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 order for students to infer and understand deeply what they are reading, they need background knowledge, such as vocabulary, literature, current events and experiences. Jacob and Pam discuss why background knowledg...

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 episode begins by answering a patron’s question regarding teaching informational texts and the writing workshop.  Pam shares how she incorporates choice, writing, reading and revision strategies to help the studen...

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 end of the year is over the horizon as we return from spring break. High Stakes testing season is upon us. Deadlines create stressors for all. So how do teachers navigate through all the demands and responsibiliti...

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.  Teachers honor their students when they take time to celebrate their efforts and learning. In this episode, Jacob and Pam focus on how they encourage students. They share different times when they honored their studen...

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 what happens when the product outweighs the content. Much too often teachers assign projects or products that hijack the lesson. This happens when the product becomes the major p...

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 shares how her students respond to their self-selected reading.  She offers several ideas to help students to write about their reading.  Jacob shares how the Craft and Draft Notebook System works...

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 and Pam discuss what happens when students write deeply about personal issues. When the workshop teacher creates an atmosphere of freedom, students will write about uncomfortable topics– this may be a cry for 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. Workshop teachers promise freedom within their classroom.  The question remains, how can the teacher maintain high standards? Jacob and Pam discuss how offering freedom must be balanced with high expectations. They eac...

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. You asked; we answered! Our Patreon is live! Teachers from all over have been sending in requests for the Craft & Draft set-up video as well as more opportunities to learn more about the Craft & Draft System an...

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. While we love teaching, it seems like many do not—at least currently. Teachers, leaders, and administrators are leaving education in droves. Many are opting for an early retirement, while others are simply leaving educ...

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 Writing Time!” is often followed by “I don’t know what to write.”  Teachers find this part of the writing workshop daunting. Students are staring at a blank page, they must create something from nothing, th...

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 and Pam share how disrupted plans impact their week.  When Covid spikes, the district closes school for a few days to help everyone get ahead and have time to get well. Jacob and Pam discuss how they plan to adju...

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 and Pam discuss how they use direct and indirect instruction in their workshops. But before they begin, Jacob shares how each interview from the Teach Me Teacher podcast contributes to his development as a worksh...

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 and Pam shine a spotlight on a question regarding a genre study and another regarding how to find text and structure mini-lessons. Ultimately, the talk becomes about the difference between teaching strategies and...

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. Today Pam and Jacob are reflecting on their time with the Craft & Draft journals in their classrooms. What went well and what went wrong are addressed and reflected upon. Pam shares how many of her students are pro...

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. As we are in the middle of our break, we wanted to reflect on student (and teacher) apathy. What causes it? How do you get over it? Is apathy something we can control as educators, or is it beyond our reach to mend? Pa...

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. Motivation has maintained a primary topic in education for years. Motivating students takes practice and a deep understanding of their students interests, understanding and skills. In this episode, Jacob and Pam conver...

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 and Pam are back in the classroom after enjoying a week of vacation.  They each share how their week has gone. The students find themselves in a mix-bag of emotions, some struggle after returning while others see...

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. Censorship impacts all parts of our society. Because it is being heavily mentioned and litigated presently,  teachers find it difficult to know what books to place on the shelves in their classroom library. This topic...

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. Today we are answering a listener question all about class novels within the Craft & Draft model! Do they work? What are ways to manage them? How is this work balanced within workshop and student choice and individ...

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. Thanksgiving Break is next week, so Jacob and Pam have decided to share why they are thankful.     Pam shares how much she enjoys teaching at her new school. Jacob includes much he loves how his students read freely an...

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. “Why, when I come to your room, are your students just reading?” This is a question that Jacob and Pam have heard over the years regarding reading time in their workshop. In this episode Jacob and Pam share how they re...

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. Today we are talking about where we get our lessons, and how we think through them. As more and more curriculum becomes following specific guides, and online resources promise to close gaps, it’s becoming ever mo...

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. Now it’s time to publish!  In this episode Jacob and Pam share how they take their students through the publishing stage in the writing process. They each talk about their process and what steps they bring the students...

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 podcast opens with a question from the audience all about finding the “go to” resources for workshop, and then Pam and Jacob decide to take on the task of detailing how to weave reading and writing toge...