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"And then we went to the park. And then we had a snack. And then we went home." You ask for an opinion piece, and you get a story. You ask for facts about frogs, and you get a story about a frog. Everything turns into "and then." That's normal for young writers. Most kids only know one way to write: telling what happened. Our job is to show them there's more than one kind of writing, and each one has its own job. That's Action B on the Writing Teacher's Roadmap: giving kids l

In September, you taught capitals and periods. Your class practised. They got it. By October, half the journals look like one long sentence with no capitals in sight. If that feels familiar, you're not doing anything wrong. Young writers need a different approach to skills. They need one skill at a time, lots of practice, and a way to keep old skills from slipping. That's Action A on the Writing Teacher's Roadmap. It's one of five actions in Step 3, where you'll spend most of

"I don't know what to write." If you teach Grade 1, 2, or 3, you've heard those words more times than you can count. You set up a writing activity. Most of the class gets going. Then you look up and see four kids with nothing on their page. One is drawing on his eraser. One is staring out the window. Two are waiting for you to come over and tell them what to do. This is the problem Step 1 of the Writing Teacher's Roadmap solves. The goal is simple: every child writes, and nob

It's Sunday afternoon. There's a stack of 24 writing journals on your kitchen table and a red pen in your hand. You spend hours writing comments. On Monday, you hand the journals back. Kids look at the sticker, flip the page, and start writing again. All that feedback, and nobody reads it. There's a better way. Action D on the Writing Teacher's Roadmap is about quick, informal assessment that kids actually use. When students check their own work and set their own goals, they

You have 24 students. A few are learning English. Some have learning plans. Two are writing full pages while another is still working on letters. And you're supposed to plan a writing lesson that works for all of them. It can feel impossible. But after years in special education and learning assistance, I learned something that made it much easier: you don't need 24 different lessons. You need a few smart supports that help many students at once. That's Action E on the Writin

Never sure if your class is ready to move on in writing? The power of 3 is a simple rule that tells Grade 1 to 3 teachers when to move forward.