I recently had a teacher I am coaching say, "That's going to be hard for me," when we discussed allowing students to try multiple drafts on different topics for their informational books.

I completely understand why this fabulous teacher was hesitant...and there are so many reasons!

But the truth is, we all need repeated practice to improve our skills, and developing skills as writers is no different!

In this episode, I share the importance of increasing the volume of student writing as well as providing opportunities for students to cycle through the writing process over and over again.

You will hear about the significance of:

• Setting expectations for volume
• Focusing on student goals
• Making revision a bigger part of the process
• And more!

I will also share helpful advice for those nagging worries that I know are lurking in your mind!

Melissa saved one of the best, but possibly "scariest" writing conference for last!

The Research-Decide-Teach conference originates from Lucy Calkins and is a highly effective method for truly meeting your writers' needs and moving them forward as writers.

In this final installment of the Writing Conference Series, Melissa discusses how to gather information from students, make instructional decisions, and effectively teach targeted strategies during a writing conference.

Melissa provides an overview of the RTD conference, a comparison of RTD to other conferences previously discussed in the series, an example of a student conference and practical tips for implementation.

Listen to hear:

• Melissa's encouragement for trying this new conference
• How to use unit goals to help make conference decisions
• The importance of trusting your teacher intuition
• The benefit of strong pedagogy and student agency

This episode will take away the fear of making "in the moment" decisions and help you to implement this conference with success!

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!

Are you looking for more than "use describing words" and "tell me more" when it comes to helping students elaborate in their writing?

In this episode, Melissa dives into strategies for improving writing elaboration for students by first considering a few overall understandings and techniques for opinion, narrative and informational writing and then sharing specific strategies for ways to elaborate.

Emphasizing the importance of purposeful writing and understanding the audience, Melissa offers a range of techniques and specific strategies tailored for different genres. She also introduces practical elaboration strategies like twin sentences, using question words, and acting out scenarios, along with more advanced techniques such as developing characters in narratives and organizing information in informational texts.

This episode is jam-packed with helpful elaboration strategies for writing in the elementary and middle school classroom!

AND! Listen in for a chance to receive a FREEBIE-Melissa's writing strategies one pager!

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!