"Writing practice goes wrong because children are told to 'just write'"

Happy Friday, Bell Ringers. Forgive me, I told you that you graduated from The Bell Ringer Summer School: Writing Edition—but there’s still one post left: the recording of our final book club meeting with special guests, David Didau and Rikki Cole, authors of the summer book club book Writing Fitness.

In the following video, readers and I get to talk with the authors about some of their key points in teaching students to write—from teaching students how to speak in academic sentences before writing them down, how the most creative writing often comes from constraints, and how to help students who don’t even know where to start.

This one’s worth a listen/watch.

I’ve also included all the book guides and reporting about student writing from the whole summer in there as well, if you’re just getting started. Join Bell Ringer Pro and get everything!

“Back in COVID times, my wife and I decided to get fit, and we downloaded the Couch to 5K app. It’s a nine week program, and it starts with the idea that you run for 60 seconds. Then walk for 90 seconds. And it was just an absolute revelation—the fact that I was able to work through this, get to the end of the session and think, well, okay, that felt tough, but I feel pretty confident…I just started thinking: what if we taught writing like this?”—David Didau in the following video, on how to teach writing explicitly, step by step.

• Get the book guide to Writing Fitness, with chapter summaries and bonus resources.

• How writing enhances thinking, and learning—read the four big, evidence-based ideas behind teaching writing well.

Now watch the video!

Final book club meeting with special guests David Didau and Rikki Cole