Give Heart Maps a Rest! Try Writing Territory Maps
The heart map is a great tool for helping students find personally meaningful topics, but used year after year, it might feel a little stale. Writing territory maps is another option!
Curating Mentor Text Collections
Get started organizing your mentor texts with four digital tools.
Summer Writing for You, the Teacher
You’ve got to practice writing to teach writing!
In my writing workshop: it’s finally time for photographs and digital stories.
At last August’s Summer Institute, Cornelius Minor, teacher extraordinaire and staff developer at TC’s Writing and Reading Project, gave an unforgettable presentation on technology in the classroom which I wrote … Continue Reading In my writing workshop: it’s finally time for photographs and digital stories.
Keeping a writing blog: taking our writing workshop online
With the Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge just around the corner, perhaps some of you are thinking more than ever about starting a class blog just for writing. Over … Continue Reading Keeping a writing blog: taking our writing workshop online
Digital Tools Invite Writers to Compose – #NCTE13
Two of the sessions I attended at NCTE in Boston helped me think about ways two digital tools could be meaningfully integrated into early childhood and elementary school classrooms to engage young writers. The “Exploring Collaboration of Multimodal Literacies in Early Childhood: Digital Filmmaking, Designing, and Co-Authoring” panel discussed the way digital video cameras could enhance learning, while two of the presenters in “Writing Workshop Is for All Students: Using Visuals, Oral Language, and Digital Tools to Maximize Success and Independence for English Language Learners” suggested the incorporation of digital cameras.
Beyond Classroom Walls
One of the fantastic sessions I attended at NCTE was called “Beyond Classroom Walls: Honoring Voices of Young Readers.” It was led by Julie Johnson of Raising Readers and Writers, … Continue Reading Beyond Classroom Walls
How do you know?
Often when I’m working with teachers, I get the question: How do you know? This can be in response to a number of things: minilesson ideas, conference teaching points, share … Continue Reading How do you know?
Martha Horn!
Martha Horn is coming to NE Indiana on October 14, hosted by the All-Write Consortium. I’m super excited to hear her thoughts about teaching our youngest writers. If you are … Continue Reading Martha Horn!
Processing My Learning (Ruth’s SOLS)
One of my favorite parts of my job is I am privileged to a lot of professional development. Often when I travel to conferences, I attend with our … Continue Reading Processing My Learning (Ruth’s SOLS)
It’s a Choice
This spoke to me from my Twitter feed today: As educators standing in this place in our field, we have a choice. We can look out and see problems and … Continue Reading It’s a Choice
“New” Kinds of Readers
We’ve been reading How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills (check out Tad’s website) since its release last summer. It is one of my son’s favorite books. He loves … Continue Reading “New” Kinds of Readers
Twitter as PLN
I joined Twitter at the beginning of October. What began as an experiment in learning a new genre has become one of the best professional development experiences of my entire … Continue Reading Twitter as PLN
Parent Communication
As we venture into teaching writing in authentic ways, it is important to communicate with parents our teaching decisions. When using technology in writing and reading workshops, communication with parents … Continue Reading Parent Communication
Twitter in Classrooms
One of the first people I addressed in a tweet was @CAFirstGrade, Julie Simmons’ first grade classroom in Ohio. They were using Twitter via an iPad during their independent writing … Continue Reading Twitter in Classrooms
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 