I started reading Dan Feigelson's Book Practical Punctuation: Lessons on Rule Making and Rule Breaking in Elementary Writing yesterday. It's the first time I've sat down and read a book on grammar and actually stayed awake. Seriously! Every other book I've read on teaching kids how to punctuate, use conventions properly, etc. has made my… Continue reading Punctuation Is NOT An Editing Tool: It’s a Crafting Tool!
Category: conventions
Reading-Writing Connections: Focus on Conventions
Here's a link to the final document that focuses on how to lift the level of your students' conventions by using The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg. (If you haven't seen the draft I posted last week, then click here.)
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Draft of a New Craft Table About Ahlberg’s The Pencil: A Work-in-Progress
I've been working on a new craft table about Ahlberg's Book The Pencil for the past couple of days. I hope to use this craft table in writing conferences with my students when we get to our fiction picture book unit in March. So far, this is what I've come up with: The final version,… Continue reading Draft of a New Craft Table About Ahlberg’s The Pencil: A Work-in-Progress
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Standard English vs. Texting.
In my most November 2008 issue of The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, I came across an article by Gloria E. Jacobs, "We Learn What We Do: Developing a Repertoire of Writing Practices in an Instant Messaging World. The tag line caught my eye: Students can be proficient in instant messaging as well as… Continue reading Standard English vs. Texting.
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Wow!
Check out this Providence Journal article about a student who wrote a persuasive letter to Lowe's and was granted a response bigger than he ever imagined. Bernardo Garcia wanted mulch for their outside play area, so he wrote a persuasive letter to the executive vice president of store operations for Lowe's, Michael K. Brown. Brown, upon returning… Continue reading Wow!
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RIWP Spring Conference
I just received an e-mail today to find out that my proposal to do a session at the Rhode Island Writing Project's Spring Conference was accepted. 🙂 The session's title I proposed when I submitted my proposal was, "Inspiring Children to Write By Living Like a Writer: Teaching Writing Workshop with Our Notebooks Wide-Open." The… Continue reading RIWP Spring Conference
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TM Makes Poor Writers? IDK.
I've heard a lot of talk lately about texting (or instant messaging or emailing -- although that one's on the way out as far as high school & college kids are concerned) being the root of the problem when it comes to trashy conventions showing up in students' writing. However, this jury is still out on… Continue reading TM Makes Poor Writers? IDK.
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the balance of teaching writing.
Do you ever feel like you're being pulled in different teaching directions -- conventions and craft and process? Do you sometimes feel guilty when you're teaching about craft that you should be teaching conventions? Or in a conference when you compliment on the great focus of the writing, that you should be correcting the spelling? … Continue reading the balance of teaching writing.
