Welcome! I’m Sally Bergquist.
I help K-2 teachers who are striving to be the best in their profession by providing differentiated writing instruction, so they can close the achievement gap and feel great about the progress their students are making.
Are you being handed writing lessons that your students are not ready for?
Do you feel frustrated by the lack of basic skills your students have?
Are you confused about how to teach writing?
Do you skip teaching writing because it seems too hard?
I totally understand! I have been in all of those places myself.
Teaching the youngest writers is a special niche. I firmly believe that K-2 writers and teachers deserve their own curriculum, one that helps children grow from where they are. For too many years, the youngest writers have been an afterthought in programs that are really designed for 3rd grade and up.
I spent 20 years researching and developing the most effective writing activities in kindergarten, first and second grade while teaching those grades in a public school. What makes Growing Writers so effective is that it evolved from working with real students year after year.
I’ve also spent a lot of time in the last 10 years studying the research on how to teach writing. You can access my list of books and research studies here.
What’s unique about Growing Writers:
- Kid friendly lessons that don’t need tweaking or supplementing
- Teacher friendly directions that are easy to leave for a substitute
- Built-in differentiation so that every student makes progress with each lesson and you don’t have to use small groups or spend weekend hours planning
- Workbook format that makes organization easy, and progress easy to see and share at parent conferences
- Standards are covered for both writing conventions and composition
Take me straight to the Order page to find out more.
Growing Writers has been a labor of love for me. Here’s my story.
What teachers are saying
“I have some boys who get easily distracted and tired of writing. I was nervous about doing the program every day. But as soon as I started it they really looked forward to the routine and they liked knowing what was coming. The consistency of the program worked really well for those kids. Even the kids that really struggle with fine motor skills enjoy the task of the lessons. It isn’t a battle.”
“There is high engagement. They are always excited when those books are coming out. If there is a day we don’t do it, they are sad. A lot of my kids who typically don’t like to write are always engaged during writing time.”
“Everything just flows. The creative choice writing every day gives me the time to walk around and check everyone’s work on the conventions. A lot of kids are proud of their work and they want you to check it, so I try to get around to everyone each day. I like that the program gives me time to do that.”
“It is nice to make time for writing and to have it in the schedule. I’ve never had that. Sure, we did writing as a part of science and social studies and reading and all that but we weren’t teaching it. I don’t think we can expect kids to just know how to write. If you don’t teach it, how do you expect them to know it? It gives me chills to think where my kids would be if we hadn’t had Growing Writers this year.”