assessment · christina l. rodriguez · expository · literary essay · on-demand piece

Quick Publish Assessment for Literary Essay

In case you're wondering what the on-demand assessment (aka: Quick Publish Assessment) I was blogging about earlier looks like, here's what it looks like: LITERARY ESSAY QUICK PUBLISH ASSESSMENT TASK: Write a four paragraph literary essay about _______ by _______. TIME: 50 minutes MINI-RUBRIC: The essay advanced a thesis or a claim. (1 .5 0… Continue reading Quick Publish Assessment for Literary Essay

christina l. rodriguez · slice of life · wn entry

Slice of Life: Christina

Working on a Weekend Originally uploaded by teachergal It took a very special person to fill-in my Grandmother’s Speed Dial Spot on my cell phone after she passed away last year. In fact, I didn’t reassign the #9 spot until mid-summer. I finally gave it to Christina, my former colleague, co-author, and dear friend. So,… Continue reading Slice of Life: Christina

christina l. rodriguez · personal essay · publishing

Publishing before a vacation

I was talking with one of my former student teachers tonight. We were discussing the fact that it's hard to get kids to publish before a big school vacation (like the one we have coming up next week). We're both trying to cruise through the end of the personal essay unit of study, but it's… Continue reading Publishing before a vacation

christina l. rodriguez · strategies

Look what I found

When I came back for a visit the other day, Christina had a bunch of things I had inadvertently left behind in the classroom waiting for me. One of those items was this poster: I think I made this poster in 2004 or 2005 and never used it. Seeing as it was raining I chose… Continue reading Look what I found

christina l. rodriguez · letter writing · units of study

Friendly Letter Writing Unit of Study

Over the summer Kate and I planned out a short unit of study on friendly letter writing for our students. We re-grouped today since we're launching it tomorrow. Here's the plan as it stands right now. DAY 1: Writers learn about the different kinds of letters and the purpose of letter writing. (SHOW students different… Continue reading Friendly Letter Writing Unit of Study

christina l. rodriguez · standardized tests · writing about reading

The Test

When I lived in NYC, I never had to prepare my fifth graders to do writing on the State ELA Test since there was only a graphic organizer and a short response that the kids had to write about a passage. However, here in Rhode Island, we're preparing our fourth graders to take the New… Continue reading The Test

christina l. rodriguez · meeting area

Meeting Area: A Place to Deliver Minilessons

Last week I had the pleasure of going back to NYC to visit Christina L. Rodriguez, my former student teacher who took over my classroom after I moved to Rhode Island. She's going to be teaching fifth grade this fall in my former classroom. I was blown away by the (positive) changes Christina made to… Continue reading Meeting Area: A Place to Deliver Minilessons