Dialogue. It's something we wish students would use purposefully inside of a piece of writing. Too often, when our students do write with dialogue, it sounds like this: "Hi," I said. "Hi," my sister said. "What do you want to do today?" I said. "I don't know," she said. "Let's go to the park," I… Continue reading Making Characters Talk
Category: mentor texts
Writing About Historic Events, People, or Places
Pennsylvania-based author Linda Oatman High led a session entitled "Writing to the Beat of a Different Drummer" at the KSRA Conference I attended this week. (My handwritten notes from her session, which provided an array of ideas for getting students to write, are located at the bottom of this post in a Scribd Document.) Oatman… Continue reading Writing About Historic Events, People, or Places
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Personification, An Effective Ending, & More
A copy of Laurie Halse Anderon's The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School arrived at my home last week. I read it once and put it aside since I was unsure of what this book would be most suitable for teaching (i.e., there's so much it can be used for!). I took a week… Continue reading Personification, An Effective Ending, & More
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A New Source for Finding Mentor Texts
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
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Developing Theories About Craft Moves
This past summer I spent a week at the TCRWP Summer Writing Institute. One of my week-long courses was about mentor texts. Emily Smith, the section leader, introduced us to a book, But That’s Another Story edited by Sandy Asher. This book contains shorts stories from a variety of genres, such as science fiction, folktale,… Continue reading Developing Theories About Craft Moves
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Good Ol’ Apostrophes
A couple days ago I was looking at our blog stats and noticed our blog was being searched for apostrophes. Not just any apostrophes, but someone was specifically looking for "creative use of apostrophes." Therefore, I thought it might be fitting to write a bit about one of my favorite ways to teach apostrophes from… Continue reading Good Ol’ Apostrophes
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Universal Themes & Portraying the Realities of Life
When I first read Norah Dooley's Everybody Cooks Rice, I encountered something larger than a neighborhood making some sort of rice for dinner. Rather, I found people from different ethnicities who were working hard to put dinner on the table at the end of the day. Sounds like a typical American thing to do, right?… Continue reading Universal Themes & Portraying the Realities of Life
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A Text with Many Uses
Eve Bunting has been one of my favorite children's book authors ever since I read Fly Away, Home. I've used her books in my Reading Workshop, as demonstration texts and as social issue book club books. However, other than using Smokey Night during a personal narrative unit in 2006, I haven't used Bunting's books in… Continue reading A Text with Many Uses
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Specific Examples of the Power of Three
Last week I wrote about the power of three in writing. I felt my post lacked specific examples of what this looks like in published writing. So, I looked back at Carmen Agra Deedy's newest book, 14 Cows for America (written in collaboration with Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah), which has examples where she writes in threes.… Continue reading Specific Examples of the Power of Three
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The Power of Three
When I was at the TCRWP's Writing Institute a couple of weeks ago, there was a buzz about the power of three. Funny how I've been in and around lots of writing-related professional development in the past five years and have never heard anything about the power of three until mid-August. I heard it first… Continue reading The Power of Three
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What book will you read aloud on the first day of school?
When I was a middle school teacher, and now in most workshops that I lead, my favorite first read aloud is Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr. Seuss (with some help from Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith). This book is not only perfect in its message, but a rich source for a mentor text. It… Continue reading What book will you read aloud on the first day of school?
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The Joy of Apostrophes
Is there any joy when teaching apostrophes? Certainly! The only thing is that the joy doesn't come from disseminating worksheets to kids... it comes from using books to demonstrate the concept. A couple of weeks ago I received a review copy of Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant by Leslie McGuirk and… Continue reading The Joy of Apostrophes
