Writing is no easy task, and often times the hardest part is just getting started! Quickwrites, is a writing method author and classroom teacher Linda Rief is known for. In fact, she wrote the book on it! She says it provides students with a low-risk writing exercise to get ideas out, and brainstorm how they might like to write about a topic they are interested in. Quickwrites also allows students to push past the doubt and uneasiness that can keep a young writer’s pencil hovering above a blank piece of paper. In Linda’s words, “You don’t know what you know until you put words down on paper.”Today on the Heinemann Podcast, a special conversation between Linda Rief and Penny Kittle. Both are at the Boothbay Literacy Institute. Penny talks with Linda about her new “The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students’ Thinking and Writing.Penny began her conversation with Linda recalling the first time they worked together…