Two weekends ago, thanks to Bonnie Kaplan and the Hudson Valley Writing Project, I had the great pleasure of attending Ralph Fletcher’s presentation: “Making Nonfiction from Scratch: How Can We Give Students the Time, the Tools, and the Vision They Need in Order to Create Authentic Information Writing?” I knew it would be a great morning of learning ...
Author: Tara Smith
I teach Writing Workshop, Language Arts and Social Studies to sixth graders at a middle school in suburban New Jersey. This blog is my attempt to capture all the "stuff" that goes into my teaching life - the planning, the dreaming, the reading, the preparing, the hoping and (above all) the kids.
Please note that the content of this blog is my own. It does not reflect the opinions of my employer.
Throwback Week: Be A Teacher Who Writes Poetry
Be a teacher who writes poetry and share it with your students.
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Notes from the TCRWP workshop with Carl Anderson – Writing With Mentor Texts
I knew I’d learn something fabulous about the use of mentor texts in writing workshop at Carl Anderson’s session during TCRWP’s March Saturday Reunion...
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Family Stories: A New “Mini Unit”
Our sixth grade writing workshop year follows a predictable and well planned path: personal narrative, followed by memoir, then feature articles and argument. Until my students suggest something new ...
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 20 of 31
Have you ever spent a day waiting for something: good news, new shoes, a soccer game, or a visit from a special relative? Can you remember the way all that "waiting" was harder and harder to do as the day went along?
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 19 of 31
Do you have a favorite place? One that you can close your eyes and imagine perfectly? Well, that would be a wonderful thing to write about...
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 18 of 31
A Slice of Life is a wonderful place to practice writing in a humorous way. Here for example is Andrew, who is writing about going for a drive with his sister, who has just collected her first official driver’s license...
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 17 of 31
Wow! You are just a bit more than halfway through the March Slice of Life Story Challenge, and this calls for a celebration...
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 16 of 31
Poetry is a wonderful way to help you think of ideas to slice about. We read many poems in our sixth grade classroom, and each of them seem to invite all of us to remember many stories...
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 15 of 31
For some of you, March may mean testing time. It might be hard to believe, but taking the test is actually something quite wonderful to write about. There are so many moments to slow down and write about in great detail...
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Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 14 of 31
Slice of Life writing is all about being attentive to everything around you, because you never know where an idea for a writing might be hiding, just waiting to be discovered. Sometimes, a Slice of Life is hiding within plain sight, right outside your window...
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Classroom Slice of Life March Challenge: Day 13 of 31
One of the favorite Slice of Life topics which my sixth graders love to write about is cooking with family members. Have you baked cookies, made scrambled eggs, cooked up some grits with someone in your family recently? If so, it would make a great Slice of Life.
