What We Believe About Writing Instruction

This week, we continued building our repertoire of knowledge in the area of writing instruction.  Taking a cue from Lucy Calkins we came up with a pseudo "Bill of Rights" regarding writing instruction in our school and listed our beliefs as a staff.  As we continue to learn and grow, we may add some amendments, but for now this is what we all agreed upon.  It is our hope to use our collective beliefs and efforts to create an environment in which our students will flourish as writers. 
 
 

What We Believe About Writing Instruction

·       Writing is a subject and should be taught every day.

·       Students should have time to practice writing in class each day. 

·       Students should have a purpose/audience for their writing and frequent opportunities to publish and share.

·       Students should learn a variety of genres/types of writing and have time to practice them.

 

·       Students should be regularly exposed to mentor texts that highlight what good writers do.

·       Teachers should structure their writer's workshop so there is time for whole group mini-lesson, independent writing time that allows for student choice, conferencing, and sharing.

·       Grade level teams should collaborate on units of study and work together to gather resources, create lessons and assessments, and follow the same general timeline for instruction.