"Show don't tell," we say over and over to students but--it's harder than it sounds, though, maybe for multiple reasons.
Month: November 2018
Strengthening Writing Partnerships, Part I
A writing partner provides a sounding board and creates a social opportunity for feedback, criticism, and notions of what improvement could look like or sound like. The problem with partnerships, however, is that left to their own devices kids are not very good at being partners. How can we help kids get better? Here are a few strategies...
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Digging Into Digital Storytelling
I found myself thinking about my classroom experiences, wondering how I might be able to help teachers get started and just as I started feeling overwhelmed... I heard these words...
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SOL Tuesday
WRITE a slice of life story on your own blog. SHARE a link to your post in the comments section. GIVE comments to at least three other SOL bloggers. I loved this tweet that came up on my feed a couple of weeks ago. It SO captures how hard it can be to just get started with writing.… Continue reading SOL Tuesday
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The Quickwrite Handbook, A Review +Giveaway
Linda Rief has collected a treasure of mentor texts and created a guide to encourage you to find your own treasures! Start here, get inspired, and then see what you find when you start looking. It can be as small or big as you want when you begin and Linda gives us all the right tools to get started.
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Think More, Say More, Write More: Elaborating with Personal Essay
How do you help writers bridge the gap from paragraph writing to essay writing? What are your favorite strategies for elaboration?
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Happy Thanksgiving from #TWTBlog!
We are grateful for the community of educators who read this blog since you are invested in constantly improving the teaching of writing for your students.
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Words Don’t Make a Writer: Supporting Emergent Writers Who Are Not Yet Writing Words
Are we putting additional stress and pressure on kids to write words? With purpose and joy, kids can go from compliance to engagement and become the kinds of writers who add words as powerful information to their books.
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It’s Tuesday! Welcome to Slice of Life!
Welcome to Slice of Life! I am sharing a screenshot of an important reminder from author Anne Lamott. At Ted.com, she has thirteen more reminders about living the life of a writer. If you need inspiration, head on over! Write-Write your story. Share-Share it as a comment. Give-Comment on at least three others' slices.
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Continuing to think about our mentor texts
While we have to ask ourselves questions about where books fit into our curriculum and how books support mindsets, now, more than ever, we should be asking how the books we use promote social justice and cultural awareness. These questions do not apply only to the books we offer students to read, but also the books we use to teach students to write.
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A Few Ways to Empower Writers Using Mentor Texts
It could be said that what sets a writing workshop apart from other approaches to teaching writing is a focus on empowerment. Here are a few ways to empower writers when it comes to mentor texts...
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NCTE 2018: Here We Come!
Here's a peek at the dates and times three members of our co-author team will be presenting at NCTE this weekend.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 