I’m not recommending a children’s book you can use in your classroom today. Instead, I have something better. It’s a professional book about children’s books that every writing teacher needs to have improve their use of teaching with mentor texts needs to have. Earlier this year Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer published I can write… Continue reading A New Source for Finding Mentor Texts
Category: katie wood ray
Curriculum of Time
I just finished reading the January 2009 Issue of School Talk, which is focused on nurturing young writers. Katie Wood Ray's Article "Understanding the Curriculum of Time in the Teaching of Writing" may have focused on early elementary school classrooms, but it certainly resonated with me as an upper elementary school teacher. These are the… Continue reading Curriculum of Time
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Thinking More About Teachers & Notebooks
I'm sitting in Nashua preparing for tomorrow's presentation. Part of my preparation means returning to my old binders and files when my thinking changed about the teaching of writing. The shift in my thinking came in 2006 when I was engaged in my studies as a graduate student in the Teachers College Literacy Specialist Program.… Continue reading Thinking More About Teachers & Notebooks
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Inquiry Stance.
Many of the classrooms I'm working in are launching into a personal narrative study. I've encouraged all of them to approach their study from an inquiry stance. Meaning, get lots of personal narratives and have students read, read, read them. Then choose a couple and have students study them as writers. I've been reading Study… Continue reading Inquiry Stance.
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Choice & Genre Studies
After I attended the November 17th NCTE Workshop entitled "Where Has All The Real Choice Gone?" my mind started turning. Ruth and I went out for cupcakes and coffee at Buttercup Bake Shop hours after attending together and we couldn't stop talking about the issue of choice in the writing classroom. Hence, after grappling with… Continue reading Choice & Genre Studies
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NCTE National Convention
After meeting Andi, Angela, Beth, and Molly at the WLU Conference in Louisville last month, I decided to attend the 2007 NCTE Convention in New York City. (Those four ladies will also be presenting at NCTE on 11/17 in a session called "OBSERVING DIVERISTY: A 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM INQUIRY JOURNEY.") I received the convention preview… Continue reading NCTE National Convention
