"Teaching used to be easy. Spend a few hours planning; consult the teacher’s manual and curriculum guide; sprinkle in differentiation; make sure to hit all learning styles; assign projects and papers. Repeat. Why was I teaching the way I had been taught? From time to time I’d wonder if there was a better way—then I started searching for a better way. Lucking upon a conference by Nancie Atwell was my deliverance. Yeah, said that little voice, it works for her! You teach 100! It’ll never work! Then a one-week internship at the Center for Teaching and Learning."
"It was like watching God teach. Now I have to work hard every second of every class, plan constantly, really know my kids, and decide what they need next. What’s changed? I turn to master teachers, reflection, and research. I let the students guide the next step, not the manual. I WORK. And I love it."
--Carey Fox, Highland Middle School, Libertyville, Illinois
12 years of teaching
Related Resources . . .
The Writing Workshop: Working through the Hard Parts ( And They're All Hard Parts)
Author Katie Wood Ray and Lester Laminack disucss how this book is a practical, comprehensive, and illuminating guide for both new and experienced teachers that confronts the challenges of the writing workshop head-on.
A Predictable Framework for Genre Study in the Writing Workshop
In this web seminar, Katie Wood Ray will introduce participants to a predictable framework that teachers can use again and again to plan units of study in genre in their writing workshops.