Craft & Draft

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss whether or not teachers should use the academic language of the standards with their students.   Pam shares how over the years this topic has prompted many discussions due the di...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam answer a listener’s question regarding how to teach when the district implements a boxed reading curriculum. Jacob suggests that teachers need to review the curriculum and determine area...

Hello everyone! In this LIVE PD, Pam and Jacob dove into what the future of your workshop could look like. AKA… Previously, this episode was a PATREON only episode. If you’d like to see the video, join us here.  We give practical advice and outline what a mini-theme can do for you within actual lesson ideas. Enjoy! The post #206 Develop the Future of Your Workshop (PD) appeared first o...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam share their thoughts on various topics from discipline to technology.  Jacob is excited about his new beginnings and shares how great it is to have the teachers back in such a positive e...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  The new school year is around the corner for many teachers.  Creating a strong and healthy Reading and Writing Workshop for students begins on the first day of school.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss what teac...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  The new school year is around the corner for many teachers.  Creating a strong and healthy Reading and Writing Workshop for students begins on the first day of school.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss what teac...

Several of the Craft and Draft listeners have requested more information regarding how to set-up the Craft and Draft Notebook System They begin with the first page of the Craft Book. Jacob shares how he has his students organize their Craft Book from the table of contents to the individual mini-lessons, and includes how students set goals. Pam discusses how each element enables the teacher to moni...

Welcome to Craft & Draft, where we explore the art of teaching and the science of learning. In today’s episode, hosts Pam Ochoa and Jacob Chastain continue their summer book study of “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Jacob and Pam as they share their final thoughts about the book, The Knowledge Gap.  They each share how this book has highlighted some real issues in Ameri...

Welcome to Craft & Draft, where we explore the art of teaching and the science of learning. In today’s episode, hosts Pam Ochoa and Jacob Chastain continue their summer book study of “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Join them as they explore chapters eleven, twelve and the epilogue in section three, “How We Can Change: Creating and Delivering a Content-Focused Curriculu...

Welcome to Craft & Draft, where we explore the art of teaching and the science of learning. In today’s episode, hosts Pam Ochoa and Jacob Chastain continue their summer book study of “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Join us as they explore chapters nine and ten in section three, “How We Can Change: Creating and Delivering a Content-Focused Curriculum.” Jacob and Pam cri...

Welcome to Craft & Draft, where we explore the art of teaching and the science of learning. In today’s episode, hosts Pam Ochoa and Jacob Chastain continue their summer book study of “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Join us as they explore chapters seven and eight in section two, “How We Got Here: The History Behind the Content-Free Curriculum.” Pam and Jacob discuss wh...

Welcome to Craft & Draft, where we explore the art of teaching and the science of learning. In today’s episode, hosts Pam Ochoa and Jacob Chastain continue their summer book study of “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Join us as they explore the second three chapters of section one, The history of the Reading Wars. Pam and Jacob discuss the political aspect which plays a...

Welcome to Craft & Draft, where we explore the art of teaching and the science of learning. In today's episode, hosts Pam Ochoa and Jacob Chastain kick off their summer book study diving into "The Knowledge Gap" by Natalie Wexler. Join us as we dissect the first three chapters, delving into how reading is often taught in isolation, the limitations of phonics instruction, and the challenges young l...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  This summer on the podcast, Jacob and Pam will discuss the book, “The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–And How to Fix It” by Natalie Wexler. The book addresses reading instruction a...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Pam and Jacob talk about their idea of what “The Learning Gap” is and whether or not it is real.  Jacob looks at it from a literacy perspective while Pam shares how two different educational approache...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  It’s interview time!  Interviews are often scarry, but they do not need to be.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss the interview process. Pam shares about one of her successful interviews and one of her not so suc...

lcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Another school year is coming to a close! How can teachers close their year and keep the learning happening in the classroom? In this episode, Jacob and Pam talk about how to keep the students learning.  Pam shares seve...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss many topics from how to figure out who you people are in a new campus to how to study and deeply understand literature. Most of the conversation is about understanding literature...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. Do schools ruin poetry? Often…they do. But why? Poetry is an incredible art form. It can be powerful, insightful, and even humorous. So why does the love of poetry die inside school? We have some thoughts. Join J...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  ‘What is an assignment?’ seems like a simple question, until it is discussed.  In this episode Jacob and Pam dive into the ‘What is an assignment?’ question.  Pam begins by trying to answer the question and soon reali...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam take a quiz straight from Education Weekly.   The quiz asks questions from teacher salary, to teacher PD preferences.   The quiz prompts Jacob and Pam to discuss each scenario or topic t...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Jacob just took some students to visit a few colleges and universities.  The visit propagated the question, “Are schools effectively readying their students for college?” In this episode, Jacob and Pam talk about why...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Every year in the education world, educators are trying to figure out if they should stay at their school or district or leave. Jacob and Pam discuss the question, “When do you know whether you should stay, look for a...

In this bonus episode for our Craft and Draft patrons we answer Courtney’s question regarding the test taking season. Jacob shares how he begins broad in his workshop and then narrows his scope as his students approach the test.  This approach allows him to create a workshop atmosphere full of exploration, discovery and creativity. Pam shares how she focuses the students toward the standard and he...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  It seems that the notion, ‘Students can’t read’ is always at the forefront of public conversations these days.  So much so writing instruction seems to have taken a back seat in the classroom.  In this episode, Jacob...