Show Notes
In part 4 of the podcast series, Sharon delves into a carefully curated collection of picture books. She highlights their ability to engage both teachers and students, while introducing themes like hope, resilience, and human connection. Each book offers unique insights, from environmental awareness to emotional healing. Through her thoughtful exploration, Sharon demonstrates how picture books can inspire writing, spark deep conversations, and enrich classroom experiences, creating meaningful connections between stories and real-world issues.
More from The Teacher's Tool Kit For Literacy
In this final episode of the series, hosts Phil and Sharon sit down with Year 6 teachers De and Danielle to unpack the writing cycle — the fifth pillar of their approach to writing instruction. The teachers argue that authentic writing is recursive, not linear, and walk through the practical tools that make this possible in a real classroom: a shared editing code, flexible conferencing, peer editing, pinking your win, and the cold-to-hot-task structure that makes every student's growth visible.
In Episode 154, hosts Sharon and Phil join teachers De and Danielle to unpack the fourth pillar of effective writing instruction: mastery through high-impact teaching. The conversation explores master classes, mentor texts, access to published authors, and explicit modelling as the tools that move students from competence into genuine craft. Student Peyton closes the episode with a compelling account of how starting a major piece completely from scratch becomes the turning point in her growth as a writer.
Hosts Phil and Sharon return with classroom teachers De and Danielle to unpack the third pillar of their writing framework: independence in learning. The conversation explores the practical tools — anchor charts, shared meta-language, structured editing, and curriculum-aligned learning intentions — that move students from instruction-followers to genuine decision-makers. Three Year Six students, Jaxson, Lil, and Lucas, speak candidly about their own growth as writers, and what they reveal is the episode's central insight: that structure and creative freedom are not opposites. They make each other possible.
In this episode, Phil and Sharon return to Fairview Primary School in Collie, Western Australia, where Year 6 teachers Danielle and De reveal how they make their core belief a daily classroom reality: that every student can produce quality writing. Through structured planning tools, a richly resourced writing environment, staged editing processes, and relentlessly high expectations, they show exactly how confidence and quality are built — one student at a time. Student interviews with Riley and Kobi provide powerful, first-hand proof that the approach genuinely works.
In this landmark first episode, Phil and Sharon introduce a 2026 series dedicated entirely to the art and craft of teaching writing. Joining them are Danielle Monique and De Ludlum — two Year 6 teachers from regional Western Australia who have spent five years building something extraordinary. Through honest conversation, practical detail, and the occasional laugh, they reveal how Pillar 1: Purposeful Planning, transforms not just what children write, but how they see themselves as writers. This is essential listening for every classroom teacher.