Teaching Writing Virtually

smiling teacher teaching writing virtually at desk

Welcome back to the Not So Wimpy Teacher podcast!

Lots of teachers are faced with this new challenge: “How do I teach writing virtually?”

The best thing you can do for your students, if you are going to be teaching virtually for long, is to teach the writing lessons yourself. I know that it might sound intimidating, but I hope these tips will help you to feel more confident.

Episode 71 Takeaways:

You can choose to teach your lessons on live video or via pre-recorded video.
Run your video writing lessons, almost exactly how you would run the lesson in class.
Share your screen to show the mentor text and anchor charts.
Keep the video lessons super short (10-15 minutes).
Give them a SMALL independent writing task. Work up to longer times.
Don’t aim for perfection. It’s okay to make mistakes, just like if you were teaching in the classroom.
Students can do their writing digitally, on paper, or using a combination of both.
You can schedule Zoom calls or Google Meets with small conference groups.

This year is certainly not typical, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still teach writing in an effective and engaging way.

But remember that your students don’t need fancy video lessons with professional lighting or a special microphone; they just need you. So show up and do the best you can. You’ve got this!

Check out my writing units below: