photo: Brad Neathery
Jennifer Serravallo's The Writing Strategies Book offers help for all steps in the writing process, and while it is intended for grades K--8, we find ourselves turning to it regularly to find new ways of thinking, refining, and sharpening our own writing. Have you made a goal of writing more over the summer? Is it somewhat daunting? overwhelming? terrifying?
Here are four strategies from The Writing Strategies Book that we find helpful in maintaining our own writing practice:
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Silence the "it's no good" voice: Be aware of a voice in your head that keeps you from starting (or continuing) your writing. Write without stopping the pencil or pen. When you hear the voice urging you to stop, silence it. Redirect your energy back to the page.
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Make a plan for writing time: Think about the project you're working on, and what you want to accomplish. Speak a promise aloud, or jot down a quick list in the margin of your page to identify what your plans are for yourself as a writer today. Check in on your plans as you go.
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Make it a habit: Create a habit of writing regularly, perhaps by promising yourself a certain amount of writing each day, done at a consistent time, created in a consistent place. Give yourself a challenge. Chart your progress.
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Be Realistic: If you're feeling a writer's block, it may be because you have an expectation for what you're going to make that is unrealistic. Say to yourself, "I'm going to write the best I can today, and that is good enough for now." When you've written, you can go back to see how you'd like to make it better.
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To learn more about The Writing Strategies Book, and to
download sample materials, click here.
Jennifer Serravallo is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book, which have been translated into Spanish, French, and Chinese. These and her other popular books and resources help teachers make goal-directed responsive strategy instruction, conferring, and small group work doable in every classroom. Her newest titles are Teaching Writing in Small Groups, A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences, Understanding Texts and Readers, and the assessment and teaching resource Complete Comprehension for Fiction and Nonfiction.
Jen is a frequently invited speaker at national and regional conferences and travels throughout the US and Canada to provide full-day workshops and to work with teachers and students in classrooms. She is also an experienced online educator who regularly offers live webinar series and full-day online workshops, and is the creator of two self-paced asynchronous online courses, most recently Strategies in Action: Reading and Writing Methods and Content.
Jen began her career in education as an NYC public school teacher. Now as a consultant, she has spent the last fifteen+ years helping teachers across the country create literacy classrooms where students are joyfully engaged, and the instruction is meaningfully individualized to students' goals. Jen is also a member of Parents Magazine Board of Advisors for education and literacy.
Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes.
Learn more about Jen and her work at Hein.pub/serravallo, on Twitter @jserravallo, on Instagram @jenniferserravallo, or by joining The Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Community.