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Since 2007, Two Writing Teachers has been a vibrant community of reflective writers. We're excited to take our passion for teaching writing to new heights in the second season of our podcast. Join us as we explore ways to create, lead, and sustain joyful and productive writing workshops, empowering educators to help their students become competent, brave, and confident writers. Let's make writing instruction engaging and rewarding for everyone involved! Would your company like to sponsor an ...
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Melanie shares three practical strategies for maximizing classroom time. She emphasizes managing transition times to maintain student engagement and minimize downtime. In addition, she suggests creating a collection of valuable and doable activities that students can choose from, fostering independence and motivation. Finally, she suggests training…
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Stacey explores the vital executive functioning skill of time management as it applies to the writing workshop. She identifies common challenges students face, from grasping time concepts to meeting deadlines, and offers practical strategies to enhance their skills. Listeners will learn about tools such as visual aids, organizational checklists, an…
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We delve into the challenging subjects that often arise in elementary school writing workshops, ranging from bodily functions and violence to mental health issues. We explore the non-negotiable aspects of topic choice and discuss establishing clear boundaries in the classroom, emphasizing the importance of creating a safe space for young writers. T…
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Writing complete sentences is tricky for most elementary school students. This week's Tip for Tomorrow provides concrete ways to make sentence construction sticky for students. From a visible, tactile teaching method to progressions of examples, Melanie shares various strategies to help kids gain a more concrete understanding of sentence structure …
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Leah Thomas, a co-author of the Two Writing Teachers Blog, chats with Melanie to reflect on her recent experiences with parent-teacher conferences, discussing the challenges and rewards of connecting with families. She shares effective note-taking strategies, what assessments to present, and the impact of showcasing student writing samples. Leah al…
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In this podcast episode, Melanie will share creative strategies to make the editing process engaging for students. Discover how to infuse fun into editing by using gamification techniques and various tools. You will also learn how to integrate editing into the drafting process and support students with scaffolds, checklists, and reminders to streng…
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Discover the art of building meaningful writer-to-writer relationships and managing time effectively in brief, impactful sessions. The discussion delves into the importance of individualized focus, highlighting how concentrating on a single aspect of writing per conference can lead to more manageable and absorbing lessons for students. Additionally…
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In our 100th episode, Stacey explores the power of tangible artifacts in writing conferences. She discusses five essential tools to enhance the writer-to-writer relationship: mentor texts, demonstration texts, mini-charts, personalized word walls, and individualized checklists. Learn how to introduce and utilize these artifacts to support student w…
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Melanie shares four ways to reenergize student writers whose enthusiasm and stamina dwindle during more extended writing units. Her ideas are sure to reinvigorate students in engaging and meaningful ways. Go Deeper: Keeping the Energy In a Unit of Study Writing as a Gift Thanks to our sponsors! Book Creator: Listeners can get 3 months free premium …
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This episode features Betsy Hubbard, an experienced educator and co-author at Two Writing Teachers. The discussion explores the critical role of executive functioning skills in writing and how deficits in these areas can impact students' performance. Betsy shares practical strategies for teachers to support executive functioning in writing workshop…
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In this week's episode, Melanie shares six innovative strategies for using verbal rehearsal to empower young writers. She discusses techniques such as purposeful storytelling, visual cue cards, and fostering student collaborative partnerships. Enhancing oral language skills aims to strengthen writing abilities, demonstrating the powerful connection…
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In this episode, Stacey explores the "Ready, Do, Done" model by Sarah Ward and Kristen Jacobsen to help students with executive functioning challenges become confident writers. She discusses the importance of setting clear intentions and gathering necessary materials ("Ready"), breaking down tasks and using visual aids ("Do"), and celebrating accom…
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This episode delves into the importance of understanding students as writers and its benefits to educators and learners. We explore how this knowledge fosters a stronger classroom community and informs more tailored instruction. Tried-and-true methods such as kid-watching, utilizing writer's notebooks, and conducting effective one-on-one conference…
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It's the final episode of season two, so we're discussing some of the best practices for writing instruction. We cover the importance of a thriving writing community and the writing process, and we explore the role of oral language in boosting writing stamina. We also discuss the importance of dedicated and intentional writing time, the reciprocity…
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Melanie explores critical strategies to help you plan for your summer learning. Discover practical tips for organizing your classroom, finding or forming a study group, curating mentor texts, and engaging in personal writing. You'll leave this episode invigorated to try one or more ways to enhance your teaching skills for the upcoming academic year…
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Stacey explores the importance of co-creating goals with students to help them grow as writers. She discusses how collaboration during goal-setting enhances students' ownership, motivation, and personalized learning. It also allows for individualized growth and fosters collaboration and communication with the teacher. If you haven't tried co-creati…
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In this episode, Melanie guides you through the art of crafting concise and well-structured paragraphs that are easy to follow and understand. With her expert tips on oral rehearsal and the use of sentence frames, she empowers young writers to hone their writing skills and develop a unique voice. Tune in to learn how to help students move from writ…
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Task initiation is one key to student success, particularly in the context of writing instruction. The episode highlights some students' challenges with executive functioning skills and how they struggle to begin tasks efficiently. The host provides nine effective strategies to help students overcome task initiation challenges, such as normalizing …
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In today’s Conversation with a Colleague, Stacey chats with Lainie Levin, a gifted interventionist and coach, about helping learners conquer perfectionism. Lainie unveils the manifestations of perfectionism in students, particularly during writing instruction, highlighting key signs to watch for. She shares an innovative work quality continuum she …
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Make sentence structure more straightforward for students with Melanie's intentional activities in this episode. Melanie shares ways she helps students understand the definition of sentences, create sentences with phrases and pictures, and combine sentences. You'll help students recognize and create simple and increasingly complex sentences with Me…
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Explore the origin and significance of end-of-year reflection letters in this week’s episode. Stacey highlights the unique nature of these letters, which go beyond self-evaluations of academics and instead focus on students reflecting on their growth as learners and individuals. Practical guidelines for structuring the letters are shared, emphasizi…
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We explore the vast potential of student-facing AI tools. Join us as we delve into the benefits of tools like Co:Writer Universal, EverWrite, Grammarly, Read&Write, and Speechify. Discover how these cutting-edge tools revolutionize students' learning, writing, and communication and empower students to reach new heights of academic excellence. Check…
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It is helpful to create checklists that are accessible to students so they are manageable, digestible, and possible for students to utilize. In this tip, Melanie shares ways to help students chunk checklists, think with intention, and digitize checklists. In addition, she plants the seeds to help you think about ways to help students self-create ch…
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In this episode, we talk about content creation, personalized learning, accessibility, efficiency & productivity with artificial intelligence. We share various teacher-facing AI tools and discuss how you can incorporate them into your writing instruction. Go Deeper: Leveraging AI for Writing Miniseries on Two Writing Teachers Los Angeles Unified Sc…
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Learn about two engaging ideas for National Poetry Month, which begins on April 1. Stacey shares a bit about creating a collaborative "Living Poetry Anthology" where students curate poems to display throughout the school. Next, she discusses developing personal poetry collections featuring their work, inspirational poems, and reflections on poems t…
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There's a lot of brain work involved in written expression. This week, Melanie shares a tip to help students reduce their cognitive load, which will help them express their ideas more easily. In this tip, Melanie shares how providing students with sentence frames and a bank of vocabulary words can aid students with difficulty with word retrieval. P…
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In this episode, we explore accommodations for student writers. The episode has five categories: organization, materials/tools, time, response, and seating. This episode will equip you with ways to create an inclusive, accessible learning environment. PAST TWT BLOG POSTS Exploring Voice Typing Finding Accessible Fonts for Classroom Use Flexible Sea…
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Stacey explores the power of pairing written explanations with oral directions to enhance understanding in the context of writing workshop. She provides an overview of Driveway, a Chrome Extension that allows educators to create step-by-step process guides with written descriptions, highlighted screenshots, and optional voiceovers. Learn how to cre…
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In this Tip for Tomorrow, Melanie provides three ways to use digital mentor texts. She provides insight on using videos as part of your whole-class instruction, inquiry lessons, and as a goal-setting tool. Take advantage of this episode if you need more ways to integrate digital mentor texts into your writing instruction. Read Leah Koch's Two Writi…
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Discover the untapped potential of oral language in the writing process and gain valuable insights from Lainie Levin, one of our TWTBlog co-authors. Lainie and Stacey discuss the importance of oral language beyond the primary years of elementary school and how storytelling and oral language support kids in developing a sense of story and composing …
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Research can be instrumental in supporting instructional decision-making for teachers. In this Tip for Tomorrow, Melanie gives an overview of some of the most critical research surrounding writing instruction. She will cover what the research says about: Teaching kids about different aspects of the writing process. Studying strong examples of writi…
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Join Stacey as she delves into the power of reflection shares to promote growth and development in student writing. She discusses how whole-group reflection allows students to share insights, experiences, and strategies, and fosters a sense of community and accountability. She emphasizes the importance of students feeling valued and included in the…
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We explore the profound benefits of participating in the month-long writing challenge. Listeners will discover the power of making connections and gaining a true understanding of being a writer while cultivating a writing practice. The episode briefly overviews the Slice of Life Story Challenge's origins and purpose, pointing listeners to last year…
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Bring the power of play into your writing instruction. Melanie explains how to teach kids to play PROVE IT in an effort for them to show evidence of the skills you're teaching in their writing. Check out these posts on TWTBlog for more ideas: Ways to Teach Conventions: Our Favorite Things When Conventions Aren't Sticking–Some Tips and Tricks ***** …
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Let's explore ways to energize your writing workshop! In this episode, we discuss strategies for revving up individual minilessons and units of study by opening up options, changing perspectives, bringing in magic, promoting collaboration, and creating authentic purposes for students to think about their audience. Resources mentioned in the episode…
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In the final episode of 2023, Stacey discusses the importance of shedding anything that isn't serving us and applies this idea to the classroom, specifically focusing on providing students with a diversity of writing supplies. She offers three suggestions for obtaining different types of notebooks at a lower cost or for free. Stacey also emphasizes…
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Let's explore the importance of information writing and address common problems writers face in this genre. The episode delves into the need for explicit instruction in note-taking, emphasizing the purpose of notes as a tool for critical thinking rather than mere proof or text transfer. It also offers various approaches to enhance information writi…
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This Tip for Tomorrow explores the art of essay writing beyond the traditional structure and formula. Stacey delves into "writing to think" and how students can infuse microstories into their essays to enhance their ideas. From choosing relevant stories to crafting concise microstories, she provides practical guidance on engaging the reader and con…
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In this episode, we address the challenge of finding enough time to teach writing workshop daily in elementary school. We discuss the importance of writing instruction for students' literacy development and provide practical strategies for teachers to maximize their writing instruction time. This episode covers topics such as establishing efficient…
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Send us a text 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: meehanmelanie@gmail.com Stacey Shubitz: stacey@staceyshubitz.com Email us at contact@twowritingteachers.org for affiliate or sponsorship opp…
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This Tip for Tomorrow episode explores ten practical tips for keeping minilessons brief and effective. Stacey discusses the importance of preparedness, including having all teaching materials ready and communicating clearly with students about what they should bring to the meeting area. She highlights the benefits of assigning "talking partners" an…
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Sarah Valter, one of our TWTBlog co-authors, joins Melanie this week to discuss ways to inspire word explorers, the children in our classrooms who, for various reasons, need additional support or scaffolding to commit words to the page. For more inspiration, check out these books, podcast episodes, and blog posts: Discover What Writers REALLY Need …
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Give the kids the freedom to tell many kinds of stories during a narrative writing unit. Melanie shares three ideas you can use to help students have a surge of writing during a narrative writing unit. Go deeper with these posts from the TWTBlog archives: Continuing Along the Narrative Pathway Let's Pretend! Narrative Writing: Expand the Possibilit…
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Join us to explore the potential of minilessons as a forum for whole-class instruction. Peeling back the layers, we delve into the art of teaching writing behaviors, behaviors, strategies, and more in ten minutes or less. We thoroughly examine the four essential parts of a minilesson: connection, teach, active engagement, and link, shedding light o…
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In this episode, Stacey shares five valuable steps for cooperating teachers who are hosting with student teachers in leading a writing workshop for elementary school students. Stacey begins by sharing her personal experience and the challenges she faced when initially handing over the reins to student teachers. The five steps for empowering student…
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Unlock the secrets of a successful writing workshop! Dive into the dynamic framework that increases student growth. Every workshop begins with an engaging minilesson and ends with intentional sharing time. Discover the power of independent writing time with conferring, small group work, and the short, but mighty mid-workshop interruption. Listen un…
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Delve into the essential elements of building your conferring toolkit! Melanie explores the valuable tools, demonstration writing, and paper choices you'll want to stock in your toolkit. She'll even share a suggestion about the surprising impact of mints! Unlock the key to effective conferring by equipping yourself with everything you need to confi…
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Discover what a conferring toolkit is, why it's essential, and how to create one that suits your needs. This episode will share must-have items, tips for organizing, and the benefits of incorporating digital setups. Get valuable advice on updating your toolkit, embracing change, and capturing photographs of your resources. Remember, tools don't tea…
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Join us as we explore how filling out conference cards alongside students makes them more responsible for their learning journey. Also, conference cards are an excellent way to check what's been taught, and what's been accomplished between writing conferences and plan the next steps for student success! Some useful links: Conference cards A Few Ide…
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In this episode, we explore the concept of greenbelt writing and its profound impact on young writers. We discuss why children must be free to play with words without grading pressure. We discuss how allowing kids to choose their preferred genres empowers creativity and fosters a genuine love for writing. Through discussion, we share the true essen…
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