A Winter Pause

As the year winds down and you prepare for a well-deserved holiday break, we want to pause and share just how honored we are to work together to cultivate writers in your schools and classrooms.

One of our favorite parts of this year has been the notes that begin with, “Can you believe this?!” or “I just had to share…”—notes celebrating students’ growth, teachers’ instructional wins, and schoolwide progress built through thoughtful implementation.

We have also loved seeing teachers multiple times throughout the school year—diving deeper into writing instruction and engaging in the thoughtful reflection and problem-solving that strong, sustainable practice requires. Across schools, we see that growth taking shape in tangible ways: kindergarteners ready to add that second sentence, third graders confidently using precise and sophisticated transitional words, middle schoolers crafting character analyses with more true analysis than ever before, and high schoolers applying the same frameworks to write about U.S. presidents in one class and a scholarship essay in another.

We are equally thankful for the administrators and literacy coaches who reach out to ask how to best support their teachers and students—and who are willing to dig into the work with us. Your willingness to protect time for writing and thoughtfully oversee implementation makes a real difference in classrooms.

Winter offers a moment to slow down, reflect, and recharge. As holiday break begins and you trade lesson plans and emails for cozy socks, hot cocoa, and well-earned rest, we hope you take pride in the incredible writing work you’ve done this school year.

We wish you a wonderful holiday break and look forward to continuing this work together in the new year.

Warmly,

Amber, Tabitha, & the Writing with Design team