Raise your hand if you have students coming up to you or sitting and staring or raising their hands during independent writing time!

There are so many reasons why students are not fully independent writers, and this episode provides a variety of ideas and strategies for creating a classroom full of writers who are!

Melissa shares four ideas for supporting independence during writing time:

• Implement procedures
• Expect It!
• Give it time and have patience!
• Prevent obstacles
• Find out the true reason for lack of independence

Whether you are teaching Kindergarten or 8th grade, if you are looking for ways for your student writing time to be more self-sufficient and effective, this is the episode for you!

About Melissa:

Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.

Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.

Teaching to Transform, LLC was started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!

Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa

Instagram Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!

YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa

LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!

Welcome to the first episode in the Conferring Series!

This series will discuss a variety of conference types for writing to help you feel more confident in meeting one-on-one with your writers in order to meet their needs.

This first conference, the Writer's Inquiry Conference is all about getting to know your writers.

It is extremely helpful for students to feel at ease and accepted in their writing community, and building a relationship with you is the way to start.

Melissa will share the components of the conference as well as specific questions to include in your discussion.

Bonus: Ideas for how to administer a Writer's Survey for an additional and efficient way to get to know your writers.

This episode will help you set the foundation not only for implementing writing conferences with your students, but for successful writing instruction overall.

Additional Professional Development on Writing Conferences:

A Teacher's Guide to Writing Conferences by Carl Anderson, Katie Wood

How's It Going; A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers by Carl Anderson

Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins

About Melissa:

Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.

Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.

Teaching to Transform, LLC was started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!

Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa

Instagram Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!

YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa

LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!

This episode is the beginning of the Writing Strategies Series and is all about supporting students with the most foundational aspect of writing- Engagement!

Just as with any learning-academic to athletic-learners must be engaged in order to progress.

Drawing from educational research and expert Jennifer Serravallo, I discuss the multi-dimensional construct of writing engagement, including affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social components.

After sharing key practices for your writing classroom that set the tone for engaged writing, I offer various practical strategies to improve student engagement such as:

• choosing meaningful topics
• setting goals
• utilizing tools
• positive talk
• collaborating with peers
• and more!

If you are wondering how to help students who do not want to write or students who are not engaged in writing, this episode is for you!

Sources:

Research Article Students' Writing Engagement S. Ives, S. Parsons, J. Marine, P. Rogers, A. Horton, C. Young 2022

The Writing Strategies Book-J. Serravallo

About Melissa:

Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education. Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.

Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.

Teaching to Transform, LLC was started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!

Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa

Instagram Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!

YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa

LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!