There are many things that make being a teacher hard. For me, one of the hardest is trying to navigate where my entire class is at in the writing process. Some kids work faster than their peers while others work much slower. When you add absences into the mix it becomes nearly impossible for me to accurately know where each one of my students is at.

That is, until this year. I found the easiest solution that not only allows for me to see where my class is at, but it also allows each student to take ownership of where they are in the writing process. I made a different anchor chart for each piece of writing that we did throughout the school year. The chart included a row for each one of my students and a column for each step of the writing process. When students completed a step they got to and check that step off. When our entire class completed one step, let’s say everyone got their graphic organizer done, I then went and added 100% completion to that column. I went from having to look through more than 20 writing folders to see which of my students were, to simply looking at one anchor chart and clearly being able to check in with kids who needed more assistance. Let me know if you try this in your classroom!