Grading alone is a complicated topic, but grading writing, especially when wanting to value the writer, is even more difficult!

The subjective nature of evaluating writing makes it difficult to be sure you have done so "correctly" for your students. It is also cumbersome to consider grading entire pieces from so many students.

In this episode, I share ideas and strategies for grading that will help you to feel more effective and efficient.

Included:

• How to focus your grading
• Aligning grading with learning objectives
• Making grading more manageable
• A favorite writing resource

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

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

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

Writing volume, struggling writers, writing engagement, writing structure and more can all be affected by the paper that students are using to write.

So yes, this episode is all about paper!

We will explore:

• how paper makes writing more authentic
• the benefits of writers making "picture books"
• how paper choices communicate importance and expectations
• getting started with more authentic paper choices

This simple change will make a HUGE impact on writing in your classroom!

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to learn more or 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!

In this episode, Christine Devane shares her amazing and inspiring journey from teaching to writing.

As a teacher, Christine noticed a need for more representation of all students in the books they read, which is what fueled her motivation to create her book, Elephant Beach.

In our conversation, Christine talks about her experience as an author which provides many insights for teachers who are working to support their writers. As a teacher, author and parent, Christine shares ideas that will encourage young writers, allowing for creativity and authenticity in the writing classroom.

Christine provides thoughts on teaching writing that will be of help for all!

Here are a few of the highlights from our conversation:

• Creativity fueled by a need
• The importance of a writing community
• The writing process for authors and students

You can find Christine's book and upcoming items on her website

About Christine Devane:

Christine Devane was a second grade teacher for thirteen years and enjoyed reading with her students. She currently lives in Massachusetts with her husband John; three children Joey, Nick, and Adeline; and their dog Sophie. Christine loves going to the beach, spending time with family and friends, traveling, and collecting lucky elephants.

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

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

This episode will prepare you to begin gathering formative data about your writers that will keep your instruction, and writer's progress, on track!

As the data conversation continues, I share more in this episode about:

• How data adjust goals for writers
• How data informs your instructional choices
• Simple ways to choose data points and collect data

If you want to teach writing more effectively, engage students in writing, manage writer's workshop and help struggling writers, formative data is where it's at!

Mentioned in this episode:

The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (The Hierarchy of Writing Goals)

Writefully Empowered by Jacob Chastain

Data Collection Template (This can be copied and then edited as needed-use your chosen writing categories)

Previous Correlated Episodes:

Ep 84 Writing Conferring Series: Writer's Inquiry Conference

Ep 83 Writing Strategies Series: Engagement

Ep 44 and 45 All Things Writing with Jacob Chastain

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to learn more or 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!

Do you have independent writing time up and running in your classroom but feel unsure of how to keep your writer's moving forward?

It is difficult to support struggling writers or even know what to teach for writing if you don't know enough about your writers.

The right formative data will help you plan instruction that supports progress!

In this episode, I share:

• The importance of formative data
• Three writing categories for data collection
• Four ways to gather data
• Collecting data on identity and engagement

After this episode you'll be ready for Part 2 where I go over choosing a data focus and a simple way to record data.

The more focused your instruction, the more writing engagement your students will have, the more confident you will feel in your writing classroom!

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

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

A coach just telling a player to "hit the ball" or "be aggressive" does not improve their performance.

The same is true for us as teachers of writers! We need to teach, not tell by addressing their needs and showing them how to do what we want them to do.

Struggling writers will just keep struggling if all we do is have them keep trying to write without specific instruction.

The trouble is that most teachers are not trained in teaching writing and have difficulty knowing what strategies to teach. (I've been there!)

In this episode, I share techniques and several resources to help you:

• Know where your writers are
• Compile strategies for lessons
• Move writers forward

Here is a list of helpful resources:

The Writing Strategies Book-Jennifer Serravallo

Craft Lessons (several)- Ralph Fletcher

Making Non-fiction from Scratch- Ralph Fletcher

Craft and Process Studies- Matt Glover

Projecting Possibilities for Writers- Matt Glover

If...Then Curriculum: Assessment Based Instruction- Lucy Calkins

Writing Pathways-Lucy Calking

Language Composition Framework-www.languagecomp.com

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

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

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

Are you wondering....

Why you have struggling writers? Why your writers aren't showing growth? Why your writers aren't engaged in writing?

Perhaps they need MORE of something.

In this episode, I share three main "mores" that writers need in order to be successful, and a few additional "mores" that are just as important.

The first more is one I'm sure you have heard before...more time to write! The rest...listen in to hear all about them!

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to learn more or 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!

***I share some exciting news in this episode!***

In this episode, I discuss lessons cultivated from a multitude of resources combined with years of experience working with writers and with teachers who are new to writer's workshop.

Ideas for lessons will be provided that will help with:

• How to introduce writing to your students
• Ways to support struggling writers
• The reality of being a writer (it's not like most classrooms!)
• Working through writer's problems

You will also hear how important it is to trust that YOU can identify lessons that will support your writers by observing and knowing more about them.

**Teachers! We want to hear from you! We want to hear your story, experience, aha moment or insights related to Getting Students to Write! The more we share, the more we learn together, the more we can accomplish for our writers!

Click the link below and record a voicemail. Your story may be featured on the podcast:)

Send a voice message to GettingStudentstoWrite

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 founded by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to learn more or 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!