of a complicated piece, when a learner masters a difficult concept, joy arrives.

It is our greatest hope that the tools we offer here will help your students to work hard, to hold onto what they know, and to see themselves in the curriculum you teach.

Onward to joy!

- From Chapter 1

Companion Resources

Reviews

"After reading DIY Literacy, I felt like I had been given a superhero cape. I felt armed and ready to teach writing. I knew I could use my newly created demonstration notebook or a micro-progression or a chart to help me teach my students. Really, I felt empowered."
- Dana Murphy, at Two Writing Teachers
Read the entire review
" DIY Literacy is not only a "how-to" book on designing visual tools but a source of advice on implementation in the classroom. Students' learning is changed by concrete ideas that push them forward into independent problem solving."
-Sandy Wisneski, at MiddleWeb
Read the entire review

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DIY Literacy by Kate Roberts & Maggie Beattie Roberts.

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Make visual teaching tools instead of buying them. Use your teaching smarts to get the most from those tools. And help kids think strategically so they can be DIY learners. Get the traction going with teaching and learning to inspire kids to work as hard as we do.