Welcome back, community members! I hope you’ve had rest and relaxation this summer alongside some new learning + brilliant ideas.
What are you thinking about as school starts this year? What are you striving to do differently? What are you striving to do the first time? What are you questions? Where do you need support?
I teach 6th grade and really want to teach modes quickly first, the essential basics of each. I then want to spend the bulk of the year mixing & matching the modes into pieces with purpose, like the real world texts they'll read. The hard part is scoping & sequencing this out, as well as finding mentors.
Is this doable? Should it be done? I'm doubting that this can really be done. Any advice, experience, ideas would be greatly appreciated.
First I will say that this community inspires me and really improves my teaching of writing. This September I am reflecting on the awesome unit Rebekah shared last year at this time using "What I'm Really Into" from NPR as mentor texts and models for a beginning writing unit. My students really benefited from the Choice Board of Min-Moves videos. It has me thinking this September that I would love to offer a Choice Board of different Mini-Move videos for each big writing piece/ essay. I can show students how they may use the same moves in different pieces, and add new ones to try with each writing piece.
Rebekah I think you may have alluded to this idea for your next book at some point during Camp Rewrite?
I just wanted to share how transformative the videos are to my writing instruction. Students loved the ability to watch some on their own time - in class or at home - and have a choice in the moves they use!
I can't wait to see what you share with us this year! Thank you! - Patrice Van Heusen
So happy to be back here for year three! I appreciate the inspiration you provide for us and the conversations that perk up and linger here. I am open to all that you have to share. (Thanks also for posting PD over the summer!) We're having conversations about AI as a staff, and while I know I can't ignore it, I can't help but want to preserve the process of writing for my eighth graders. I notice that kids this year are responsive to be off screen and getting messy on the page. I have kids keep a writer's notebook each year, but in addition, I splurged at Walmart and bought 70 page spiral notebooks this year for my students. We're calling them DRAFT BOOKS. These draft books will be a sacred mess-making space for writing. In the past few weeks, they seem to be working? We "talked to the hand" (we trace our hands and then use each finger as a category...fun and easy way to get ideas on the page) when we started ideation for our "Where I'm From" poems (George Ella Lyons inspired) and did your brilliant blue print idea to play with shape and organization, tracing blocks of stanzas. Now that we're heading into an Annotated List of Summer piece of writing, we're doing some list making and organizing in the draft book. It's different from the Writer's Reader's Notebook in that there's more space and it's easier to blue print and trace in these books. Also, writers can take draft books home to help catapult their compositions. I don't know. I just feel like the more we ask them to use the computer for the generative stage of writing, the less we're trusting what they authentically think. Maybe it's wrong? We can use AI in different ways, but I'm leaning into our classroom space as a mess making workshop where we can practice trust and mistake making that leads to big, authentic ideas. I am looking forward to seeing how others use AI as I do feel like I'm putting my hands over my eyes and plugging my ears a little on this one. Thanks to this community for all the thinking and linking and questioning. It feels good to be in this sweet forest of inquiry and inspiration. Happy school year!
Hi Rebekah! Excited to continue my journey of learning with this community. My second year in 7th grade, and started off my classes with 2 of the skills from the executive functioning module and now moving to a whole class core text with a focus on RR. I work at an international school in Shanghai, so the kids are behind due to covid/lockdown. The students are happy to starting back off with a regular schedule with no crazy interruptions like last year. My wondering is for reading conferences, how do you manage a large # of students? I teach all of 7th grade in a blocking schedule.
I'm an instructional coach at an independent elementary school. Here's where my mind is at these days:
What are you thinking about as school starts this year? How to support teachers to use formative assessment data to develop a meaningful plan for differentiation/responsive teaching during writer's workshop and word study.
What are you striving to do differently? Balancing teacher strengths/interests with the whole-school 5-year instructional plan/outcomes I hold in my brain.
What are you questions?/Where do you need support? Does anyone have any research/scholarly articles on the topic of dysgraphia (defining, addressing it)?
So happy to have this community back online! Im really looking forward to seeing your unit plans again! They always give me a boost of creativity.
I’m looking for some fresh novels to offer to students for either book clubs or whole class. I teach 11th grade in a conservative community, so I’m struggling to find new, engaging novels that are grade level challenging but also have virtually no language and it feels impossible 😂 Ideas?
One thing my team and I have been learning about is Chatgpt…. We read a new book this summer and did a deep dive online. We’re at the cusp really of big change. We are looking at how to use it as a tool in our English classroom versus ignoring it. I’m wondering what your plans are on how to address/tackle/use Chatgpt.
Hi all! We wrapped up week 2, which saw classroom temps soaring into the upper 80s with "tropical" levels of humidity (New England school buildings are old & built to hold in heat during our cold winters--very few have AC or even climate control/dehumidifiers in them). So it was a difficult first 7 days with students, but hopefully fall weather is right around the corner! My students all seem lovely, and I'm excited for the year ahead. Looking forward to collaborating again--I have freshmen, sophomores, and juniors (AP Lang) this year, so lots of books & units to think about!
Hey! Here is our annual free offer to student and first-year teachers. Please share widely! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNRQhxfHEbM5JzJogEhGj1i9psTO8OJOErC96jgQfHhY4H6A/viewform?usp=sf_link
Hi there,
I teach 6th grade and really want to teach modes quickly first, the essential basics of each. I then want to spend the bulk of the year mixing & matching the modes into pieces with purpose, like the real world texts they'll read. The hard part is scoping & sequencing this out, as well as finding mentors.
Is this doable? Should it be done? I'm doubting that this can really be done. Any advice, experience, ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Hello Rebekah and MW Community!
First I will say that this community inspires me and really improves my teaching of writing. This September I am reflecting on the awesome unit Rebekah shared last year at this time using "What I'm Really Into" from NPR as mentor texts and models for a beginning writing unit. My students really benefited from the Choice Board of Min-Moves videos. It has me thinking this September that I would love to offer a Choice Board of different Mini-Move videos for each big writing piece/ essay. I can show students how they may use the same moves in different pieces, and add new ones to try with each writing piece.
Rebekah I think you may have alluded to this idea for your next book at some point during Camp Rewrite?
I just wanted to share how transformative the videos are to my writing instruction. Students loved the ability to watch some on their own time - in class or at home - and have a choice in the moves they use!
I can't wait to see what you share with us this year! Thank you! - Patrice Van Heusen
Hi Rebekah,
So happy to be back here for year three! I appreciate the inspiration you provide for us and the conversations that perk up and linger here. I am open to all that you have to share. (Thanks also for posting PD over the summer!) We're having conversations about AI as a staff, and while I know I can't ignore it, I can't help but want to preserve the process of writing for my eighth graders. I notice that kids this year are responsive to be off screen and getting messy on the page. I have kids keep a writer's notebook each year, but in addition, I splurged at Walmart and bought 70 page spiral notebooks this year for my students. We're calling them DRAFT BOOKS. These draft books will be a sacred mess-making space for writing. In the past few weeks, they seem to be working? We "talked to the hand" (we trace our hands and then use each finger as a category...fun and easy way to get ideas on the page) when we started ideation for our "Where I'm From" poems (George Ella Lyons inspired) and did your brilliant blue print idea to play with shape and organization, tracing blocks of stanzas. Now that we're heading into an Annotated List of Summer piece of writing, we're doing some list making and organizing in the draft book. It's different from the Writer's Reader's Notebook in that there's more space and it's easier to blue print and trace in these books. Also, writers can take draft books home to help catapult their compositions. I don't know. I just feel like the more we ask them to use the computer for the generative stage of writing, the less we're trusting what they authentically think. Maybe it's wrong? We can use AI in different ways, but I'm leaning into our classroom space as a mess making workshop where we can practice trust and mistake making that leads to big, authentic ideas. I am looking forward to seeing how others use AI as I do feel like I'm putting my hands over my eyes and plugging my ears a little on this one. Thanks to this community for all the thinking and linking and questioning. It feels good to be in this sweet forest of inquiry and inspiration. Happy school year!
Hi Rebekah! Excited to continue my journey of learning with this community. My second year in 7th grade, and started off my classes with 2 of the skills from the executive functioning module and now moving to a whole class core text with a focus on RR. I work at an international school in Shanghai, so the kids are behind due to covid/lockdown. The students are happy to starting back off with a regular schedule with no crazy interruptions like last year. My wondering is for reading conferences, how do you manage a large # of students? I teach all of 7th grade in a blocking schedule.
Hi everyone,
I'm an instructional coach at an independent elementary school. Here's where my mind is at these days:
What are you thinking about as school starts this year? How to support teachers to use formative assessment data to develop a meaningful plan for differentiation/responsive teaching during writer's workshop and word study.
What are you striving to do differently? Balancing teacher strengths/interests with the whole-school 5-year instructional plan/outcomes I hold in my brain.
What are you questions?/Where do you need support? Does anyone have any research/scholarly articles on the topic of dysgraphia (defining, addressing it)?
Thanks and happy new school year!
Jessie
Friends, I am dreaming up something (or a series of somethings for you). Will you tell me: what whole-class texts do you teach?
So happy to have this community back online! Im really looking forward to seeing your unit plans again! They always give me a boost of creativity.
I’m looking for some fresh novels to offer to students for either book clubs or whole class. I teach 11th grade in a conservative community, so I’m struggling to find new, engaging novels that are grade level challenging but also have virtually no language and it feels impossible 😂 Ideas?
Hi Rebekah!
One thing my team and I have been learning about is Chatgpt…. We read a new book this summer and did a deep dive online. We’re at the cusp really of big change. We are looking at how to use it as a tool in our English classroom versus ignoring it. I’m wondering what your plans are on how to address/tackle/use Chatgpt.
Hi all! We wrapped up week 2, which saw classroom temps soaring into the upper 80s with "tropical" levels of humidity (New England school buildings are old & built to hold in heat during our cold winters--very few have AC or even climate control/dehumidifiers in them). So it was a difficult first 7 days with students, but hopefully fall weather is right around the corner! My students all seem lovely, and I'm excited for the year ahead. Looking forward to collaborating again--I have freshmen, sophomores, and juniors (AP Lang) this year, so lots of books & units to think about!
Passing along this gem of a mentor text in case you haven't seen it yet. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/listening-to-taylor-swift-in-prison It's a great read for Swifties, for Swift skeptics, or just for the opening line alone! (and of course there's the subsequent teacher callout for our mentor text spotting! https://www.instagram.com/p/CwyW7uDvj4m/)