Podcast | Cult of Pedagogy

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

33:27

…most effective ways to improve student writing is to show them mentor texts, examples of excellent writing within the genre students are about to attempt themselves. Ideally, this writing would come from real publications and not be fabricated by me in order to embody the form I’m looking for. Although most experts on writing instruction employ some kind of mentor text study, the person I learned it from best was Katie Wood Ray in her book Study Driven (links to the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon). Since I want the writing to be high quality and the subject matter to be…

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

Ep.101

33:36

…observe were the early drafting stage, where I just scratched out whatever came to me in messy, run-on sentences, and the revision stage, where I crossed things out, rearranged, and made tons of notes on my writing. I have seen over and over again how witnessing that process can really help to unlock a student’s understanding of how writing actually gets made. A Narrative Writing Unit Plan Before I get into these steps, I should note that there is no one right way to teach narrative writing, and plenty of accomplished teachers are doing it differently and getting great results….

How ELA and Special Ed Collaboration Can Produce Great Student Writing

Ep.173

50:43
Guest(s): Sarah Riggs Johnson

…kind of collaborative practice between regular classroom writing teachers and learning specialists. If you’re part of a similar partnership, you may find some of these helpful in your work as well. Why Writing is Especially Challenging for Students with Learning Differences Writing is an incredibly complex task. It involves the instant integration of several components—handwriting and letter formation (and later typing), spacing and formatting on the page, spelling, grammar, sentence formation, adding punctuation—all while holding your ideas, and some sort of organizational scheme for those ideas, in your memory. It’s a difficult enough task for most students, who aren’t reading…

7 Easy Ways to Support Student Writing in Any Content Area

Ep.14

28:54

…and expected element of the recursive nature of the writing process. While we often have linear models of writing processes, the muddy reality of writing means we’re constantly going back and engaging in revision, even after publication. C. Watkins I really appreciate your podcast being attached to the article. After a long evening of grad classes and reading articles, it’s nice to switch up the delivery. My class discussion response: “7 Easy Ways to Support Student Writing in Any Content Area” was a wonderful explanation of ways to support students writing as I teach art. I love that the author…

How Dialogue Journals Build Teacher-Student Relationships

Ep.49

1:04:14
Guest(s): Liz Galarza

…students.” Writing Fluency: When students write in dialogue journals, there’s no pressure to fulfill an assignment or construct perfect sentences. Students just write. And the more a person writes, the more confident they become and the better their writing gets. If the teacher can identify topics that are important to the student, this can inspire far more writing than a student would ever produce for an assignment. Nick, the student above who wrote about Derek Jeter, initially told Galarza he hated to write. After their first exchange about the Yankees, Galarza says the topic stayed with them for the rest…

Fire Up Your Students with a Campaign Project

Ep.160

36:54
Guest(s): Jane Currell

…checking in on what they were doing, giving encouragement, asking questions to redirect learning, and supporting with writing models where necessary. I paused by one pair of students who were writing a speech. They were using an anchor chart to prompt ideas and had already integrated some good speech writing techniques into their writing. “What’s the rule of 3’s?” I asked. They explained that you repeat a phrase three times at the start of three sentences in a row to add emphasis. They showed me their example; I was so impressed. Anchor charts help students apply genre-specific strategies to their…

Does Your School Need a Literacy Check-Up?

Ep.171

51:44
Guest(s): Angela Peery

…and fluent, legible handwriting. They need lots of opportunities to write in order to become both more competent and confident. Unfortunately, what I’m seeing in elementary classrooms is what Mike Schmoker has seen too—arts and crafts activities masquerading as writing instruction (see “The Crayola Curriculum” here). The tool below focuses on the writing process and specific, effective strategies (shared writing, interactive writing, mentor texts, etc.). It’s a succinct guide to help everyone remember and look for evidence of best practices. Click images to open larger view. Click here to make a copy of this tool for your Google Drive. Middle…

A Few Creative Ways to Use Student Blogs

Ep.150

34:49

…in the classroom, you may want to check out this post from John Spencer or this post from Matt Miller. I hope this helps! Samson John It’s fantastic. I believe that academic writing, like the five-paragraph essay, is becoming less and less relevant. Very rarely will pupils require that kind of writing once they are out in the “real world.” HOWEVER there are a lot of alternative ways to use this format. Instead of writing an essay, I’m going to try this style of writing. They are still permitted to cite sources and use written evidence. I’m thrilled about it…

Using Learning Stories for Student Reflection

Ep.213

40:20
Guest(s): Marcus Luther

…in a single space. Does this take time on the front end? You betcha. Is this time worth it? Yes, yes, yes, in my opinion. Unequivocally, yes. Examples from two different student “Writing Stories” after the first writing opportunity and reflection. What “Reflection Days” Look Like As much as I cared about setting up this new system of reflection well and navigating all the logistics smoothly, I knew the document itself would matter very little if it did not change the way I created space for reflection in our classroom. So after our first formal writing opportunity, rather than diving…