Six Tips to Keep Minilessons Short: Maximizing Writing Time — TWO WRITING TEACHERS

Let me tell you about my early years as a classroom teacher. While I delivered many well-executed minilessons, there were times when my minilessons turned into maxilessons. If I’m being totally honest, I recall a few mini-lectures that I still cringe about to this day. As I grew in experience as a workshop teacher, I came to realize that teaching too much and for too long stole time from independent writing time, which meant my students didn’t write enough. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, this also meant that some end-of-workshop shares got eradicated since time for writing workshop ran out. 😬 With practice, I learned how to keep my whole-class instruction succinct, engaging, and short so I could target the needs of my students when I conferred and led small groups.

Six Tips to Keep Minilessons Short: Maximizing Writing Time