The immersion phase of a unit allows us all to get to know our subject. For students, it might be ideas they have and for teachers, it is about getting to know their writers a bit better.
Category: noticings
A Mini-Crash-Course on Oral Storytelling
It's been several months since I've written for Two Writing Teachers. In December my son was born, and I was on maternity leave until a few weeks ago. Then, in March I pushed aside all excuses and did the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Every day in the month of March I recruited my four year old daughter to tell… Continue reading A Mini-Crash-Course on Oral Storytelling
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The Book Stack
An eclectic little stack today. Click on the images to go to a link about the book. I've been enjoying books I can read a little here and a little there. This book, however, is one I found myself engulfing. Even though there are 21 conversations with different illustrators, and even though I started with… Continue reading The Book Stack
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Persuasion with Karen Caine
Last week I was fortunate to spend the day with Karen Caine. Are you familiar with her work? It is the book that I have had to buy the most -- SIX times -- because my copy keeps coming up missing. (Luckily Karen signed a copy for me last week, so I should be able… Continue reading Persuasion with Karen Caine
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First Attempt at Poetry
Yesterday Lori Hickman and I launched a poetry unit of study in her kindergarten classroom. Since we wanted to see what they already knew about writing poetry, we decided to have them write a poem. This made me a little nervous. What if they just stared at the paper or chaos ensued because they had… Continue reading First Attempt at Poetry
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I’ve been studying sentence structure…
I was watching or listening or reading something this week --- I don't remember what -- but the message was: You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. True. (And probably the reason I don't remember who said it since this little tid-bit is fairly common knowledge.) The person went on to say:… Continue reading I’ve been studying sentence structure…
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In Their Words
Today's Workshop, in my classroom, was spent immersing my students in the memoir genre (or is it genre of memoir... both sound funny to me!). The kids realized that most memoirs are a combination of exposition and narrative. (I compared memoir to a hybrid car. That definitely helped!) After my kids listened to four of… Continue reading In Their Words
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Immersion Begins Tomorrow
I'll begin immersing my students in the literary essay genre tomorrow. I'm fortunate to have had some wonderful students last year who graciously allowed me to share their essays with future students to-come. Hence, I have quite a few literary essays copied, ready-to-go for my students to possibly use as mentor texts tomorrow. I realized… Continue reading Immersion Begins Tomorrow
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Take Note of What Surrounds You
My students have been doing a lot of noticing in Writing Workshop since we began our Personal Essay Unit of Study last week. Hence, I created this Motivational Poster (of sorts) online. I hope it inspires you to notice what surrounds you this week and to write about it. Here's a potential charge for :… Continue reading Take Note of What Surrounds You
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have you noticed the wow lately?
I'm lucky because, you see, I have this constant, little reminder to notice stuff. I live with a toddler who notices the world and points out the wow. Constantly. Walking out the door in the morning: "Venus. Wow. Stars. Wow." Past the Sedum: "Spider. Wow." Every 3 minutes this evening: "Mumpkin Happy. Wow." (We carved him yesterday. … Continue reading have you noticed the wow lately?
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Take a look around you
When I taught in NYC, I was fortunate enough to work one block away from Central Park. Therefore, when the urge struck me, I'd take my students out to Central Park with their writer's notebooks to record their noticings. They wrote beautiful poems in the Park, but rarely stories. I've come to believe that we… Continue reading Take a look around you
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ruth’s wn entry: my fav things about (you name the place).
Following Stacey's lead, here's my list -- Favorite Things About Indiana Wide open spaces that allow for my mind to wander during late afternoon/early evening walks. My family is close in proximity. Indiana Hoosier Basketball -- need I say more? Colt's Football. My husband & I make several games each season. In fact, we used to… Continue reading ruth’s wn entry: my fav things about (you name the place).
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 