The truth… I’d rather not talk about spelling. There are more important things in a writing workshop, than to talk about spelling. Spelling well is a good thing. When we edit what we write, it is profusely important, but it has nothing to do with growing a writer. When we focus on spelling or grammar correctness, the growing writer becomes stifled.
Month: September 2019
Make Curiosity Your Best Friend
As a new teacher, I sometimes made assumptions about my students that may not have been based in reality. Of course, this is human to do so. We all make assumptions at times. But when it comes to teaching writing, what if we replaced the act of making assumptions with curiosity? What if we worked to make curiosity our best friend in our teaching?
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Pausing to Remember 9/11
While every day is an opportunity to practice kindness, put our arms around the people we love, and cherish all that is good in our lives, perhaps today is an especially good day to remember the importance of doing those things.
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It’s Tuesday! Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge!
Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts.
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What’s in a Strategy?
Do your writers know how strategies can help them reach their destination? Better yet, do they know where they are going?
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One Topic, Different Genres: Many Possibilities!
Do students realize all the different ways they can write about the same topic? In this post, I share how I wrote about "roller coasters" in different genres to model for my students the many possibilities!
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Advice for the Perfectionists in Writing Workshop
Do you consider yourself to be a perfectionist? Are there students in your classroom who might be described as perfectionists?
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Food Writing, Community Building, and a Book Giveaway
Writing workshop thrives when a community of children come together as writers who know each other. The first six weeks of school is when we build community. Here's one way to build relationships and encourage kids to write about one of their favorite things simultaneously. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of Eric Carle and Friends' newest book, What's Your Favorite Food?
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It’s Tuesday! Join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge!
Welcome to the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Write your post. Share it with the community. Comment on at least three other posts. This month, I have collected some quotes from Toni Morrison to inspire us. Some of them come from a 1993 interview in The Paris Review. If you have time, the entire interview… Continue reading It’s Tuesday! Join us for the Slice of Life Story Challenge!
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On Becoming an Anti-Racist Teacher of Young Writers
A move to a school in my Brooklyn neighborhood has me questioning my role as a white teacher of young, Black writers -- and what my former role was as a white teacher of white students.
