On Sunday, June 13th my husband and I attended a retirement celebration at Norwalk High School for Jeff Smith, who is retiring after 34 years as a music educator. My husband played saxaphone with the Norwalk Marching Bears throughout high school. He spent countless hours practicing for local football games and for special events, such… Continue reading The Life Lessons We Teach
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 forthcoming book, MAKE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WORK FOR YOUR CHILD WITH DISABILITIES (Guilford Press, 2026), empowers parents to navigate the special education system.
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Comprehensive Character Description
In order to create the world of a story for a reader, it's necessary to engage in character development. Writers must make characters come alive in their minds if they're going to create a movie in their readers minds. However, for many students, developing realistic characters becomes challenging. Many students have trouble weaving meaningful character… Continue reading Comprehensive Character Description
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Stave-off summer reading loss
The folks at Penguin Books recently alerted me to a fantastic new program you should tell your students about if school is still in session. We Give Books is a website that provides access to books for anyone who has a computer. If the library is inconvenient to get to and money isn't there for… Continue reading Stave-off summer reading loss
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A New SOLSC Button
We refurbished our blog (e.g., check out our more user-friendly blog roll) last week. Therefore, we figured we'd update the Slice of Life Story Challenge Button as well. Hope you like it!
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Writing Letters of Gratitude
Ruth wrote about gratitude yesterday. Besides getting me thinking of all of the things I'm thankful for, it got me thinking about all of the people who we don't thank enough in our lives. I'm not talking about our parents (though we should thank them often!), but rather all of the people around schools who… Continue reading Writing Letters of Gratitude
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The First Slice of Life Story Challenge of June
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Journey Around a Topic
Earlier this month, The Longest Day: Celebrating the Summer Solstice, which is written by Wendy Pfeffer and illustrated by Linda Bleck, was released by Dutton Children's Books. The Longest Day is non-fiction, but it reads like fiction since Pfeffer paints vivid in the reader's mind with the language she purposefully selects. The vivid language she… Continue reading Journey Around a Topic
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How much can you fit into one school year?
Many teachers are spending preparation periods working with colleagues to develop a curriculum map for the 2010-2011 school year. Developing a scope and sequence that is developmentally appropriate, interesting to children, and meets state standards is of crucial importance. However, it's not always easy to plan for the following school year. Rissa, of the Learn… Continue reading How much can you fit into one school year?
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Share your writing with us (and others) today.
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When’s the right time to start writing literary essays?
I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about literary essays lately. The topic first came up in early May when I was consulting with a third grade teacher who I had worked with earlier in the school year. I asked her how her year had been going and she lamented about having so many… Continue reading When’s the right time to start writing literary essays?
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Inspiration for an Independent Writing Project
With the school year wrapping up, I'm assuming that many of you are starting your final units of study. I'm sure many of you are doing an independent writing project unit so as to get your students ready to go off and write independently this summer. When I received a review copy of Todd H.… Continue reading Inspiration for an Independent Writing Project
