Teach writing without the overwhelm. As an English language arts teacher, you already know that teaching writing is challenging.
Especially when teaching my favorite group of students – middle schoolers!
So, you want the time you invest in lesson planning, creating engaging activities, giving feedback and grading, and interacting with your students to actually pay off for you and your students. It can be overwhelming.
Mentor writing teacher and coach
Hey there! I’m Kathie Harsch, writer, teacher, and mentor. I’d like to be your writing teacher mentor, too.
As the creator of Teach2Write for Middle School, I’m passionate about helping you reduce the overwhelm of teaching writing in the middle school classroom.
I’ll never forget my first year of teaching and feeling like I would never feel relaxed ever again! I don’t want you to do what I did, spending 12 hours at school, sometimes past 5 pm! (My school hours ended at 2:50 pm).
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about teaching and loving middle school kiddos.Turning my passion for writing into my teacher superpower keeps my teaching fresh and sustainable.
Teaching my young students how to express themselves in writing has been extremely rewarding. For example, I still get messages and friend requests from former students who remember me as being a pivotal teacher in their lives.
Most importantly, you can feel that kind of joy, too, knowing that you’ve helped each child in the best way that you can – by giving them a voice!
Reduce your overwhelm from teaching writing
So on my YouTube channel every week, I will post new videos to give you the proven tips, tricks, and strategies that I’ve used with thousands of student writers over the last 26 years of teaching writing.
In addition, there will be posts here, too, on my blog. So, you can refer to any tips or tricks I give in my videos. Not everyone learns the same way, even teachers!
Therefore, I know that hearing or watching me demonstrate strategies and techniques that I use with my student writers helps many teachers. And yet, some teachers like to be able to refer back to the tips and tricks in written format here inside the Teach2Write blog.
New YouTube videos go out on Mondays, and my blogs are updated on Tuesdays.
Writing Workshop helps you teach writing without overwhelm
I can also show you systems that can work in your classroom, such as the writing workshop approach, to get the results you want in transforming your students into writers, while also saving you time to spend with your family and friends.
Meanwhile, here are some of my latest YouTube uploads to help you out get past the overwhelm and really feel the joy of teaching:
Teach2Write for Middle School YouTube Videos for Writing Workshop
Should you use a writing workshop approach in your middle school classroom? In this video, I’m going to talk about the benefits of a writing workshop in your ELA classroom and how the aspects of a successful writing workshop are mirrored in a recent university study: “A Quantitative Synthesis of Research on Writing Approaches in Grades 2-12.” Here’s the link to that study: https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268…
It’s About Time: How to use time to structure your ELA class period
Time is something we all need more of. Using a writing workshop structure will help you use Time to your advantage and maximize writers’ engagement in learning. This video discusses the use of time in your ELA middle school classroom and how you can schedule your class period to optimize your writers’ success.
5 Must-Have Writing Workshop: Optimize student engagement
Let’s discuss the 5 must-haves for your middle school writing workshop classroom that will optimize your students’ engagement. I will explain each one as well as what you can do in your classroom to ensure you have these must-haves covered:
- Time to write daily
- Writer’s choice
- Exploring writer’s voice
- Building a community of writers
- Mentor teaching
Journals vs. Computers or Both? Which to use for middle school?
In a writing workshop, should you use paper and pencil journals or computer-based journals? In this video, I’m going to discuss why a writer’s journal is essential to your middle school ELA classroom, and how your students can use them in a modern, tech-driven classroom. Also, let’s talk about grading AND storing writer’s journals without costing YOU extra time OR money.
Future videos and blog posts will demonstrate ways I use writing journals to help your middle school students break through writer’s block.
Set up a Writing Workshop in your ELA classroom to teach writing without the overwhelm
If you want to set up a writing workshop in your middle school classroom, click on the link below for the FREE 5-day challenge:
https://www.teach2write.com/5daychallenge
I will teach you how to set up the systems to get your middle school writing workshop started. This 5-day challenge comes with a free workbook and video trainings for the 5 systems I use to:
- Classroom routine for maximum learning
- Create a filing system to never lose your computer files inside your drive again
- Plan your units and major projects for the year
- Manage your classroom procedures, rules and student behaviors
- Grade during school and not at home!
Teach writing without the overwhelm with these ELA writing resources:
These resources have helped thousands of students in their ELA classes. About as many teachers have also benefited from using these resources, saving time and money.
For writing strategies, click on an image below:
For CCSS Reading Literature Writing Analysis Paragraphs:
