Coaching Teacher Writers

When teachers write, good things can happen; writing helps educators to better understand themselves, as well as students, parents, and colleagues. This practical book illustrates how to encourage, lead, and sustain teacher-writers, especially in group contexts. In contrast to guides on writing and teacher research, this book is designed for those who support teacher-writers, such as teacher educators and literacy coaches. The authors offer descriptions of key practices they have developed over years of coaching, teaching, and collaborating with K–12 teachers who write about classroom instruction, teacher research, or advocacy for better policy and pedagogy. Knowing firsthand just how hard writing can be for teachers, they provide a repertoire of strategies to elicit writing, to support teachers as they write, to find audiences for the teachers’ work, and much more. This book offers clear guidance to coach teacher-writers to: Choose topics and shape ideas.Conquer insecurities and draw from their strengths.Establish authority with their audience.Navigate publishing, including choosing venues and working with editors.Find time and space to write and create the habits of writing daily.Respond to audience reaction to their writing.Reflect on their teaching and writing. Develop a voice and vision as a professional. “Understanding writing is a lifelong journey. This book is an indispensable guide to beginning that journey yourself and together with colleagues.” —Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, executive director, National Writing Project “Gives advice on how I can become a better collaborator, facilitator, and cocreator who helps teachers celebrate the power (and joy) that writing can give them.” —Cathy Fleischer, professor, Eastern Michigan University “The authors know how to support teachers in gathering the courage to write. I am grateful for the ideas that have ignited my own writing.” —Penny Kittle, Teacher and Author

Coaching Writers is the first text to outline a complete system for editors to coach journalists. This highly influential text, based on the curriculum and methods of the Poynter Institute, has been updated to include coverage of coaching across media platforms and in diverse newsrooms. It now offers special consideration of ethical concerns. In newsrooms, where the management structure is increasingly flat, everyone needs to be a coach — this book will teach them how.

This writing text is written for teachers by teachers, with each chapter offering practical ideas, strategies, and activities to help teachers coach successful writing. Winning Ways of Coaching Writing is one of the first books to directly address the unique needs of middle and high school pre-service and in-service writing teachers. The text includes chapters on writers with ADHD (Ch. 7), non-traditional ninth graders (Ch. 8), and the teaching of ESL students (Ch. 6) - all topics that have come into the forefront of issues faced by writing teachers of grades 6-12. The authors of the chapters have collaborated to create reader-friendly, pragmatic chapters that include lesson plans and activities designed for immediate application. For teachers of grades 6-12.

An extraordinary "practical resource for beginners" looking to write their own memoir—​now new and revised (Kirkus Reviews)! The greatest story you could write is one you've experienced yourself. Knowing where to start is the hardest part, but it just got a little easier with this essential guidebook for anyone wanting to write a memoir. Did you know that the #1 thing that baby boomers want to do in retirement is write a book—about themselves? It's not that every person has lived such a unique or dramatic life, but we inherently understand that writing a memoir—whether it's a book, blog, or just a letter to a child—is the single greatest path to self-examination. Through the use of disarmingly frank, but wildly fun tactics that offer you simple and effective guidelines that work, you can stop treading water in writing exercises or hiding behind writer's block. Previously self-published under the title, Writing What You Know: Raelia, this book has found an enthusiastic audience that now writes with intent.

Middle and high school writing is not pointless! From one of the most respected writing professors inAmerica, this book combines the insight — affective-- for writing with writing as a learning tool in all content areas. Prompted by the “near-total neglect of writing” in content areas outside English, Bill Strong explores and answers the question ‘why writing matters.’ At a time when more emphasis is being placed on middle and secondary students and when writing tests have been added to the new ACT and SAT assessments,Write for Insightis ideal for teachers seeking a flexible and inspiring way to increase students’ motivation and to enhance long-term learning. Arguing that writing is a powerful learning tool in all content areas, Strong utilizes note-taking, drawing, summarizing, brainstorming, and metaphor-building to help students collect notes, plan future action, frame questions, monitor their own learning, and engage in a rich array of imaginative and cognitive tasks. Written by a masterful teacher for teachers, the friendly, thought-provoking style is appropriate for teachers in diverse disciplines.

Student writing is only as good as the feedback we give In this remarkable book, Patty McGee shares research-based how-to’s for responding to writers that you can use immediately whether you use a writing program or a workshop model. Put down the red-pen, fix-it mindset and help your writers take risks, use grammar as an element of craft, discover their writing identities, elaborate in any genre, and more. Includes lots of helpful conference language that develops tone and trust and forms for reflecting on writing.

If you've ever sat down to confer with a child and felt at a loss for what to say or how to help move him or her forward as a writer, this book is for you. If you are a strong teacher of writing but are not seeing results from your students, this book is for you. Authors Kristin Ackerman and Jennifer McDonough have been teaching writing for several years and know that conferring can be a murky and messy process--perhaps the hardest component of all. Written from the lessons they've learned through hard-won classroom experience--their mistakes and challenges--Conferring with Young Writers is based on what Kristin and Jen call the "three Fs" frequency, focus, and follow-up. They've created a classroom management system that offers routine and structure for giving the most effective feedback in a writing conference. This book will help writing teachers--and students--learn to break down and utilize the qualities that enable good writing: elaboration, voice, structure, conventions, and focus. The authors also provide the knowledge and skills it takes to confer well, which will help you improve as a writing teacher and give your students the confidence to think of themselves as writers.

There's no reason to leave education, because teacher burnout just got hacked! Teachers often face challenges that throw off their entire plans and leave them feeling isolated and powerless. These challenges can range from new technologies, classroom discipline, sudden change to hybrid or distance learning, and unforeseen personal crises-issues that smolder until a teacher is fully burned out with no spark in sight. Could this describe you now or in the future? In Hacking Teacher Burnout, veteran classroom teacher, podcaster, and Google trainer Amber Harper shares an eight-step process that guides teachers out of burnout and into a lasting, empowered feeling of being a burned-in teacher-fulfilled, happy, efficient, and effective in the classroom and in life. Harper helps teachers and leaders overcome incredible challenges and frustrations, and shows you how to: ✓ Discover your burnout type (everyone has a type?) ✓ Take actions that are best for you, depending on your burnout type ✓ Move through burnout rather than fight against it ✓ Make time for things that bring you growth and joy ✓ Thrive-not just survive-personally and professionally ✓ Prepare for hardship before it hits and conquer it when it does Teachers are leaving the profession at shockingly high rates, because they are angry, sad, and just burned-out. You don't have to join this burnout club. Instead, read Hacking Teacher Burnout today, and get Burned-in.