Hi friends!

As we’ve settled into second grade, one thing we have been talking about is how to make the most of our parent volunteers.

In fifth grade, we hadn’t utilized parent volunteers as much in recent years. As students get older, parent involvement tends to look a little different. But one system we used to have worked really well: parents would come in and practice multiplication facts with students who needed extra support.

It was simple, but effective. The students got valuable one-on-one practice, the volunteers had a clear job that was easy to implement, and we had a tracker so one volunteer could pick up right where another left off. Best of all, it required very little prep on our end. We wanted to find something similar for second grade.

Around the same time, Joe was talking about this with his wife at home. She also teaches second grade, so you can imagine how riveting the dinnertime conversations are in their house. 😂

Through those conversations, the idea for a writing conference system started to take shape. We have to give her a lot of credit for the brainstorming. She had plenty of ideas for what would make the system useful in an actual classroom. It was essentially, “I want this. Now go make it.”

So Joe brought the idea back to Quyen, and we took it and ran with it.

We started hashing out all the little things that would make the system run smoothly. What would volunteers need to know? How would they know which student to work with next? How could we make sure students were actually doing the revising and editing, rather than having an adult do it for them? And how could we turn all of that work into something meaningful at the end of the year?

That’s how our newest resource, Writing Publishing Project, came to be!

A simple system for turning everyday writing into something special

The idea is that students write regularly in their journals. Each month, they choose a favorite piece to publish. During a one-on-one conference, a parent volunteer, classroom aide, or teacher helps them revise using ARMS and edit using CUPS. Then students create a careful final copy on the provided monthly writing paper.

The finished pieces are collected throughout the year and eventually become a personalized Look What I Wrote! writing collection.

We wanted the system to be easy for volunteers to jump into, so we included conference guides, coaching tips, progress trackers, student checklists, and all the publishing paper needed to make it work. There are also different line options and covers for Kindergarten through sixth grade, so the process can be adapted to different classrooms.

Most importantly, the goal is for the adult to coach the writer—not become the writer. We want students to feel ownership over their work and see how much they grow throughout the year.

We’re really excited to get our own students started with publishing, and we hope this gives other teachers a manageable way to make writing conferences happen, too!

Check out the resource by clicking on the cover image below!

And if you’re looking for writing prompts to help students build up their journal entries, our Daily Writing Prompts are a great companion resource.

Happy writing!

Joe & Quyen
​Top Floor Teachers

P.S. If you have a parent volunteer system that works especially well in your classroom, we’d love to hear about it. We’re always looking for ideas!

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