As a fellow teacher, I too have been faced with navigating this new world of distance learning. One of my passions as a teacher is literacy instruction, especially writing instruction using the workshop model. While distance learning cannot fully replicate the rich experiences of writing workshop in the classroom, I’ve been determined to find a way to bring writing workshop into each of my student’s homes.
As a result, I have been creating and recording writing lesson videos for my students. I have been assigning 2-3 videos a week for my students and since I have been doing this, I’ve received such positive feedback from my students and families about writing time being their favorite part of the at home school day! The videos are nowhere near the production quality that you’ve come to expect from The Character Tree, but I’m still finding them effective and wanted to share them with you in hopes that they can be helpful for you and your students as well!
Lessons 1 and 2 can be used with any genre of writing and are general lessons that focus on setting writers up for success as they engage in writing at home. When schools closed, my students and I were in the middle of a unit on How-To writing. Consequently, lessons 3-6 focus on How-To writing specifically.
If you are interested in recording your own writing lessons, I’m also sharing the plans and anchor charts I created for each of the lessons I’ve recorded so far, click here to download those.
To connect with me directly, or to gain more insights into my day to day teacher life during this time of distance learning and beyond, you can find me on Instagram @theprimarypal.
Looking for more ways to teach positive character traits in the classroom? Check out our blog or subscribe to The Character Tree for educational videos and fun classroom activities!