guest blogger · teacher of writing · writers · writing

A New Way To Learn About Teaching Writing

It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.
 - Isaac Asimov I began a writer’s group last year at my school, opened it to anyone who was interested.  There are now seven of us. We continued to meet this summer and… Continue reading A New Way To Learn About Teaching Writing

guest blogger · Slice of Life Story Challenge · writing

Slicing Through the School Year

Tara Smith shares how she launched, maintained, and celebrating the writing slice of life stories and comments -- all year long -- with her sixth grade students.

conferring · guest blogger · record keeping · technology

Using Evernote to Confer with Writers

Today's guest blog post by Cathy Mere will help you jump on the electronic record-keeping bandwagon. Learn how to use Evernote to keep conferring notes on all of your students.

authors · guest blogger · mentor texts · writing

Thoughts on Writing from the Author of The Mighty Lalouche

NOTE FROM STACEY: Matthew Olshan wrote The Mighty Lalouche specifically for illustrator Sophie Blackall to illustrate since he was familiar with her fascination of turn-of-the-century boxers.  My interest was piqued by this author-illustrator collaborations, so I eagerly anticipated the review copy.  Once I received the The Mighty Lalouche I was captivated by Olshan's impeccable word… Continue reading Thoughts on Writing from the Author of The Mighty Lalouche

education · guest blogger · inspiration · international educator · public education

How the Finns Create a Sense of Community in Their Schools

How do we compare a country with a fairly homogeneous population of five and a half million people, with less than 5% of the population in poverty, to the United States? Well, forty years ago, when Finland was overhauling their education system and studying models from other countries, they could have followed our lead and jumped on our No Child Left Behind bandwagon, eventually moving to high-stakes testing and teacher assessment as a means to improve education.

biography · curriculum planning · guest blogger · units of study

Not Just Your Run-of-the-Mill Biography Unit Study

4th Grade Teacher (& Slicer) Noor Shammas writes about her students' Community Member Biography Project.

argument writing · guest blogger · persuasive writing · tcrwp

Learning the Language of Lawyers: Writing Compelling Arguments

We are thrilled and honored to be guest blogging here this week.  We are both huge fans of the blog, the Two Writing Teachers community and of Ruth and Stacey’s work. Having recently watched the Grammys, it feels a bit like we are hanging with Beyoncé and Jay-Z for a night! Many of us are… Continue reading Learning the Language of Lawyers: Writing Compelling Arguments

christopher lehman · content-area writing · guest blogger · informational writing · research

Informational Writing Can Be Informational Learning: A Guest Blog Post by Christopher Lehman

Students’ informational writing can change dramatically when we include an extra step in between: 1) take notes, 2) experiment with those notes by teaching-through-writing, 3) write a draft.

guest blogger · Reflective Practice

Taking the Art of Reflection Back into the Classroom

Joanne Toft has taught for more than 30 years and spent 6 years managing The Arts for Academic Achievementprogram for the Minneapolis Public Schools. Last year she returned to the classroom to teach 4th grade in one of the district high poverty schools. This year she will be focusing on teaching literacy and science to… Continue reading Taking the Art of Reflection Back into the Classroom

conferring · guest blogger · technology

Digital Conferring Notebook

A Note from Stacey:  A little over a year ago Amy Platt, who is a sixth grade teacher at Melissa Ridge Intermediate School in Melissa, Texas, contacted me with a question about something I had written in Day by Day.  One thing led to another and we landed up writing back and forth about conferring.  … Continue reading Digital Conferring Notebook

guest blogger · writers · writing

GUEST BLOG POST: Needing To Take Care of The Nice Students, Too

A NOTE FROM STACEY: "Nice" children are often overlooked in the classroom because they go with the flow. I'll admit, I was one of those teachers who often sacrificed a conference with one of the "nice" children in my class and met with a student who was having greater challenges in writing.  When I looked… Continue reading GUEST BLOG POST: Needing To Take Care of The Nice Students, Too

guest blogger · writing workshop

Recap of our Summer 2011 Guest Blogger Series

Labor Day came and went this past Monday.  Nearly every teacher and child I know is back in school.  Therefore, our summer guest blogger series has come to an end.  Next Friday Ruth and I will be blogging on alternating Fridays.  However, I wanted to take a moment to recap all of the guest blog… Continue reading Recap of our Summer 2011 Guest Blogger Series