Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Elementary Writing Program

WritingCity is our new writing program, I'm real excited about it.  I saw this blog post about how it serves as a great elementary writing program

And I'll quote a little:

WritingCity, previously WriteStepsWriting, provides:


  • detailed day by day lesson plans
  • the authentic student writing samples as examplars
  • the videos so the mini-lessons could be done in literacy centers rather than in whole class sessions by the teacher
  • The blending of key writing strategies including Writer’s Workshop, 6 Trait Writing,   Bloom’s Taxonomy, Multiple Intelligences, Marzano’s Instructional Strategies, and Cooperative Learning
  • The balance of using prompts that are response to reading versus more open-ended prompts



  • Teaching writing of course is very difficult in elementary schools since the teachers aren't dying to spend time reivewing the kids writing and the kids aren't always that excited about struggling with sentences. But getting them writing early is always a great idea.

    Thursday, February 22, 2018

    Learning to Write

    There are many approaches to learning to write but let me discuss a few here. The Writers Workshop, pioneered at NY Colleges, is real popular. The idea is that there's a little mini lesson and then, wahoo, lets each write.  It's about writing.
    Lucy Caukins is often the prof most associated with taking WW into the K12 population.  The most popular current effective implementation of Writers Workshop is WritingCity.

    Settings for Handwriting Practice
    Anotehr approach is for students to take single courses where they get minilessons and then practice specific isolated skills. Works for many kids. For this, use Time4Writing! here are some great materials from Time4Writing;

    Lastly, do not forget that there is an important role for handwriting worksheets to practice developing handwriting skills, particularly in early elementary.

    Sorry dear reader about the fonts. It's too hard to sort out. Sigh.