Discovering the Writer’s Life Blog Series

We have eight co-authors here at Two Writing Teachers.  We differ in age, geographic region, experience, and teaching role.  We are separated by miles and time zones.  We do not teach together, and as a matter fact, some of us have never met face-to-face.  Yet every week we bring you blog posts that are consistent in their message.  We are able to do so because despite our differences, we all share the same beliefs.

We believe a respectful and caring community is essential for supporting encouraging writers.

We believe anyone can be a writer.

We believe teachers who write can empathize and instruct student writers.

We believe writers understand more deeply the act of writing is an act of discovery. 

We believe in using a writer’s notebook to notice the world around you.

We believe stories matter.

We believe in living a writerly life.

We believe our students are important, now and to the future of this country.  

We stand on the shoulders of those whose beliefs we share such as Don Graves, Lucy Calkins, Ralph Fletcher, and Katie Wood Ray.  

This week’s blog series is devoted to looking at how these beliefs are expressed in our classrooms. More specifically, how do we encourage our students to live writerly lives?  What routines and procedures do we use to help students gather inspiration from the world around them?

Each post this week will focus on leading students to discover the writer’s life:

• Later today I will blog about using a class anchor chart of writing ideas in order to sustain writing all year long.
• On Tuesday, Kathleen will share how she breathes new life into writer’s notebooks.
• On Wednesday, Stacey will share how field trips can be used in the service of writing poetry.
• On Thursday, Tara will write about how she uses the writing community within her classroom to explore social issues around the world.
• On Friday, Deb will explore how discovering her own writing life has helped her to understand the young writers in her classroom.
• On Saturday, Betsy will share how she uses artifacts and photos to inspire writing.
• On Sunday, Beth will wrap up the blog series by writing about how we can draw inspiration from book characters who are writers.

Finally, Deb will tie it all up in an In Case You Missed It Post (ICYMI) on Monday and issue a final invitation to join our Discovering a Writer’s Life Twitter Chat on Monday, February 8th from 8:30 – 9:30 PM EST.  As always, you can join in the conversation using the hashtag #TWTBlog.

Enjoy this week of posts dedicated to helping your students discover the writer’s life.