Welcome to the August 27, 2017 edition of The Writing Round-Up, a gathering of some of our favorite tips for teaching writing and being a teacher-writer. Let's get started...
For Teachers of Writers
Do you teach a 'writing workshop' or a 'writers' workshop'? Have you ever stopped to think about the difference between these two phrases? Brian Kissel has and what he shares in his article, "Writing Workshop vs. Writers' Workshop" will explain the important difference between the two phrases and get you thinking about your mindset around this writing practice.
We are huge fans of low-stakes writing, the writing that is full of choice, open-ended, rarely assessed and plentiful. As you begin your new year, we hope you will consider how much low stakes writing your students are doing and set a goal to make the amount even higher. This article, "Low Stakes Writing: Writing to Learn, Not Learning to Write" from Edutopia has some wonderful ideas for you.
When you are assessing your students' writing or conferring with them, what percentage of your comments do you think are positive and/or nurturing versus critical and/or correcting? 10%? 25%? This article, "The Power of Positivity in Writing Class" from Matthew M. Johnson will get you thinking and help you raise that percentage. I learned a lot and I know you will too!
For Teacher-Writers
We all struggle with our confidence in our writing ability from time to time: Am I good enough? I don't have enough talent; No one will care what I have to say; and so on....The key is to rise out of that slump and get your words on the page. When you find yourself lacking in confidence and full of doubt, read "Struggling With (and Regaining) Confidence in Your Writing" from Writers Helping Writers to get yourself moving again.
NCTE's journal, Language Arts, is looking for manuscript submissions for future publications. More information can be found here. (Scroll to page 5.)
Mark your calendar to join us on Monday, September 4th (yes, Labor Day evening) at 7:30 pm EDT for our monthly #TeachWrite Twitter chat. This month's topic is a timely one given the back-to-school craziness: "Making Time for Writing." You can sign up to receive a reminder text message here.
Join our Facebook Group: TeachWrite: A Tribe for Teachers of Writers & Teachers Who Write. Our goal is to build a community for writing teachers and writing teachers where we can support each other, learn about writing and teaching writing, and have fun! We would be honored if you would join us!
Every Sunday, the Writing Round-Up shares a few of our favorite finds about teaching writing and other topics of interest to writing teachers.
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Thanks for reading this week's Writing Round-Up! Have a great writing week and see you next Sunday.
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