Carl Anderson is coming to Vermont!

Session Date: October 17, 2025
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa, Stowe, VT
Cost: $225.00
Presenter: Carl Anderson
Target Audience: Upper Elementary and Middle Level
Includes: Full Breakfast and Lunch

Focus:
This workshop is designed for the teacher who wants to improve or strengthen their writing instruction skills, as well as for the literacy coaches, administrators, and curriculum specialists who support them.

Presentation Overview:

Every teacher wants their students to learn to write well. What’s the secret for accomplishing this important goal?

One answer is to teach with mentor (or model) texts. By showing students what experienced writers do in their writing, students will learn about each of the qualities of writing– focus, structure, detail, voice and conventions – and see how to integrate these qualities into their own work. 

Another answer is to teach with “process texts.” Process texts are writing from each stage of the writing process, most often written by the classroom teacher. These texts show students the strategies experienced writers use to navigate the writing process. 

By teaching with mentor and process texts, you align your practice to the principle of learning that an important way people learn to do something is by studying what more skilled people do. Teaching with mentors is an important focus of Carl’s books A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts and How to Become a Better Writing Teacher (with Matt Glover). During the workshop, Carl will help you improve these aspects of teaching with mentor and process texts:

• How to give explicit instruction with mentor texts in minilessons, small-group lessons, and writing conferences to show students how more experienced writers craft their writing and use writing conventions.
• How to find multiple teaching points in mentor texts.
• How to teach with process texts to show students how more experienced writers navigate each step of the writing process.
• How to create your own process texts to use as teaching tools.

Participants will see video of work that Carl has done with children, as well as read and study student writing and mentor texts. During the workshop, participants will learn practical strategies they can use as soon as they return to their classrooms, and which will help them become better teachers of writing.

Bio

Carl Anderson is an internationally recognized expert on the teaching of writing for grades K-8. A former elementary and middle school teacher, he has worked as a literacy consultant in schools and districts around the world for 30 years. Carl is the author of numerous books on the teaching of writing, including How to Become a Better Writing Teacher (with Matt Glover), Teaching Fantasy Writing: Lessons that Inspire Student Engagement and Creativity K-6, A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts K-5, A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences K-8, Assessing Writers, and the bestselling classic, How’s It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers.