How to Become a Better Writing Teacher

In this workshop, which is based on the book that Carl co-authored with Matt Glover, How to Become a Better Writing Teacher (Fall 2023), the focus is on how to lift the level of day-to-day teaching in writing workshop. How? By aligning classroom practice to the foundational principles of teaching writing.

Topics that are addressed in this workshop include...

• Getting to know students as people and writers
• Increasing student engagement in writing
• Building a repertoire of teaching points
• Becoming a curriculum decision-maker
• Teaching using mentor texts
• Individualizing writing instruction
• Teaching craft and process lessons clearly and precisely
• Supporting student independence as writers

Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Qualities of Writing

Teaching with mentor texts is an essential practice in the teaching of writing. In this workshop, Carl will explain how you can teach with them in powerful ways. He'll discuss where you can find excellent mentor texts appropriate to your grade level that you can use in different units of study. And he'll explain how to introduce mentor texts to your class in the beginning of units of study, analyze mentor texts for multiple teaching points, and teach with them effectively in mini-lessons and writing conferences. During the workshop, participants will get experience with analyzing several mentor texts, and view videos of Carl using mentor texts to teach student writers.

Conferring with Student Writers

As a writing teacher, you know that your students are at different levels, and have different needs. How can you provide just the right instruction that will help each of your students move forward as writers? In this workshop, Carl will show you how to answer this question — by having daily writing conferences with your students. He'll show you how conferences will help you discover and assess what students are trying to do as writers, and then teach them what they need to learn about navigating the stages of the writing process and how to integrate the qualities of good writing into their narrative, informational and persuasive pieces, so that they grow as writers across the school year. He'll discuss the teacher's role in a writing conference and strategies for helping students play an active role in conferences, and answer the most frequently asked questions about managing conferences in a classroom. Throughout the workshop, Carl will show videos of his conferences with students to give participants a clear image of effective conferring.

Assessing Writers

In this workshop, Carl offers participants smart, ready-to-use ideas and strategies for assessing the writers in their classrooms. He will first discuss assessment lenses that participants will learn to use as they analyze student work. He'll show you how to recognize "patterns of approximation" in student writing that will help you know what to teach students next. And he'll also talk about the importance of setting assessment-based writing goals for students that can help prioritize what to teach in units of study and in conferences. Throughout the workshop, Carl will show and discuss typical writing samples from primary and upper grade classrooms, and use them to demonstrate the how-tos of assessing student writers.