I am an educator, a teacher trainer, and a webmaster who specializes in using writing as a differentiated instructional tool.
| New! My Seven Elements of a Differentiated Writing Lesson Materials are now available for purchase! Click here. |
"We write to prove that we think." So read the sign I hung above my classroom door on the day I became the writing teacher I had set out to become. It took me many years of hard work to believe I had finally learned enough to make that sign and use its words as my classroom motto. Those years of hard work remain the best investment I've ever made for my teaching career. |
Before that sign existed, I very much struggled with the teaching of writing. Using the formulaic structures known by most teachers, I could assign my students and get them to produce writing, but writing was a task most of my kids strongly disliked because it felt pointless and rote to them. Their book reports, five-paragraph essays, hamburger paragraphs, and diamante poems were spell-checked and edited, but the written ideas showed a depth of understanding that was hardly deep. I remember spending entire weekends grading less-than-stellar portfolio samples from my kids and wondering what I was doing wrong. It became apparent that assigning writing was fairly easy, but teaching it was a much harder task. Not one teacher-preparation course from my past had given me the ability to really teach writing.
I needed to discover how writing could be used as both a processing and critical thinking tool. In 1996, after five years of struggling with writing, I joined an amazing teaching organization that completely changed my career. The Northern Nevada Writing Project helped me discover techniques to teach writing in a more meaningful way; even better, they challenged me to step outside the comfort of my classroom's walls and present my new learning to fellow Nevada teachers. Working alongside other NNWP teachers on collaborative projects and demonstration lessons, I learned strategies and analyzed philosophies that were unlike anything I'd learned in college. I became a writing teacher and a teacher trainer in 1996. I remain very proud of both of these roles.
In 2001, the NNWP challenged me to take on a third role: webmaster. I built a resource website for the Northern Nevada Writing Project where innovative ideas from writing teachers all over Nevada were posted. Our WritingFix website, now almost a decade old, features lessons, resources, and entire teacher workshops for any teacher who struggles with the difference between teaching writing and assigning writing. Student samples and complete lessons are now sent to us by teachers from all over the world on a daily basis. I'm proud to be the educator who created and maintains this website that freely gives away so many great ideas.
I invite you to explore this personal website, which I launched six years after launching WritingFix. Here, you can link to my best original lessons, as well as favorite lessons from fellow teachers. Here, you can learn what workshops for teachers I am currently offering in Nevada, and you can find out how to bring me to your state or district. Here, you can--perhaps--discover something that motivates you to become an even better writing teacher. I am glad you are here. If you learn anything as a result of your visit, I hope you'll consider sharing it with me.
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My Personal Philosophies on Teaching Writing:
| Writing needs to be taught as a collection of skills that work together to create a thoughtful holistic idea or statement; most of the writing instruction I observe, instead, focuses on the assignment of a format or a final product with only a secondary emphasis on learning skills of writing. |
| When assessing student writing, the writing process--as well as the final product--should receive consideration. |
| Writing instruction must happen in every curriculum area, not just in language arts. And assigning writing is not enough; all teachers must be able to teach some skills of writing to their students. |
| Students must see their teachers write too. |
| Revision is the most powerful--as well as the most neglected--step of the writing process; students who know how to authentically revise learn critical thinking skills for both writing and for life. |
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