Cookies? Check! Chips? Check! Juice Boxes Check! Comment Sheet! Check! I've often been asked "What do the other students and guests do at your celebrations?" Well, I hold them accountable for commenting on my students' work. Tomorrow I'm having my former fourth graders come to our research-based essay Publishing Celebration. Here's a look at the… Continue reading The Final Publishing Celebration of the School Year
Author: Stacey Shubitz
Stacey Shubitz is a K-6 literacy consultant and former elementary teacher. She is the author of CRAFT MOVES and other professional books on writing workshop. Her new book, MAKE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WORK FOR YOUR CHILD WITH DISABILITIES (Guilford Press, 2026), empowers parents to navigate the special education system.
It’s Hard to Believe the School Year Is Winding-Down!
I made my final News & Announcements Charts of the school year this morning. It's hard to believe that I won't be making these next year (since I'll be consulting). I calculated how many of these I've made in the past three years, which is how long I've been doing Morning Meeting, part of Responsive… Continue reading It’s Hard to Believe the School Year Is Winding-Down!
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Rubric Creation for “This I Believe” Essays
I was at the computer this morning when my students created a pretty basic rubric for their final unit of study's essays. The following is what they created. They'll use it to self-assess their essays and I'll use it to give them their final grade of the school year.
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End of Year Letters BACK TO My Students
My Hope and Dream Letter Originally uploaded by teachergal I can hardly believe there's only five school days left even though I've been going through my students' end of the year reflection letters, and responding to each of them in writing, this past week. It takes awhile to do it well. Therefore, this is the… Continue reading End of Year Letters BACK TO My Students
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Submission
After three - four weeks of crafting, drafting, revising, and editing my "This I Believe" Essay, I finally submitted it for publication tonight! 🙂 It felt great to finally submit the essay, which is something I hope my students will do once they publish theirs in Writing Workshop next week.
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Timelining Helps Kids Write Factual and Moving Concluding Paragraphs
I attended Beth Moore's Session on Social Studies in the Writing Classroom at the March 2009 Saturday Reunion. It was an exceedingly useful session with tips I've been using in the past month ever since my class began writing their research-based essays. I realized, even though my kids could mathematically figure out how long ago… Continue reading Timelining Helps Kids Write Factual and Moving Concluding Paragraphs
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SOLSC
Sorry this post is up late! We're still hosting the Slice of Life Story Challenge today (and every Tuesday). Share a slice of your day with us by leaving a comment with a link to your post.
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Special Moments
Link your memory-related post to this one by leaving a comment on this post. Please share your memories with us today.
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Feedback
My students and I agreed to a form that I would use to provide them with feedback on the drafts of their research-based essays. We decided that it was a comprehensive way for me to quickly inform them whether their writing was clear and factual on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis (They're only turning in the three… Continue reading Feedback
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Slicin’ Away
It's time for the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Share a slice of your day with us by leaving a comment with a link to your post.
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565 Miles Apart.
On Friday afternoon, I read my students Peter H. Reynolds' book The North Star, which is about a boy who sets out on a journey. We started the year with Ish, so I thought it would be appropriate to share some news with them using the always soothing words that Reynolds' books contain. We talked… Continue reading 565 Miles Apart.
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Mentoring: Peace, Locomotion
My colleague and next-door-classroom-neighbor Leanna and I were eating and grading writer's notebooks together at lunchtime today. I got to the second notebook in my stack and said, "She's gotta be kidding me!" "What?" Leana asked. "She wrote me," I stopped feeling something between annoyance and anger, "letters." I have this thing about writer's notebooks… Continue reading Mentoring: Peace, Locomotion
