The Secret to Powerful Teaching:
Tips and Strategies that Will Make a
Difference in Your Writing Conferring
Presented by Shana Frazin
@sfrazintcrwp
shana@readingandwritingproject.com

Welcome!
 Let’s begin by chatting with someone who is sitting
near to you:
 Book, Movie, TV series, Game or App
recommendation
 Topic you are currently in studying
 Potty or sleep training?
 Language?
 Skill: cooking or carpentry?
 Small moment story from your morning

Tip #1: You gotta get in
the pool if you want to
swim
 In other words, in order to teach writing, you need to
do some writing.
 Quick Write: Opinion, Narrative or Information based
on your neighborly conversation

Tip #2: A conference is a dialogue,
not a monologue
During a writing conference, writers say some
things about…
WHAT HOW
Topic My piece is about…
Writing
Process
I am… (collecting or developing or choosing or…)
Next Steps Next, I am planning to…
Trouble I need some help with…

Tip #2.5: Teach Other Ways
Writers Talk About Writing
 Quantity
 Quality
 Identity (with evidence!)

Tip #3: There’s more than one
way to get in the pool
 In other words, Research, Decide, Teach is not the
one and only structure for a writing conference
 Assessment conference
 Compliment-only conference
 Partner conference
 Follow-up conference
 Coming Soon… conference

Tip #4: Create examples with
explanations
 “Writers reach not for the ornate or the impressive word, but for the true
word, the precise word.” ~Lucy Calkins
 In my own writing:
 1st try: I watched my mom as she combed her hair.
 More precise try: I studied my mom as she lifted the blue plastic
pick to her curls. Phft, phft, phft.
 Abraham’s writing
 1st try: I was so excited. I jumped up and down.
 More precise try: Inside me was a tingle. I started to feel a little
taller. Like a big brother. I made a fist, stretched my arm and tugged
to my chest and said, “yea!!”

Tip #5: Talking about
Writing is Writing Work
 Some people say, “If you can’t speak it, you can’t write
it.”
 Other people say, “Practice makes… permanent.”
 I say, “Oral rehearsal is a powerful tool for creating
community and for improving the quality of writing.”

Tip #6: Recruit Co-Teachers
(Including Your Very Own Students)
 There is a clear and powerful link between reading and
writing that eludes some students. Capitalize on this link by
showing kids how you and many other writers walk in the
footsteps of the masters.
From Crow Call:
It’s morning, early, barely light, cold for November. At home,
in the bed next to mine, Jessica, my older sister still sleeps. But
my bed is empty.
My writing:
It’s evening, late, no sounds, save the whir of the AC unit. At
home, in the room next to hers, Tami’s mom sleeps like a baby.
But Tami is too angry for sleep.

Tip #7: Twitter!
 Just a few ah.mazing authors who are available on
twitter:
 Melissa Stewart
 Seymour Simon
 Jane Yolen
 Lester Laminack
 Cynthia Lord
 Roy Peter Clark
 And, many of your favorite TCRWP SDers!

Tip #8: Track Your Teaching
 “Take only memories. Leave only footprints.” is good
advice while hiking and conferring.
 Give and take artifacts—
 TurboScan
 Evernote
 Old School: Post-Its

Tip #9: Fall in Love
with… Revision
 Revision is a disposition to be nurtured
 Our first thought is rarely our best thought
 Shout it out from the rooftops
 Make “before and after” writing visible

Tip #10: Get happy
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
 How can we make our classroom feel like a room
without a roof?