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Posts from the ‘Key Strategies’ Category

Sep 23

Thinking of Using EdTech AI Inside a Writing Classroom? Focus on Small, Strategic, and Humane

by Mary Ehrenworth and Philip Seyfried; Co-authors of AI & Reading Instruction; AI-Enhanced Literacy; AI- Supported Teaching for Multilingual Learners

There are ways that AI can help you amplify your best writing teaching. It can help you get more feedback to more kids more quickly. It can help you better see your multilingual learners’ gifts. It can help you offer grammar lessons based on kids’ individual writing. It can study kids’ writing and suggest strategic partnerships. These are among the many surprisingly beautiful and helpful ways that AI can extend your powers as a writing teacher. We’ve worked with EdTech AI in many classrooms, and we see kids’ faces when they receive immediate, warm, expert feedback as soon as they write. We’ve seen teachers breathe as they realize their twenty-three fifth graders, or one hundred and twenty-three ninth graders, will each get a personal, specific compliment and a tip, today, as soon as they draft, freeing teachers up to help kids implement that feedback.

We’ve also felt the palpable anxiety of English and ELA teachers as they consider how AI might shift the balance of humanity in their classrooms. It’s good to be cautious, to be careful. After all, school is a place where young people learn to share parts of themselves and deepen their connections with the community of learners around them. Any technology that diminishes our young people misses the mark, but when used well, technology can help them flourish. Focusing here on EdTech AI, that gives kids an AI thought partner and coach, such as Flint, SchoolAI, MagicSchool, here are five practical tips for introducing AI in ways that may deepen the humanity in your classroom.

  • Focus on more strategic technology use, not more screen time. Nobody wants kids on screens more – not parents, not teachers, and (this is less clear), not most kids. So, don’t think about ‘AI class periods.’ Think about short, controlled, strategic doses of high impact feedback and coaching. For example, in a writing unit that spans three weeks, students might get feedback three times across the writing process, from their EdTechAI partner, each time for a five to ten minute session.
  • Set up your EdTech chats to offer thoughtful, manageable, controlled feedback. Remember that AI is programmed to be helpful. That means that it will often do not only what you ask it, but more. If you invite it to offer kids feedback on their work, it will offer a lot of feedback. It may offer to help kids draft. We usually tell our EdTech AI that we want it to focus on feedback that will help kids not only with this piece, but as a writer overall. We suggest that it gives three compliments and three possible next steps. We tell it not to draft for students, with the exception of sometimes giving a one sentence example.
  • Insert AI ‘partner’ chats between peer partnerships. Imagine that Sara and Amber have done a little drafting on their literary essays, and each has spent five or ten minutes getting some compliments and next steps. Now, each of them can jot some notes, and then meet as a peer partnership, to share the feedback they got, and strategize about which of these next steps they want to try. The AI feedback is just a first step in their peer partnership work.
  • Teach kids to negotiate AI feedback, to make their own choices, and to be metacognitive. We usually set our EdTech chats for kids so that their AI partner will give them more than one next step or tip. That way, you teach students to make thoughtful choices and develop agency. They can work with you or a peer partner to negotiate these choices. Partnerships can also study the quality of AI feedback – good EdTech AI will offer feedback that is warm and specific. Students can learn about feedback, so they can strengthen their own abilities to give feedback to peers.
  • Teach kids to come to AI with ‘Brain-first’ work, and to learn to train their AI partner. We’ve written a lot about the idea of brain-first work in our books. The idea is that you teach students to come to AI with notes, ideas, drafts, goals. When students learn to talk to their AI partner about what kind of support they want, they also learn to train their AI partner. They can learn to tell it how much feedback they want, or when it is getting too bossy, or doing too much. EdTech AI use is apprenticeship for the AI use kids will do outside of school, and we want them to develop a sense of agency.

If you’re thinking of introducing AI into your writing classroom, know that you’re teaching kids about AI use as well as about writing. We want to introduce thoughtful, ethical norms. School is the place where all kids get equal access to learning about technology, and where all kids need to grow as writers. We have a technology now that can help more writers get more feedback, more writers get focused tutoring. Let’s work with it carefully, in ways that amplify the best writing teachers.

Sep 9

From Conversation to Creation: A Back-to-School ELA Activity

The first week of school is full of introductions. Students are learning their schedules, figuring out classroom routines, and, most importantly, trying to figure out who they will spend the next year learning alongside and from. I like to use this time to get students talking and collaborating right away, but without putting anyone on the spot.

This low-stakes Venn diagram activity is one of my favorite ways to start the year because it does so much more than help students get to know one another. In one block period, students are talking, listening, taking notes, organizing ideas, collaborating, and presenting. These are all skills we will continue to practice throughout the school year.

Start with What You Know

For the bell ringer, students move around the classroom and respond to five prompts:

  • Favorite food
  • Favorite place
  • Favorite person
  • Favorite activity
  • Favorite entertainment

They can write or draw their responses. This gets students moving and thinking while giving them some personal information to use later in the activity.

Partner Conversation

Next, I assign students a partner. Early in the school year, I intentionally avoid having students choose their own partners. This gives them an opportunity to work with someone they might not otherwise approach and removes the anxiety of figuring out “Who am I going to work with?” I made the pairing random and easy – find the person with the same color dry erase marker as you.

Once they are partnered, students participate in five short, three-minute conversation rounds. Each round focuses on a different topic:

  1. Favorites & Likes
  2. Places
  3. Activities
  4. Family & Friends
  5. Entertainment

Students talk, listen, and take notes about their partner’s responses. I provide question stems and model the conversations before they begin, which gives my English Language Learners a structure for participating in the conversations. These scaffolds can easily be adjusted or removed for more advanced classes. However, I find even higer-level students benefit from clear models and structure early in the school year.

From Conversation to Organization

After the conversations, students use their notes to create a Venn diagram comparing themselves with their partner.

Before they begin, I show them a teacher model so they can see what the finished product might look like. Students then work together to add:

  • 5 unique things they learned about their partner
  • 3 things they have in common

This is also a subtle introduction to an organizational tool that students will use throughout the year. A Venn diagram isn’t just something we complete during the first week, but it becomes a visual way to organize similarities and differences, compare ideas, and prepare for writing in response to literature later in the course.

Collaborate, Create, and Share

Once their Venn diagrams are complete, students present them to the class as a way of introducing their partners. Instead of simply saying their partner’s name and a favorite food, students have something meaningful to share because they have spent time listening and organizing what they learned. To support my English Language Learners, I provide sentence stems, model, and give them teacher-supported time to draft their presentations on a notecard.

The activity mirrors the work we will do all year in ELA: We collaborate, we create, and we share. And because the content is personal but low stakes, students are practicing those skills without worrying about whether their answers are “right.”

End with a Listening Challenge

I like to finish the class with a quick listening quiz. Students have about 30 seconds to write down the name, or names, of classmates who fit descriptions they have just heard:

Who is…

  • from Venezuela?
  • loves cats?
  • plays soccer?
  • works at Walmart?

Suddenly, students are looking around the room and realizing, Oh! I know who that is!

It’s a simple way to reinforce the information they heard during the activity while continuing to build classroom community.

Why I Keep Coming Back to This Activity

By the end of the lesson, students have had multiple opportunities to speak with a classmate, practice active listening, organize information, work collaboratively, and stand in front of the class to share. But perhaps the most important outcome is less academic: students leave knowing a little bit more about the people in the room.

For me, that’s exactly what I want from a first-week activity. We are already doing ELA, just without the pressure of calling it ELA yet.

We talk. We listen. We organize. We create. We share. And along the way, we begin to build a classroom community.

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

Aug 12

Demo Lesson – Reading and Writing Memoirs

This second lesson demo builds on the spirit of the first by inviting students to explore the stories that shape who they are. Colin Kirk’s presentation on reading and writing memoirs highlights the power of personal narrative as a tool for reflection, connection, and growth. Through mentor texts, thoughtful prewriting strategies, and opportunities for authentic writing, students are encouraged to uncover meaningful moments in their lives and transform them into compelling memoirs. It’s a wonderful reminder that every student has a story worth telling—and that memoir writing can help foster both strong writers and a supportive classroom community.

CKirk Reading and Writing MemoirsDownload

Colin Kirk currently teaches 6th grade ELA at Charles F. Patton Middle School in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. He earned his B.S.Ed, M.Ed, Reading Specialist Certification, and Educational Technology Certificate through West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Aug 5

Demo Lesson: Teaching With Primary Sources

As we count down the final weeks of summer and prepare for a new school year, I’m excited to share a series of lesson demonstrations created by participants in the West Chester Writing Project Summer Institute. Over the next three weeks, I’ll feature one lesson each week that showcases engaging, classroom-ready strategies developed and presented by teacher participants.

The West Chester Writing Project Summer Institute is a three-week professional learning experience focused on the teaching of writing. Participants earn six graduate credits through West Chester University while collaborating with experienced educators to examine classroom practices, explore current research, and strengthen their teaching through the Project’s teachers-teaching-teachers model. Teachers who complete the Institute are also eligible to participate in WCWP’s youth programs and provide professional development opportunities in local schools.

Our first featured lesson, Teaching with Primary Sources by Subarna Basu, demonstrates how primary sources can be used to promote inquiry, critical thinking, and writing. The lesson introduces strategies such as guided questions, the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), and the Zoom-In strategy to help students closely observe, question, and reflect on what they see. We hope these lessons inspire ideas you can bring into your own classroom this school year.

Summer Institute Demo Lesson SBasu.pptxDownload

Subarna is an aspiring scholar and an Adjunct Professor in Early Childhood Education. She recently graduated with her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from West Chester University. Her research examines kindergarten teachers’ perceptions on implementing purposeful play for children’s academic and developmental learning. Subarna also earned her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from West Chester University. She has been a preschool and pre-K teacher and an ECE lecturer in the UK and the US. She has also been a Graduate Assistant for the West Chester Writing Project for 3 years and a co-investigator for the Library of Congress Grant on Teaching with Primary Sources. Subarna loves traveling, crafting, and cooking and lives with her husband Raj and their son Tim.

Feb 8

Moving Beyond the Worksheet: A Writing Workshop Approach to Grammar Instruction

In our writing workshop class, grammar doesn’t live on worksheets—it lives inside stories, poems, conversations, and the students themselves. When we review parts of speech, for example, the goal isn’t just for students to identify them, but to use them intentionally in their own writing. For my English language learners especially, that connection between language rules and meaningful writing is essential.

We start our parts of speech review with nouns. Instead of defining them right away, students first notice nouns in a poetic excerpt from Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Together, we look closely at the objects Hesse includes and talk about what those items reveal about the speaker. What matters to her? What kind of life does she live? Students quickly see that nouns do more than name things—they reveal character.

Using those observations, students craft their own personal list poems. They choose specific items from their own lives and begin to see how selecting certain nouns can tell a reader who they are and what’s important to them. This is where the grammar and the writing start to click.

Once we have that foundation, we expand our understanding of nouns by sorting them into types: proper and common, concrete and abstract, singular and plural. Because my students are English language learners, we also pause to notice the language rules that come along with these nouns—capitalizing proper nouns, adding -s to make plurals, and naming the exceptions as we discover them.

To get students moving (and collaborating), we take our learning on the road with a nouns scavenger hunt around the school building. Students work in pairs to complete tasks like introducing themselves to an adult and writing a sentence about who they met, finding the name of our high school and explaining where they are, sitting on something concrete and naming it, or making a facial expression and identifying the emotion they’re showing. It’s active, social, and full of real-world language practice—and it’s always a favorite.

As a culminating project, students create a “noun heart” for someone important to them—a family member, friend, teacher, or mentor. Around the outside of the heart, they brainstorm meaningful nouns connected to that person, thinking again about the different types: people and places, concrete objects, abstract ideas. On the inside, they use that brainstorm to write five or more sentences directly to that person. Sentence frames like You are my ____. I enjoy going to ___ and ___ with you. Thank you for giving me ____. You make me feel ____. support students while still allowing for authentic voice.

Because this project happens the week before Valentine’s Day, I encourage students to color their hearts and give them to their people as a valentine. It’s a simple addition that adds motivation and joy—providing an authentic audience always enhances any writing task.

In the end, this work solidifies the fact that grammar is not a set of rules to memorize, but a living part of language. When students use grammar to express their identity, relationships, and gratitude, it becomes meaningful and human. Students aren’t practicing grammar in isolation – they’re using it to communicate ideas that matter to them. In this way, it lives in their reading, their writing, and their lives beyond the classroom.

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

Jan 4

Learning in Place: Teachers Writing, Exploring, and Learning at Hagley

On December 6th, area teachers were invited to slow down, explore, and learn together at the Hagley Museum. The day centered on two interconnected strands: using primary sources to deepen classroom instruction and engaging in place-based writing inspired by Hagley’s historic landscapes. Through guided learning, independent exploration of the museum and grounds, and shared writing time, participants experienced strategies they can adapt directly for their own students. Made possible by a Library of Congress grant, this session marks the first in a series of free, place-based professional development days for local teachers. Each session is designed by a West Chester Writing Project teacher leader to foster collaboration, reflection, and meaningful connections between history, place, and writing. The slides from our first day are included below as a resource for continued learning and reflection.

Hagley LOC Grant PDDownload

Click here to join us for an upcoming session as we continue to learn together in places that inspire teaching and writing!

  • Michener Museum (2/28)
  • Brandywine River Museum (4/11)
  • Mercer Museum (4/18)
  • Winterthur Museum (5/2)

Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.

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