Craft & Draft

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob shares how he is still confident and going strong at the end of the school year. He explains that he is driven by the passion he has for the reading and writing workshop keeps him pumped.   J...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Pam reveals that when she was a young high school teacher working in teams was rare. From her experience teachers were competitive and often did not share ideas.  Teachers would close their doors with their indepen...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching. Pam and Jacob LOVE professional development—it’s kind of an addiction. They love reading it, going to conferences, and just about everything in between. But with that love comes a small disdain for bad profess...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  How do we keep our writers nourished? In this episode, Jacob and Pam will be talking about their students who turn and truly see themselves as writers. They begin with the moments when their students come to them w...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Spring brings blossoms, singing birds, little bunnies, and tests.  The testing season places extra stress on students and teachers. Trying to figure out how to prepare students for the high stakes test while mainta...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  When teachers open up their lessons by offering choices to their students the feedback loop is altered and their feedback opportunities increase. Students grow when they receive effective honest feedback.  The feed...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob shares that he is teaching with a whole novel! He invites us into his classroom. He shares how he made his decision regarding what novel to use and how he struggled how to set up his workshop...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss grammar! Yes, that is right, grammar! They share how they address grammar instruction in their writing workshop.  Jacob connects the learning of grammar to the learning of mus...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Students’ interests inspire Jacob’s reading instruction. Pam finds that connections encourage students to read more.  However they approach reading in their workshops, they strive to keep the reading centered aroun...

  Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to 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 about getting students to branch out from genres they prefer to write in. They offer suggestions and provide examples from their own classroo...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  This year has moved at a rapid pace.  School rounds the last few curves in the road before it reaches the last stretch of the school year, Jacob and Pam share how their workshops are doing during this part of the y...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  We stand on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before us!  Laura Robb is one of those giants in education.  She has taught Reading and Writing for over 40 years to students and teachers.  She has written mor...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss what we are seeing as our students are experiencing the challenges of school during this most uncertain time.  The students need to read and write daily. The teacher must prov...

Welcome to the Craft & Draft podcast with Jacob Chastain and Pam Ochoa!  We love talking about our craft!  We believe that the Reading and Writing Workshop grows our students as thinkers, readers, and writers. We face the daily challenges of the classroom and our discussions help us, so we want to share them with other teachers. In this episode, we share how the Craft & Draft system helps...

Welcome back to Craft and Draft podcast with Jacob Chastain and Pam Ochoa. Last week they shared how they used the CRAFTBOOK. As promised, this week they sit down and discuss  the details of the DRAFTBOOK. The DRAFTBOOK empowers our students to become writers.  We share how the students utilize it during their writing process. In this episode, Jacob shares how his students enjoy writing and uses t...

Welcome back everyone, to the Craft & Draft Podcast! After a nice full list of episodes detailing Pam and Jacob’s philosophy, background, and focus in their classrooms, they figured it was about time to sit down and give some solid details on what their Craftbooks and Draftbooks are. Today we are talking CRAFTBOOKS, and next Friday, we will cover the DRAFTBOOK. The following week, we wil...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam received a question about Writing and Reading Workshop. This teacher just like so many other teachers is required to implement specific programs and curriculum requirements.  Trying t...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam share books from Donald Graves to the present. We share books that you may want to add to your professional development library or a back to school gift for your colleague. Not only d...

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Craft & Draft podcast where we talk reading — writing workshop every single FRIDAY of the week! In this episode, we take on the task of unsticking the stuck writer. We know it happens. You know it happens. Writers get stuck. They have choice and freedom to tackle any idea or subject, and they just don’t move. Or possibly, they start, and just can&#8...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  Jacob and Pam begin with a conversation about the week.  Pam shares how she uses the power of words to excite her students about learning. Jacob shares that when we incorporate our curriculum with creativity and au...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss when you know your reading workshop is in the zone. Pam touches on when teachers model reading helps build a community of readers. Jacob and Pam spend time discussing the impo...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam discuss the impact of the writing workshop on the culture of the classroom as well as the culture of the school.  Teachers hear all the time that the school culture must change, but h...

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Craft & Draft! Last week, Pam and Jacob discussed how to spice up a stale classroom workshop. They pointed out that all workshops stall at times, and that’s ok. They also discussed how trusting the process, trying new model texts, and changing how students publish could lead to exciting results. Today, however, they examine another reason why a worksho...

**A quick note: Jacob had audio issues on this one…Please forgive us for the hum in the episode! It will be fixed!  Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, Jacob and Pam recognize that their workshops may be entering the Dull Drums...

Welcome everyone to the Craft & Draft podcast! We are so excited to bring to you what we love, talking with you about workshop, literacy, writing, reading, and real world teaching.  In this episode, we think about how we approach conferencing and how to ensure that we get great results from them. We share how the conference is the heart of our teaching , and how it drives everything from momen...