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Six Ways to Grow as a Writing Teacher Over the Summer
1. Collect and examine anchor texts to share with your students next year. Now is the time to scan sample writing from your current class. Remove names and consider which traits the samples might demonstrate - -file accordingly. Scan some work that is exemplary (to help give your students a vision of success) and other writing that is wanting (so your students might make suggestions for the anonymous author).
2. With colleagues, schedule regular meeting times to share writing mini-lessons or to assess writing together. Scoring written work with others helps you to grow in your understanding of what makes good writing. Serve tea and scones.
3. Visit a library or bookstore to find new mentor texts. Nothing enlivens a writing program more than discovering new favorites to use as models. Two recommended texts: the Caldecott winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead in which an endearing zookeeper is comforted by his animal friends when sick, and How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills in which a little bird teaches a dog the joy of reading.
4. Explore new music to use during Quiet Ten. Visit online music stores and listen to samples of classical or instrumental music. Or watch a slew of old movies, listening for soundtracks that would inspire you and your students to write. (Choose music without lyrics.)
5. Redesign the spaces in your classroom. Reread chapter two in No More "I'm Done!": Spaces that Support Independence. Consider ways to make your classroom more favorable for Writer's Workshop. Visit a school supply store to find one new dazzling addition to your Writing Center. (Kindergarten teachers, have you seen the wishbone pencil for a better grip?)
6. Write. You know you have the dream. Here's your summer to put that dream into motion. Do what I do: tell yourself you will write nine lines a day. That's all. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to start, and how often you won't want to stop. And in the fall, you'll be a better writing teacher. Promise.
Study Guide
A free, downloadable study guide to No More "I'm Done!" is available at the Stenhouse website -- recommended for literacy coaches, PLC groups, administrators, and teachers who wish to reflect upon and deepen their understanding of writing engagement and independence.
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