Topic: Writing

Today on the podcast, we're handing the podcast over to Heinemann Fellow Brian Melton...

This week on the Heinemann Podcast, Katherine Bomer speaks about her development as a writer and educator.

Photography can illuminate the craft of writing and help us understand it in a whole new way!

We truly want the best for our student writers, and we do not want them to be judged for any perceived lack of intelligence about “correctness” in writing.

When we say we teach students to remember, we mean we support students as they recall and retell—with specificity—what happened in their writing practice.

To foster a conversation and culture of collaboration, it is vital that assignments not be treated as though they were written in stone. How could they be when the kids and conditions we work with change so much each year?

When student writers know how to reflect, they know how to learn from their writing experiences. It’s one thing to experience something, but if the experience is then forgotten or not connected in any direct way to other experiences, how is it useful?

Today on the Heinemann podcast author Tom Newkirk explores the value of creating worlds through fiction writing. As Tom says, “our minds were made for stories,” so he decided to sit down with high school students to hear about the fiction they write in and out of school…

Today on the podcast, we’re talking with Anne Whitney, Colleen McCracken, and Deana Washell, co-authors of “Teaching Writers to Reflect: Strategies for a More Thoughtful Writing Workshop.”

Katie Wood Ray interviews Carl Anderson and Jenifer Serravallo, who both recently published two conferring books in Heinemann’s Classroom Essentials Series.

Some children, no doubt, are just naturally reflective. I don’t doubt that much of Lucas’ thoughtfulness about his work was just part of who he is. But all children— and adults for that matter—can be taught to be more reflective.

The overall design of an academic assignment, from the layout to the words used, is critical to not only how well a student preforms, but how they continue to learn throughout their academic journey. By taking a user approach, Jim Burke suggests that we can design better work for our students.

There is a better way than teaching to district assessments and high-stakes college entrance exams. Though we may have to teach a type of formulaic writing, we don’t have to abandon the work that truly matters to our students.

At this point in the year, it’s important to take stock of how your students are progressing toward independence and whether it would be helpful to shine a light on this all-important focus.

In The Six Academic Writing Assignments, author Jim Burke aims to help better understand that nature of the academic writing assignments we give our students through the examination of these six different types of assignments we already give in one form or another.

Feedback is key to student learning. Since writing conferences are conversations between students and teachers, they provide opportunities for two types of feedback: student to teacher, and teacher to student.

Learning never occurs in a straight line. Lisa Cleaveland and Katie Wood Ray, co-authors of Getting Started with Beginning Writers, know that this is especially true when it comes to learning to write.

The six types of writing assignments represent the way we really work, the assignments we actually give, and what we can ask students to do within the constraints of time, class size, student needs, and available resources.